and then...pacing

I'm going to write this blog post in twenty minutes.

Almost anything you have planned in your day, especially those things that you'd rather not do, can be done in twenty minutes or less if you treat it as a mild act of meditation. 

Since everything is an act of balance, you need only balance the two opposing methods to productivity. On one side you have the masculine approach, that is, to enter problem-solving mode, wherein one can focus on one thing only until that thing is resolved or completed. On the other (feminine) side of things, you can do this thing called "mult-tasking," which doesn't really exist, as the brain can not do more than one thing at a time. So what multi-tasking really entails is the ability to switch quickly between tasks without worrying whether they have reached completion.

Marrying these two energies just means that you have to completely focus on one thing for a preset amount of time, and be able to leave it unfinished when your time is up. 

Defining completion in a work of fiction is about the moment you reach the exhale, the contraction of the lungs. Stories are the act of respiration, particularly novels. They are sequences of build-up and catharsis. 

So you might not want to leave your work until you have finished a particular scene or cycle. Or even a line. Yet most novelists (myself included) will advise you to leave a writing session while you still have a solid idea of what happens next. This sets you up for the next writing session with confidence; it gives you a place to begin and, more importantly, it helps settle that pesky problem of continuity. 

Don't worry about what part of your piece you want to finish writing today. Rather, make a decision about how much time you're willing to spend on it. It will help you be present with the work. It will teach you about your own process, your abilities, and about what the work needs. You may find that you work through some pieces faster than others. You'll have a better understanding of what the act of writing actually means for you. 

Well, it hasn't been twenty minutes, but I think I've made my point here. I hope it's helpful. 

and then...insomniac

I know me insomniac. Up all night. I monitor internal halls. I can only try to work myself to sleep. 

There's nothing better than doing what you love, in the way that has you forgetting water and loving it more than ever at once. Air is often readily available. 

I recently got a compact Filofax during a holiday sale and I love it so far. I can't stress the importance of organization. A goal doesn't stand a chance if it's not written down. But for those of us who use analog (that is, handwritten) organization methods, it can get messy. One notebook means a mess of notes, to dos, ideas and drafting. Several notebooks means... well, it means a heavy backpack. Personally, I like to use a lot of notebooks:

From the top down:

Compact patent red Filofax, for planning

Large size Ecosystem notebook in Lagoon, for new ideas

A classic, high-quality mead Composition notebook that is no longer on the market :( characterized by it's dark pink margin line. It's my daily journal right now.

A moleskine from the artist's collection, which I use to make mindmaps for Cope Syndrome. 

A Target brand legal pad that is perfect for my drafting. 

The bottom too are seen clear in my video How to Write a Novel, Like

The Filofax helped me reduce my load, but if you want something simpler or are on a tight budget, there's a method called Bullet Journaling that might work for you. 

If you go to bulletjournal.com you can find the comprehensive tutorial developed by art director Ryder Carroll. I have long wanted to come up with something as comprehensive, but he clearly beat me to it. I can only use the method on a small scale since I always need at least one or two journals at hand that lack any system other than writing and gluing down as many things as possible, and I think such a system would corrupt that. But I get a lot of emails about how to use a journal and I thought that Carroll's method would be worth sharing. 

I fell forward on a horse recent. I fell onto its long white neck when it tripped forward onto knees. It was a pretty white horse. If you have not yet commanded an animal, go and learn a way. 

and then...ink

Squarespace is back up! :D

I discovered disposable fountain pens. I trashed the pencil; at least for now. I never expected I would trash the pencil until my sharpener blunted out from years of use and I didn't care to buy a new one. But hand cramps have disappeared due to my disposable fountain pens. I'm drafting every morning at my local cafe and it's going well, though it's hard to record footage here so my YT channel is still a tad dry. I've just come out of an intense sixteen-week studio challenge and I'm running on leftover momentum. 

But I also discovered Bjork and I got a huge push from Vandermeer's Wonderbook, a guide to fiction that is so simple and authentic in its approach that I can't help but applaud it. Vandermeer's not afraid, for instance, to say that I-word (imagination).

I wanted to review another movie but I saw Gravity again instead of a new one. I wanted to write poetry. I'm too tired to write poetry. A man carries a rooster. The ceiling doesn't move as fast. Elk. Elk. Elk. Fish swim. I spend my time on things that will take as long as they take. 

Please eliminate all fencing.