This one’s mostly about the writing process today. And I’ve got Sunday sauce on the stove so this’ll be quick.
THE CHAIN
Okay, the streak was broken this week. It’s all good!
- This week’s writing chain: 4 days
- Total days in March: 11
- Longest chain in 2021: 33 days
- Total days in 2021: 62 days
Remember how I kinda forced things last week, but as a way to experiment to see what happens? Well, now I have an idea. Sure, I kept up the momentum the day after, but only to find myself inexplicably in bed for 4 extra hours the next day. Coincidence? Maybe. I tried to grit my teeth and push through for two more days. But the two days after that, I noped out of it all like I should’ve done in the first place.
I spent a lot of that off time dumping stuff into ye olde writer’s notebook and zoning out to music. It’s actually two of the ways I recharge my artistic batteries but here’s the thing–I’ve never purposely paused to do that. Here’s what usually happens, in order:
- Pause writing for one reason or another. Could be simple exhaustion, depression, life circumstances, abject laziness, etc.–it’s all happened at one time or another.
- Beat myself up from anywhere between, oh I dunno, three days and six months.
- Zone out to music or some reading, dump my brain into a notebook, and maybe get the gumption up to start writing again.
Thanks to years of therapy and medication, I’ve been working to notice these things ahead of time. Last week, it paid off and I was able to bypass Step 2!
Tempted to not give myself any credit for the minuscule amount of writing activity I did tonight. I mean, it's next to nothing…
…which means my brain chemistry is probably a little out of balance, so I'm going to cut myself some slack tonight. #amwriting
— Don Pizarro (@DonP) March 10, 2021
LISTENING
I picked up Lake Street Dive’s new album OBVIOUSLY. I’ll write up more about it later, but suffice it to say I caught a couple of nice AOR/Yacht Rock-y grooves. I tweeted about them too, which kinda started me on a path I don’t want to go down.
I mean, it might’ve been a little bit overboard to then proceed to livetweet my most recent listen my most of the latest Bill Champlin album LIVIN’ FOR LOVE. It wasn’t every track, so I’ll jot down my review later.
Now that I think about it, I’m torn about livetweeting albums listens….
IN THE WILD
I could interpret Mazikeen draping herself across my keyboard as her way of reinforcing my need for self-care, but I get the feeling that it’s not entirely about me.