Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Other Work

Finally got the epic postings up on my political blog. If you're at all interested, it covers exactly why I cannot bring myself to vote for "the lesser of two evils" with either the Democrat or Republican party, especially with their current two offerings. It also explains why I am voting for Gary Johnson, who I believe embodies my own values and who abhors the other two tickets for the same reasons I do. You can find my political blog at The Sane Libertarian.

In other news, writing like a fiend! I tweeted last night how I know perfectly well that writing is a process of creation, and that I am in control of my characters and the events that happen in my book. Yet, when everything works, when the magic flows, and when the writing just fits, it always feels more like a process of discovery. There's nothing quite like this feeling of uncovering the secrets of a world, especially when that world currently exists nowhere but in your own head.

Creation is exhilarating. I can't imagine doing anything else.


Monday, September 24, 2012

Redirect to Other Blog

If you don't follow any of my other blogs, I do write on some other topics elsewhere. For instance, I am currently writing over at The Sane Libertarian a series of short essays (or one really long essay over multiple posts) explaining my personal voting philosophy, how I got to it, and why I am voting for a third party this election.

If you're interested in politics at all or just want something else to read that is not hyperbolic slavering over or terror because of one of the political candidates, I think it should be interesting reading. It's pretty long, though, so if you hate politics or really don't care, feel free to ignore it.

Otherwise, I should be back to some more writing about random things here in the next few days. I've been doing some good fiction writing and trying to figure out how to balance life, art, health, and commerce without losing my mind. It's fun learning to juggle!

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Nominating My Husband for Sainthood

Ha.

I should absolutely know better.

No sooner do I announce my intentions to rededicate myself to writing with an eye to the future, but the present comes crashing down. This morning my husband's car died in a most spectacular fashion. His was supposed to be the reliable car (in light of my car's own consistent stalling/electrical problems). And the clutch basically collapsed, luckily before he got out of the parking lot at our apartment.

It looks like it's going to cost almost 2/3 the car's actual value to fix it.

He took my car in to work, and we evaluated our options.

So today, instead of writing, instead of going to the gym, instead of all my grand plans, we dealt with life.

This is probably my fault. I set a plan to be completely selfish with my artistic endeavors, and I, of course, generate a cosmic road block that says: "Not so fast!"

However, now that I sit to think about it, it's infinitely appropriate. No writer that I have ever heard of or known has had the chance to sit back and luxuriate in the privilege of writing. Not until they've sacrificed and waited and toiled for the privilege.

I've had it easy.

My husband has been so wonderful in encouraging me to pursue my dreams. He actually asked me not to get a full time job, but to concentrate on those things that make me happy, to pursue a career as a writer, even if that meant that we gave up the guaranteed second income.

Frankly, we've really made that work. We've excelled even. We may pay a little too much for rent right now, but we enjoyed dinners and drinks out with friends, trips out of town, expensive gym memberships, and very little sacrifice, all on a single income. Sure I brought in a few handfuls at a time. My work in politics helped  a lot with that, actually.

To have the chance to do almost nothing but work on my own vanity projects and creative endeavors with no immediate hope of monetary return was a luxury. One that I really don't deserve and haven't earned yet.

But I will.

We have to figure out how to fix this car with very little in savings and still find a way to move into a new place in about two months. That means we have to come up with a few thousand dollars out of the blue to pay for the necessity of this car and a deposit on a new place while we wait for our current place to cough up our security deposit in the three month time limit they have under the law. It's not going to be easy, but I'm going to take on extra writing for pay, maybe look at a part time job, and cut back on a few extravagances we've enjoyed in the past few months.

That's right. Because of my husband, the saint, I barely have to give up a thing.

I don't know if you know how incredibly amazingly lucky I am to be married to such a person.

I do.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Prioritizing and Narrowing Focus

At the end of August I finished a campaign that had dominated a lot of my free time over the past summer. Though I wasn't the campaign manager of this particular campaign, I was advising the campaign manager and producing all of the written content and branding for the campaign (except in a few very unfortunate mailings that the candidate outsourced to a very partisan consultant).

I learned a lot of things about politics and local government that have made me a lot more jaded on the topic. I may explore some of these lessons either here or in another blog, but suffice it to say, I think that is the last campaign I will be actively involved in for a good while to come. The political arena is too caught up in things that I think are unimportant and unhealthy for a normal, sane, and functioning human being. Immersing oneself overmuch in that cesspool can generate not just a slimy sheen of cynicism, but also a good deal of soul sickness if one lingers.

I don't want that for myself.

So I've been re-prioritizing several elements of my life. Hence I've been maintaining some distance from my blogs and from several other forms of social media. I took a hard look at what I want in my life, at the person I want to be, and the things I want to accomplish. I've started a new diet and committed to going to the gym multiple times a week. I'm trying to improve my overall health. I also want spend more time with people I care about. However, one of the most important things I noted was something that I really shouldn't be overlooking.

I've concluded that for a writer, I don't write enough.

That may sound silly to some of the people that know me. I'm constantly working on some project, writing for clients, and experimenting with writing prompts. I probably put in upwards of 30 hours of writing a week.

That's really not enough.

I waste entirely too much time doing other things that don't contribute to my overall goals. I have projects that desperately need to be finished and developed instead of pushed aside for the latest shiny idea. I need to diversify my writing and publish in multiple arenas. I need to engage in more free-writing with daily prompts to exercise my writing muscles and develop my skills as a story teller. Granted, I'm not trying to build a platform here for any publication or marketing purposes, but I even need to blog more, even if just to get myself pumped and ready to go with my other writing.

So, this is me committing publicly to writing more. I've already done well with my new diet, filling my fridge with fresh produce and lean meats. I'm still sore from my third gym trip in three days, and can't wait to go back tomorrow and attempt this project route I've got on a bouldering wall. I've got plans to catch up several groups of friends over the next few days as well as my family, and I'm hoping to catch up with a few more when I can find a break in my schedule. :)

Now, it's time to write more. I've completed my writing goal for a client and gotten a head start on tomorrow's batch. I've written almost 600 words here, and I've done some research for one of my bigger projects. Tomorrow, before I go to the gym, I'm going to start with a writing prompt or free-write for at least half an hour to get my thoughts going. That way, I can marinate on some ideas while at the gym.

Enough putting off improving myself. I'm starting now.

Leeroy Jenkins!!