I’m being mentioned in my friend’s blog! So that’s almost like posting, right?

No? ?

I guess there’s no way around sitting down and writing in your blog. And I want you to remember that I said that, because soon we’ll be getting “business oriented” blogs that are written by robots. And it will be a sad, sad day.

Yay! I’m posting.

I try to learn from the experience of others. I’ve noticed that many people (perhaps most?) write a blog just the way most people journal. They start off with a few entries, fully planning and expecting this to be an ongoing thing. Then they disappear for a long time. They come back, apologetic and promising to get back on track. Usually that is the last post / journal entry. The fact that it’s out there for everyone to read, unlike the dusty journal in your bedroom, doesn’t seem to help. And the sad, neglected blog continues on like a discarded rocket part floating through space.

So I’m back after a long absence, but will bite my tongue before apologizing or promising anything. The following is not an excuse, as I am not apologizing, but I guess it’s blog-vent.

I tried starting a new blog on my webpage and I hated it. It was not user-friendly. I had enough trouble with discipline and writer’s block already, but throw in a really good excuse like “I can’t remember the two or three passwords necessary to access the new blog I can’t figure out how to use” and you’re set to put the flowers on its little bloggy grave.

Meanwhile, I had the occasional blog-worthy idea, but nothing seemed significant enough to go through the above mentioned hassle. So I fell into another old trap: needing everything to be perfect and awesome before it’s worth writing about.

In July I did “Camp NaNoWriMo” (see www.campnanowrimo.org or www.nanowrimo.org for info on this wordpile craziness), and I started to learn that I can push myself to write even when I have no idea what to write and, perhaps more importantly, that the world doesn’t end if what I write is no good. In fact, for the first couple weeks I kept a toy skunk by my laptop to remind me to keep writing even if what I come up with is stinky.

Keep going….keep going…keep going. No matter how perfect you think things ought to be, it’s always better to show up and create something than to keep the hope of perfection and have nothing to show for it.

Why can’t FBI anti-piracy warnings on DVD’s be more entertaining?

They won’t let you fast forward through them, but they can’t expect us to actually sit there and read it…especially if we own that particular DVD and the warning comes up every single time we play it. So maybe they should spice it up a little, like at awards shows when they have comedians read us the rules or the vote counting methods.

Can you remember the minimum prison time or fine for pirating a DVD? Hmm? If not, then their current message delivery isn’t doing the job.

We are having a drought in Texas even while other states are having severe floods.

I’ve had my own droughts and floods lately in creativity. I’ve discovered that the more you welcome ideas, the more ideas you have. Rather than the well running dry after writing them all down, the ideas seem to open up the channels further and more come out. I couldn’t go to sleep, drive my car, or eat a meal without having to stop to jot down a new thought.

But then I went through a resentful time. I was so tired and stretched so thin, even though all the “obligations” were of my own choosing, that I shut down without realizing I was doing it. I kept pushing myself to write during my scheduled times so I wouldn’t go back to my old procrastination issues. It turns out my creativity is like a cranky toddler that has learned to say “no”. Or like a sky that won’t rain.

So now I’m trying out new ways of keeping the flow going. For the rest of September I plan to keep showing up at scheduled times, but whether I am “productive” or not, it’s okay. I won’t stress over it. After all, the reason I write is because, ordinarily, I can’t stop writing in my head. The ideas come unbidden and grow and develop into stories whether I write them down or not.

Eventually it will rain again, and I’ll be ready.

Today I finished the first draft of my first novel. It is a very rough first draft, but finished none the less. I’m going to take a week off, then start revising. I would love to start my next one within a month or two. We’ll see…