Tag Archives: Writing

Dear Diary:

Selections from my journal entries the week of December 12, 2022. What goes through the head of a sixty-something gay man? Read on.

Trouble Sleeping.

Lots of trouble sleeping last night. In fact, I did the thing you’re supposed to do when you find yourself tossing and turning for more than 20 or so minutes, which is to get up and read. Which I did for half an hour, then was able to go to sleep. And you know what, I got a sleep score in the 80s, even though the duration ended up only being like 5.5 hours. It was quality time.

I really think I’m EATING TOO LATE and also that CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM at night is counter-productive. I have to remember that chocolate does contain caffeine even in very small amounts and probably enough of a stimulant to keep me awake, as is digestion of food when I’ve eaten too close to bedtime.

Trees.

Took pictures of ginkgos. Posted it to Instagram. They’re so pretty. Especially all gold in bright morning sun.

Checking Travel Plans.

Checking Airbnb Mexico City:

Yes, it does have space for another guest. So I can invite Billy if he wants to come down for a few days.

I guess I should check the others for similar opportunities. I believe all three are one bedrooms, so that portends well. (note – going to Mexico again April-June 2023)

Neurotic Finance.

It seems like it’s taken forever to get to the middle of this month. And I still have a ton of money to get me through the month. It’s probably connected to the fact that I spent SO much less than usual in November, mainly due to my trip to Mexico and my spending (or lack of it) there. Not only did I not spend anywhere near what I budgeted for day-to-day, I came back with the equivalent of about $225 USD in pesos for the next trip down there in April.

Here’s the thing: if you don’t go much of anywhere and do much of anything, you will save money. I think that has a lot to do with it. It’s been cold since I got back—to me it seems colder than a usual fall or winter here. Maybe that’s because when I left it was warm summery weather, I went to a very hot place (Merida) so when I returned to somewhat seasonal temperatures here, it just seemed colder.

It was cold: blizzard in the Sierras earlier this week.

Angst and Doubt

And so I’ve been hibernating. Working out here at home, only a couple of social engagements, even AA Meetings I’m doing on zoom. (That just makes so much more sense, in a way – why drive a half hour there and back when I can do the same meeting with no commute at all?)

Interestingly, when I can’t write something or can’t figure out where to go from where I am in a story, my head tells me I’m a horrible writer who can’t write anything anyway. Even though always these roadblocks tend to dissipate with enough time and serendipity. Or, the answer will come during a hike.

Blogger hiking in Palm Springs earlier this year

Also, I made this. Roasted vegetables and sweet potato in quinoa. For lunches.

And that was the week of December 12, 2022.

On Writing: Being Prolific

clunk clunk clunk

Hmmmmm. Having something to say, first of all? Of course, that’s the most important thing. And for me at least, not really a problem. I have lots of things to say, with my current fiction project, it’s all mapped out, pretty much know where that story’s going.

But I do find writing difficult, or the actual process of writing. You know, that sitting down part.

Most of the time, anyway. Not always–there are days I come to it with joy.

Other days I come to it with fear.

And many other days I come to it not at all! And I’d like to avoid/end those.

I’ve written before about procrastination. That’s not where I find myself today; it’s more the idea of fitting writing back into a schedule that didn’t include work hours for so long — now that they’re back, I must rearrange writing times and most importantly, stick to them — if anything is going to be created. I’ve done it before, I’ll certainly do it again — and I, like most people, work best when there is a little bit (but not a lot) of time pressure. A little bit of the old stress.

Here are some tips on being prolific.

Stumped? Nothing coming out? There’s a lot of forms of fiction out there – not only novels, but screenplays and teleplays, short stories, graphic novels or comic books, serials. Try writing your idea in another form for a day.

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Keeping it fresh, keeping it truthful – it’s always a search for what’s true, lying would be so boring. I always ask myself, what is the truth? And I try to write that down. It helps.

Test and stretch limits, all the time, look for the next rung. For me, I try and think up the most outrageous thing I can think of, and write that. You know, that thing that cannot be expressed, for whatever reason. Kill the censor.

Use the tools of our crazy tech digital world to assist you. Meaning, you can write anywhere now (I guess you always could, with pen and notebook, but it’s so much more fun with an app). I suppose this would make “it” happen more — I can’t tell you the number of times I got a passing nugget of something in my head that left just as quickly. But now I’m connected 24/7 to a smartphone. I can capture the nuggets.

Being efficient helps, having a big plan helps, even if it’s something as simple as “I’ll write one blog post a week so I’ll have 50 for 2014, and I’ll write a page a day for a year so in one year I’ll have 365 pages of something.”

My favorite: Write Every Day. Even if you can only fit in an hour or even 30 minutes. Your story remains fresh and your subconscious continues to work on it while you sleep — but if you go for days without writing it, you have to backtrack. At least that’s my experience.

Rewriting and not leaving the work too soon. This is so important. Things really do need to be put into drawers for a week or a month, taken out again and reworked. I’ve often been too antsy to do this, but the work suffers, it really does.

Lastly, everybody thinks they can write, because most people nowadays have to do some writing, even if it’s only a tweet here or there or a Facebook update. Don’t be fooled. Real writing is not easy — if it was, we’d all be Stephen King (or INSERT YOUR FAVORITE AUTHOR HERE), right?

Some ideas from here and here.