This will never last.

Because I know myself.

There are people who sing the praises of journaling, but I’ve never been able to maintain a diary or similar collection of thoughts. Oh sure, the desire is strong at first. When it becomes work, however, when I’m trying to make time or backfill missed entries, well, then it’s a hassle.

And free time doesn’t get spent on hassles.

With that encouraging preface, I push onward, nonetheless. At the very least, it will amuse me – and perhaps interest you – while it lasts. It’s my intent to keep these simpler and lighter-weight than other blog posts, in which I try convey some interesting update or learning I have had about writing a book. I generally try to edit them for length, content, and grammar, and while the result is more polished, they take time away from other things in my life. For these, I’m looking to knock out a quick post, straight through, with no rewrites and few edits.

Let’s see how it goes.

Friday, November 15, 2019

1. I’m listening to The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss on Audible. I’ll use a future post to gush over it, but as often happens while I’m reading, listening, or watching, I got inspired.

The particular scene included the lute of the character’s father. It made me think about a combining of magic and music, and how might a culture use that for things beyond everyday tasks or entertainment. What if the culture developed an interweaving of art into things like defense or warfare? Of the kinds of art in the world – music, sculpture, painting, etc – what if the people maintained their love and awe of these things, yet used them in practical ways? What if they did these things only because they had to or what if these things were incorporated because they were viewed as another skill, like smithing or bricklaying?

I got to work, wrote a few paragraphs about two cultures’ different approaches, and I added the detail into the appropriate books. Book 2 for the Prince and Book 6 for the Princess. Sorry for the tease.

2. I love cloud storage because it allows me to write at home and on my lunch breaks at work. Sometimes, because technology, a sync doesn’t happen. It often stops me dead because I’m not sure what might be lost. Version control isn’t the issue it once was for me, but it happened again this week. It kept me out of my document for a few days because I was discouraged and didn’t have the energy to address it.

So I made the time on Friday to compare a home copy to a work copy, and then I opened the side file I’d made to work on some complex edits. These were the last changes I’d made to the manuscript, and after a few comparisons, reassured myself that I hadn’t lost anything. Phew.

3. On that same lunch break, I went through my email drafts. I’ve found Outlook is the best for jotting quick notes because I don’t have to wait for another app to open, and it saves regularly. And, if my computer reboots, I know exactly where the files go. Yes, I’m aware that this is a risky – and stupid – system, but c’est la vie. It’s better than the random Post-Its system I used to have.

So, I went looking for a draft I knew had closed, and it resulted in me going through 400-some saved drafts of everything: mostly work stuff, a WIP for an anniversary card note, grocery lists, and well, many other things. And about 20 of the aforementioned writing drafts.

I spent the rest of lunch combining them, deleting what I didn’t need, and fleshing out a couple interesting thoughts. I suppose a similar task awaits me in Evernote, but that’s a chore for another day.

Well, a lot more happened on Friday than I’d expected. It is nice to be reassured that you’ve been productive and completed some tasks, which is one of the reasons for starting up this series of journal-themed posts. It also seems an interesting way to chronicle ideas that come to me, sparse in detail they might be here. #spoilers

And that’s a day in the life of a writer. It’s not always the fun of pure creativity, but I believe that finding value in the work can be equally rewarding, if you appreciate it.

Good luck with your writing!

Mike

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© Michael Wallevand, November 2019