Neither here nor there
To my amazement, waking early, then doing a medium amount of work on Project A, then a small amount of work on Project B, seems to be working. (On weekends I do a large amount of Project A, and stick with small amounts on Project B.) Sea of Tranquility is
Squish at the (home) movies
Recently, for family movie night, the fam selected Dune. None of us had seen it. I did some quick research: Appropriate for a ten-year-old? I mean, she's seen Lord of the Rings, and Jaws, and other such things. I learned that there was one brutal-ish death in the movie, and
Leaving a little want-to
I've just spent the weekend putting miles on my keyboard. My hands don't hurt, but they've gotten clumsy. More and more words came out with transposed letters. My word count plummeted. I developed a headache from all of the screen-staring. There haven't been many happy writing stretches in the last
Quote wall: Natalia Ginzburg
On the bulletin board above my desk, I keep a handful of quotes that have taught me something, or that I hope to learn from. Here's one: When I write something I usually think it is very important and that I am a very fine writer. I think this happens
Got myself a new brain
Every week I write a newsletter. What I write about is usually informed by notes I've kept for myself: Things I've read that interest me, often about artists and process and such. The problem isn't what to write about; it's how to make sense of my notes. I take lots
Quote wall: Austin Kleon
On the bulletin board above my desk, I keep a handful of quotes that have taught me something, or that I hope to learn from. Here's one: What did you really want to say? —Austin KleonI never, never, never have an answer to this when writing a first draft. Somewhere
Quote wall: Colum McCann
On the bulletin board above my desk, I keep a handful of quotes that have taught me something, or that I hope to learn from. Here's one: Open elegantly. Open fiercely. Open delicately. Open with surprise. Open with everything at stake. This, of course, is a bit like being told
Quote wall: Brian Koppelman
On the bulletin board above my desk, I keep a handful of quotes that have taught me something, or that I hope to learn from. Here's one: The best time to share your work is when you can't figure out how to make it better anymore. —Brian KoppelmanThis one comes
The web sites we once were
The other day, out of curiosity, I went hunting for one of my very first web sites. I created it with a free service in 1998; most of those services were swallowed up, years later, by big tech companies, and all the sites within them held underwater until they expired.
Reading into a new year
A couple of days ago I began reading The Fifth Season, the first novel in N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy. I'm feeling very late to this series; seems as if everyone's already read it, and here I am, just beginning. But I like that books are patient; they'll wait