Tag: Writing

  • Scheduling Writing Time in a Pandemic

    There might be a lot to unpack in this statement, but I have the feeling that kids will not physically go to school in New York for the first few months of the school year. My guess is that there will at least be two months of remote learning, and that’s if a safe and effective vaccine can be developed. (But this is a topic for another blog.) With that said, I don’t think I will have a few hours to write every day, as I will need to be the kid’s teacher for the foreseeable future.

    So, I need to look for the time in our schedule to make writing happen.

    Right now, I’m getting about two hours in on a perfect, everything breaks my way, kind of day. I can get about 30 to 45 minutes to journal in the morning, when me and the kid have some park time. The kid used to take a daily nap, but that has morphed into “Quiet Playtime” in the kid’s room, and depending on how much I have to clean the kitchen up after lunch, I can fit 30 minutes of blog time. Finally, the kid has an hour of free tv time, which I sit with her and monitor, and that is when I can fit in an hour to work on other things. I used to try and write in the evening, but that’s the only time me and the wife get to have some time together, and that’s pretty important to us. Since rarely does anything break my way, I’m lucky if I can get about 45 minutes to an hour day.

    What complicates this even more is that my wife is working from home, so the family desk is now her’s, and I haven’t found a good landing place to work in the apartment.

    So, as I look to the next month and Fall in general, I am trying to figure out what our schedule will be so everyone can get what they need, and I can still fit in a little more than 2 hours a day to write.

  • New Blog Direction?

    So… I’m unemployed, and I have had some time to think over things, and choices, and mistakes I have made in my life. Sometimes obsess over them, but that only happens late at night when I try to fall asleep. What I have been rolling over in my head is if I want to change the direction of this blog.

    Right now, this blog is an exercise for me to work on telling stories in 250 words. It is also a place for me to write about other things that come into my head.

    With being unemployed, I started to think about trying to monetize my writing. For my three fans who aren’t relatives, then you know that I have made a grand total of $5 from my writing over the past 20 years. I don’t have a stellar track record, and with the fact that I have a WordPress.com site shows that I am most aggressive blogger.

    This would lead me to conclude that if I want to earn money from blogging, then I would need to put in more time and energy in the make of the blog, and that I will need to start writing about a specific subject. I have run enough art organizations that I know that what I am selling is a product, and for anyone to be interested in this product, you either have to be the best at it, or original in some way that no one can copy. It is a business after all.

    I am sitting on this, wondering if, or how I should move forward.

    I also know that in a business, you have to have a goal for it. That I can answer now. We need a new Mac Mini for our home to function as a server. That ballparks to $870. With the $5 I already earned; I just need to bring in another $865. That seams do-able.

  • The Unexamined Life Sucks…

    Which I think is a more accurate translation from ancient Greek.

    I watched a documentary on Freud last night, and it didn’t help me sleep. What struck me in this program was that it claimed that in moments when Freud was stuck and frustrated by his own theories, he would apply them to his own life to see if they stood up to objective scrutiny. Depending on how you feel about Freud, you may feel that he succeeded or failed.

    It reminded me of Socrates’ quote, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I know that he said it, or supposedly did, at his trial, choosing death rather than exile. Now, my interpretation is that the ancient world was about examining the external, and the modern world is about examining the internal.

    I remember wanting to write books from a very early age. I remember wanting to have as many books around me as possible. I can even remember memorizing the books my parents read to me, so I could act like I was “reading” them. (My daughter has started to exhibit the same behavior now.) I remember “scribbling” with wavy lines on paper, like I was handwriting a story. When I did learn how to write, this might have been when I was 9 or 10, I asked for and received a child’s typewriter for Christmas. I also remember wanting to tell stories; make them up, read them, perform them, etc.…

    But where did this come from?

    I understand the nature/nurture dynamic, but it can’t be all nature, can it? Being given books by my parents clearly had an impact, but is that it? Did books give me a feeling of power? Were books my “friend” when my older brothers left me alone to do older brother things? Was it playing by myself in those situations where I was forced to use my imagination to create my own stories as I did not have the interaction with another child? Or is it just something that is in me that was inevitable?

    I’m not sure if there is a clear answer here, or even a need for an answer, as in, what does that answer really “give” me? I am who I am, and I don’t regret it.

    But…

    As I mentioned above, my daughter has exhibited one of these behaviors. Is that coming from me, genetically, or from the example I set?

  • The Beatles (The White Album) Super Deluxe Edition

    I listened to the 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition of The White Album yesterday and today. I have been waiting for this to come out for some time, as I am a super Beatles fan. Over all, I am very happy with what they put out in this edition.

    My first impression is that the remixing of the original album is great. The music on this mix is much sharper, clearer, and also, they pulled forward sounds that had been lost in the background due to the use of a four track in the initial recording.

    The other treasure is the Esher Demos on the third disk, which were recordings made at George Harrison’s house of the songs that John, Paul and George had been working on for the new album. Some of these tracks had been released on the Anthology Three way back in the 90’s, but on this edition, 27 tracks were included. In these demos, we are given an amazing insight to the first drafts of some of these songs; some songs evolved, while others were pretty much complete and ready to go.

    The final three disks are outtakes from the studio, a few jams, and instrumental tracks. It is interesting to get a glimpse of the building of these songs, but in this presentation of this material, a false reality is created. These outtakes leave one feeling that The Beatles were having a great time recording in the studio, when the reality was quite different.

    Of the 30 original songs on The White Album, only 16 tracks had all four playing on them. The real sessions had arguments, and walk outs, and lots and lots of tension that would start the process of the band’s eventual breakup. I know the recording exists, as I have heard stories about it, and I wanted to hear the tape where John calls Paul a “fucking idiot,” because they were a band that was making great music while they didn’t like each other. That is an amazing accomplishment as well, and I want to hear how they did that, but that is not what is being presented. What we have is a celebration of a great album, and not a historical document.

  • To Do List

    After I took the kid to school, this morning, I hit on the idea that I should just make a list of everything that I want to accomplish today, and that way I will see that I got something done.

    It’s just a mind trick, but it is an affective one.

    Of the 10 things that I had on my list, I only have two left to go, and writing is one of the two, so I am checking that one off as we speak.

    Another item on the list was to start looking up freelance writing work, and I did find some listings. All of them want a list of published work, and writing samples. Well… as of this minute I have only one web-publish review of a “D” horror movie, and plenty of samples! I know that I just have to put myself out there and see what happens. When I read up on starting a freelance writing career, all the books suggest that one should focus on what they want to write about, and go after that. My problem is that I sort of want to explore everything.

    But I think everyone says that when it comes to career advice.

    And I often wonder about people who follow that advice. Do they actually know what they want to focus on, or do they pick one thing and go with it, no matter what?

    My gut tells me people pick something and go with it.

    I would like to stay open to things.

    Let’s see how long I can stick to it.