New year, new season of Weeknotes! I didn’t really do the “2020 year in review” or the “2021 resolutions” thing.
WRITING
Longest Writing Chain This Week: 7 days for 2 days in January total– but 21 consecutive days overall!
I’m not even going to bother researching the last time I had a run like that. In the immortal words of Lou Gramm from Foreigner, “It feels like the first time…” Still, keeping in mind what I said the other day, momentum really can’t be the only writing dragon I chase. I’ve been down that road and it never got me anywhere.
So, what have I learned over the last week as I try to reconstruct a sustainable writing practice? Two things.
- For a couple of months, I’ve started from a premise that I need to end a day’s writing session feeling the range of things I feel at the end of a day at the dayjob. Most days, I kill it. Some days, everything goes utterly wrong. Once in awhile, I don’t feel it but I still show up even to just phone it in. And on a rare occasion, I call in sick. So far, it’s working.
- For the past couple of weekends, I decided to differentiate between “project writing” (stories, essays, etc. that I aim to submit) and “writing for its own sake.” Brain dumps, writing exercises, thinking about old writing projects, dreaming about new ones–if it further’s my craft development, it counts as a writing day! So far, so good.
For now, the process will take however long it takes; so fucking slow though, but it is what it is for now.
ROTTING MY BRAIN
I haven’t yet gotten around to Season 5 of THE EXPANSE just yet, but I’m all caught up on GENE RODDENBERRY’S ANDROMEDA 2021–er, I mean STAR TREK: DISCOVERY Season 3. But what I’m shivering with anticipation for is the Martin Scorsese/Fran Lewobitz follow-up collaboration PRETEND IT’S A CITY
FEEDING MY HEAD (Coming soon…)
Because I really need to sort out my reading list. I’ve opened up a few books and articles here and there, but tracking it all has gone off the rails a little bit since I’ve been more focused on getting my writing process back on track. I need to pick it back up, though. You know how you feel when you’re working while hungry? That’s exactly how I’m feeling about now.
IN THE WILD
This blog’s 2021 energy, as depicted by Mazikeen…
