I wonder what the most common phrase is that people utter right before they do something they’ll regret. I’ll bet it’s one of these:
“Come on, it’s easy!”
“I know how this works.”
“What’s the worst that could happen?”
“It can’t be that hard!”
“Don’t help me, I can do it myself.”
“Watch this!”
I especially like the last one – it paints a mental picture (more…)
Stagnation.
Every author runs into it at one time or another. That point where no ideas break loose, no words come, and the keyboard grins up at you with evil contempt. Your stream of consciousness turns into a slimy, moss-covered retention pond with a foul smell. All the brilliant ideas you had yesterday are now somehow eluding you, and you feel like you couldn’t come up with an original thought if your life depended on it.
So how do you break through? (more…)
Life is not a spectator sport.
Modern society, however, is set up to encourage spectators rather than participants.
We live vicariously through video games, reality TV and social media – and the net effect is that we build habits that keep us on the sidelines; keep us from getting in the game ourselves.
For too long, I allowed this trap to keep me from pursuing my writing. I also used it as an excuse to let myself go physically – after all, it’s a heck of a lot easier to watch a triathlon than it is to compete in one. (more…)
I used to play the board game Scattergories at my brother’s house. If you’re not familiar, it involves a 20-sided letter die that is rolled to determine a starting letter. Each player then tries to fill a card with as many answers to specific categories on the card that begin with the letter on the die. For example, if the letter is R, and the category vegetables, you could score with radish and rutabaga. If another player came up with answers that matched yours, both players would have to throw out those answers – so it paid to be original.
The rules allowed the use of generic adjectives, as long as (more…)
Before we got rid of cable, my wife and I occasionally watched Inside the Actor’s Studio. If you’re not familiar with the show, it’s an interview format where host James Lipton asks famous actors various questions about themselves and their careers, as well as allowing them to answer questions from the audience of theater students.
One of the signature segments of the program is the following list of ten questions (more…)
Writing every day is helping me to get more non-writing tasks done.
Sound silly?
Let me explain.
Since I stared this writing challenge, I’ve been purposefully controlling my time better, in order to have time to write. The side effect of my nascent time management has been that not only do I make time to write; now I’m more productive with the rest of my time, because I don’t want anything interfering with (more…)
Today, I weighed 17 pounds less than I did a month ago.
I haven’t been checking my weight obsessively – I’ll weigh myself about once a week; maybe more, maybe less, because I know that weight is not an accurate measurement of fitness or health – it’s only a (more…)
I’m really tired.
Taking on the challenge of writing every day has been surprisingly exhausting. If I didn’t have a day job, I think the challenge would have been slightly easier, since I would have an open schedule to work with. Instead, I got up this morning at 3:30 so I could make it to work by 5:00. I got home at about 2:30 after fighting traffic for 25 miles and stopping off to pick up my dry cleaning – so I’ll have something clean to wear tomorrow when I get up at 3:30 to do it all again.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m very thankful for my day job, but (more…)
Recently I wrote a post looking at how past success can play a part in present and future failures. Basically, if we focus too heavily on past successes, we run the risk of not working as hard on future projects; or we try too hard to top the last pinnacle and make a mess of things in the process.
Today, let’s look at it from a different angle. (more…)
Yesterday I posted about my resistance to making traditional outlines for my written work. The problem with that is that the human brain (mine, anyway) can only organize and keep track of a limited amount of information before it starts making critical mistakes; which means I need a different method to organize my writing.
Enter Mind Mapping.
Last night I downloaded the freeware version of XMind 2012. This is the first program I’ll be evaluating as an alternative to the standard, bulleted outline in a Word document.
My first impression of XMind after I downloaded it was (more…)
When it comes to writing, I’m not a planner.
I’m much more of a seat of the pants kind of guy. I always hated the old model of outline, rough draft, revisions – and, at long last – the finished product.
In high school, I would do it in reverse so that I could get credit – I’d write the final draft of a paper, then go back and write progressively messier, rougher versions so I could fulfill the requirement to turn in outlines and rough drafts.
My problem was I always thought in terms of (more…)
My wife took my five year-old son to the mall last week to shop for clothes. One store had a small table full of Legos for kids to play with while their parents shopped. Perfect for my son – he loves to build things even more than he loves to wander off.
As he was playing, a young girl came up and joined him. He related the story to me after he got home (using an exaggerated whisper voice throughout):
K (urgently): “Dad! I need to TELL you something!”
Me: “What is it, son?!?” (more…)
