Writing Journal

Thought of something on the way home yesterday. 

To name the characters in MBR after our vehicles!  Which could be tricky since HMJ and his bff both drive Bruce.

Admittedly, haven't done much writing this week.  Need to get on that, don't I?  Well, I've got all day.  I even woke up early. Really need to stop pulling the laptop into my lap while it's plugged, though.  That keeps me in the chair for hours!!

Writing Journal

This week has been more productive in terms of writing than any week since NaNo, and even more than some of those.  I started a short story that I have decided I will end up incorporating into a series of them called "Merry Band of Roommates," based mostly off my current set and including some from the past.  I'm going to transplant my grandparent's five bedroom farmhouse to the edge of the metro we currently live, which will give us more space and remove some of the personal tension and allow me to fantasize a little bit more.

Perhaps just as importantly, I've perfected a YouTube playlist for writing.  It's about an hour long, and is generic enough for me to apply to just about any project I'm writing on.  Prose, anyway.  Poetry for me is more of an out of doors experience.  Which reminds me, my aunt's favorite contemporary poet recently passed and one of my college professors shared a poem of hers about geese that I should share on my aunt's wall.
But, first, my playlist, for any who are wondering.

"Write Like the Wind (George R.R. Martin)" by Geek & Sundry
"Storytime" by Nightwish (official music video by Nuclear Blast Records)
"Write Like the Wind (George R.R. Martin)" by Geek & Sundry (will likely reposition)
"Don't Think Just Run (Official Lyric Video)" by Beth J Crowley
"The Dance of Cossack Girl with a Sword..." by jagan kurra
"Moondance" by Nightwish (video by Jaysong14)
"Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise" by The Avett Brothers
"Bohemian Rhapsody (piano accompaniment)" by Antonality
"Wither (official music video)" by Dream Theater
"In Me Lyrics" by Casting Crowns (video by Dance74Him)
"Brave (Lyric Video)" by Sara Bareiles
"The Answer Lies Within" by Dream Theater (lyrics video by countrymusicluver32(
"Somedays You Write the Song" by Guy Clark (video by disgrymmness)
"Feel It Turn (Video)" by Great Big Sea
"Something Beautiful" by Great Big Sea (video by Tom F)


Update: I'm listening to the playlist, and realizing I don't want to write.  I've been reading some old poems of mine.  I also just realized that the "shuffle" option on YouTube plays each song more than once because "Write Like the Wind" just showed up for a third time.  (I know it's on there twice.)  Which means that I ought to go through and randomize it a little bit so that it sounds like a variety to my ears.  And, as much as I like the lyrics of Guy Clark's contribution, I'm not a fan of the song in general.  Doesn't work well as a writing soundtrack.

It feels good to move my fingers on the keyboard, so at least I have that going for me.  But the brain, the imagination part, doesn't want to work right now.  Perhaps the next Givling hour, I ought to try and take a short walk.  Partly to get my body up and moving, since I have not done much of that the past few days.  But also, and perhaps just as importantly, to get my imagination going.  There's a scene I want to play out.  Maybe I'll start a different MBR story because I'm feeling a little stuck on the one I started.  I'll try that for the rest of the soundtrack.  Problem is, which one.....just kidding...I know.

Writing Journal

This is me coming to dedicate myself to more creative writing in 2019.

As I mentioned in my personal blog, the creative side in me has died a little bit, and I think it's due to the full time desk work.  I miss the conservative hippie me.  The one who would wear something other than jeans or sweats and t-shirts as casual wear.  The one who would write poems, or just always have a writing utensil and surface to jot lines.  The one who would read stories and poems to hear trends and ideas.  The one who would listen to music instead of just staring at a screen.  Good music, varied music.  The one who would sometimes create music.

I miss her.

And I am bound and determined to get her back.  God needs her for something, and He needs her skills honed for whatever that may be.  Time's a wasting.

So, this is me, dedicating myself to typing at least one hour a day, and spending time not just looking for literary magazines, but reading them.  Spending time at the library.

This means finding stable PT work that can support me, and leaving FT work for one employer in the dust.  I cannot for the life of me find the Utah Philips quote I am searching for, but it's one that essentially says "The life of my brain is the only life I have, and why would I hand that life over to someone else for eight hours a day on the expectation that they would return it to me in an unmutilated condition?"

Anyway, that's motivating the life change I'm being secretive about until it's too late for anyone to give me advice I wouldn't take even if it was good.