10 months since my last posting on a site I'm shelling out the gelt for. But this is also my personal space for posting whenever I have the chutzpah to write anything that people could actually read.
Work: I feel like I'm not only learning new skills, but realizing that my own skillset is both limited and expansive: Limited in specific areas but Expansive in terms of recognition and knowledge. I work very fast. I see things quickly and want to move things along, which is not always the best way to work with some teams. Sometimes, you have to let the people go through their own process before moving on. Otherwise, you may alienate people. In short, I know a lot of stuff and I need to slow down. Family: Kids are growing up - and I find myself reminiscing of them when they were younger. I catch myself thinking about ways I could've parented them better, before they developed their personalities. Yes, they are still developing, but the impact I have feels ... less. Health: Always a thing, finding out new ways where health interferes with my ability to enjoy things. The periods of aches and stiffness are more frequent, and quite insistent at times. Tylenol can only do so much. Writing: Last year's NaNoWriMo (https://nanowrimo.org/) was terrible. I started well but did not get very far. I feel like I'm losing steam but that's also because I'm not writing as much as I should (if at all). This blog entry is the first attempt at writing original thoughts in a very long time. BUT, I've signed up for the NYC Midnight 500 Word Fiction Challenge (https://www.nycmidnight.com/500) which starts Friday, August 25th. I will be assigned genre, action, and object and have 48 hours to write a complete 500 word piece. I feel like this will be a great lead up to NaNoWriMo for this year as well as a challenge my ability to sketch, plot, and execute a full story in a very concise form. Can I do it? Hell no, but I'm paying for the privilege and will do my best. Yes, there is prize money to be had if I get past the first rounds but, most importantly, I'm will receive feedback on my submission, not matter what level I get to. I need this as I am a very flawed fiction writer. I need some honest feedback. So, that's about it. I'm planning to write monthly here, and if I can get back into that habit. I'll start posting updates in my other pages as well. Wish me luck, and, most importantly, Be Excellent To Each Other! (btw, this is 446 words)
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been a while.
A long while. Not that I haven't had things I wanted to write about, but life, COVID, work, and just all-around laziness have all contributed to ignoring this little blog I set up years ago. [I may decide to move this to a lower cost location, but it's such a hassle, and I'm lazy, so that is unlikely to happen.] Work: While COVID rocked the world for everyone, it made my work-life balance that much more stressful: work piled on as I was in an industry that increased workload due to greater demands on transportation and shipping. While I appreciated the job security, it was stressful as heck and wore me out more than I knew. That being said, I've since moved on to a new job, new industry, and after two months in, I'm starting to feel like a human again. It wasn't easy leaving a company that I worked for over 18 years, but I was confident I could do it, and so I did. As my wife likes to point out, I manifested this: I needed it to happen, made moves to enable the change, and then I found my new work home. As wiser people have said, you have to make your own luck. Family: My youngest is growing up and I'm glad that I'll be able to see him more during these important years. My eldest is also paving a new life for herself and I'm happy to be more available for her as she navigates 'adulting'. Last but by no means least, I can be more present for my wife and her professional development as well as caring for the family and home. I was missing a lot during these last few years and I have some catching up to do, as well as getting myself healthy again. Not that our lives were in trouble; it's just better now. Writing: I need to get back to this. Either journal writing (like this blog) or fiction. I'm prepping for NaNoWriMo (http://www.nanowrimo.org) again, thinking of tackling the first short story I ever wrote and completed (around 2003), which I've since tried to expand to novel form two or three times since. I've yet to come up with a viable idea in advance, otherwise, so it'll be interesting to see what comes out of me this time. I do need to acknowledge that my first NaNoWriMo novel wasn't thought out in advance: it was an idea that just hit me as I opened my laptop and started to write. There was no planning, no specific genre. I had always assumed my internal juices would flow with SciFi, but what came out was a story about talking rodents that lived in a vast society underground, with it's own history and culture, far from the invasive eyes of humans. It's not an original premise, but it was a story and collection of characters that I enjoyed writing about and I had fun seeing where their story would lead to. I've since completed three novels in the series, none have been edited competently, and I've yet to come up with another idea with the right combination of tapestry and world to write about. Hence, my regressing to earlier works. We shall see. That's it for now. I hope to write more again here, probably tackle some writing prompts to get my writing juices flowing. Be Excellent To Each Other!
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