Hey Folks,
I’ve had a sense of urgency about time and life since I read a book when I was around ten years old. If I remember correctly, it was Cheaper by the Dozen, in which siblings talked about growing up with their efficiency-expert father, Frank Gilbreth.
As a result, I developed a kind of “do it right now because you might not have time later” thing. Right or wrong, that philosophy has guided my life ever since.
To this day I hate wasting time. It really is the most precious commodity we have.
In my life, the philosophy extends from the mundane to the important. On the less-important end, when I’m going from one room to another, I look around to see whether I can carry something with me to spare myself a separate trip later.
On the more important end, when I have something to write, I write. One of my greatest fears is that I might get hit by a bus before I finish my current novel in progress. Fortunately, there are no buses in St. David, Arizona, but I suspect you get my drift.
I should have written fiction yesterday. Even though I wanted to write, I made an inane, pre-emptive decision not to. As a result, I was grouchy and out of sorts all day. Amazingly, I wondered why.
It’s good to take a day off even from doing something you love to do when you want or need a day off. But yesterday, I didn’t want or need a day off.
Most human beings devise ways to escape their routine, to inject their lives with interest or to just relax. They do things that please them.
Maybe they hike or go out to dinner or watch movies. Maybe they take day-trips or have friends over for jam sessions or card games. All of that’s fine, of course. It doesn’t adversely affect my liberty or my paycheck, so what do I care?
I have four methods of relaxing: of the lesser ways, one is to watch baseball when I’m in the mood; one is to browse estate sales once every few weeks, though I feel a bit like a vulture as I do so; and the other is to visit with a good friend and slather philosophy while we smoke cigars and/or enjoy a beer.
But my primary means of relaxing and having fun and giving my post-Marine Corps life a sense of meaning is to write fiction. It’s my own chosen method of escape.
I hope I don’t forget that again.
***
Yesterday, prompted by an item that’s listed in “Of Interest” today, I bought Adam Croft’s book. If you click through Of Interest you’ll see the one I mean. It contains much that I already know and some ideas that are better left ignored (writing is laborious, etc.), but also some real gems. I recommend it.
There’s also a pretty nifty guide to writing “crime thrillers” (and to writing, period) available free when you sign up for the newsletter at http://dyingwords.net/. I strongly recommend the guide. (It might also serve to validate that you’re doing things “right” in your writing.)
Of Interest
See “A New Spade/Paladin Story—Unity Con” at https://kriswrites.com/2018/09/08/a-new-spade-paladin-story-unity-con/.
See “Developing The Million-Selling Indie Author Mindset – With Adam Croft” at http://dyingwords.net/developing-the-million-selling-indie-author-mindset-with-adam-croft/.
See James Scott Bell’s “How to Give Your Readers Unforgettable Moments” at https://killzoneblog.com/2018/09/how-to-give-your-readers-unforgettable-moments.html. There’s some “ignore it” advice in this, but some good stuff between the lines. And yup, I added my two cents.
See “Introduction: Living at Pulp Speed Five” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/introduction-living-at-pulp-speed-five/. I really wish I had the money to do this.
Talk with you again soon.
Fiction Words: 2664
Nonfiction Words: 600 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 3264
Writing of Nick 3 (novel, tentative title)
Day 1…… 3422 words. Total words to date…… 3422
Day 2…… 2664 words. Total words to date…… 6086
Total fiction words for the month……… 6386
Total fiction words for the year………… 321117
Total nonfiction words for the month… 6310
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 124126
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 444993
Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 7
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 33
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 6
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………………… 193