No, not exactly. But if you’re one of the (few) regular readers of Longer Thoughts, by now you’ve noticed that there hasn’t been a new post in a while. Yes, it’s mostly attributable to the fact that I’ve been on the road a lot, but not entirely.
When I first gave myself the assignment of writing and posting at least 250 words a day, I had several goals in mind (not necessarily in the this order):
- To see if I could do it
- To discover my writing strengths
- To develop an engaging style
- To enjoy it
At this point I feel that I’ve made a lot of headway on the first three, and mostly succeeded in the fourth. But I’ve also realized that I don’t have the time and energy to maintain a daily pace at a high enough quality level without detracting from the things I do that actually put bread on the table (most notably, writing and recording music). On any given week I probably spent 3 hours putting links into posts for every 15 minutes I spent with my guitar. Untenable!
Does this mean I’m giving up? Never! I’m far too stubborn to stop. But I’ll only post when something truly moves me to write, or when I have a completed short story or longer critical/analytical piece to present. I simply don’t have any interest in being a general blogger, or in becoming the curator of a specialty area.
Oh, and I’ll still give bad advice now and then. That takes no brainpower whatsoever.
“S”
Much like last week, my mind bit off more than it could chew on Friday. It’s not quite as epic an undertaking as the sidekick mascot extravaganza, but it’s way more than my brain can chunk down right now. When Paul and I aren’t on the road, I do a bit of freelance business-y stuff* which, when combined with other recent mental exertions, hasn’t left me with much in the tank.
Yep, I’m taking a braincation today.
I first recall hearing the brain described in terms of the muscle by one of my professors in college: the more you work it, the stronger it become. Even over the relatively short period of time I’ve been writing of every day (and even granted that it’s usually not rocket science, except days for which it is, that is), I feel my brain-strongs getting musclier.
But as that last sentence demonstrates, as with muscles it’s probably important to let it rest now and then, to let it heal, or knit together all those fun li’l axons in new and excited, or whatever the heck the brain does to improve one’s abilificaion to make of the ideas go voom-time.
For certainly if slathering mind upon sentences don’t find place of semblance, proper, yes? Then of course not! I’ve time Star Wars fragment you’re placement enjoy presentation, but next week.
Meantime, colada relaxation brain food of enjoy Photoshop by sand humor fish sticks.
*If ever you’re in need of an ace PowerPoint jockey, I’m your guy.
I really did intend to keep writing at least 250 words a day here on Longer Thoughts, even while on the road. I actually did write 500 words last night after our show and subsequent celebration at the 13 Coins in Seattle, but deleted it after realizing it was exactly the quality one would expect at 4 a.m. after a night of gigging, moderate drinking, and consumption of a chicken-fried steak.
Tonight isn’t much better. It’s 1 a.m., and I honestly haven’t had the hour or so necessary to think of something interesting to say and weave it into a funny/well-thought-out/weird bit of writing. I could certainly do a simple chronicling of where we’ve been (Seattle; between Seattle and Portland; Portland), what we’ve eaten (Thai food, gas station grabby grub, Indian food), and what we’ve done (gigged, slept, drove, podcasted, played arcade games at Ground Kontrol in Portland), but frankly that’s not what I set out to do with Longer Thoughts.
And so I’m declaring that unless I actually do have an hour so of genuine downtime, there’s not much point in forcing it while on the road. Maybe it’s a matter of practice, but I find that unless I have real isolation, I can’t really get my brain to work its joojoo beyond the descriptive and blandly factual.
Exhibit #1: this post.
Good night.
“S”
March 19, 2011 – 12:14 am
I’ve already written 1,000+ words today on a short story I’m working on, and I originally intended this entry to be short and sweet, but I feel like this is something that needs to be “on the record”.
Paul and I loooove to play hashtag games on Twitter (if you don’t know what that is, you can go back right now to reddit, Fark, Facebook, YouTube, surfing for porn, or wherevs, and check back again tomorrow.) When we get cranking, we can spit out two dozen #StarWarsInstruments, #DuneSnacks, or #JohnMellencampDescribingHisBreakfast zingers inside of five minutes. Most people tolerate it, and many even follow us for it (and participate themselves, which is awesome). But some people actually get kinda angry that we’re “spamming” their Twitter feed.
Read More »
Starting a writer’s blog may seem like an odd thing for us to do. But we often have ideas that are too long for Twitter’s 140-character limit, and too “off-topic” to merit posting on paulandstorm.com. We don’t know exactly what we’re going to post yet, but it’ll likely be a mix of glib observations, thought-provoking and/or funny essays, TV and movie reviews, short stories, or even serialized stories (like “Emily and the Really Sexy Vampyre”). And yes, the occasional long-form poop joke.
Why not use Facebook and Tumblr, you say? Read More »
