Posts Tagged ‘inspiration’

Scrubbing Out the Bad to Make Way for the Good

Posted: April 4, 2013 in creating, discovery, not writing, planning, writing
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Spring is finally here! And not just on the calendars, either. Flowers are sprouting everywhere. Being greeted by buttery yellow daffodil blossoms makes it much cheerier to walk into work. Our rhododendron bush is starting to unfurl blossoms that are almost the same color as Pi’s cute pink nose. The air is starting to smell like life again, and not just rain. This weekend Mr. Eliza mowed our new yard for the first time, after we went to Sears and bought our first lawnmower. It’s one of those non-motorized numbers, which means I’ll feel comfortable using it, if I need to. Those whirring blades and motors in regular lawnmowers kind of freak me out. Too much opportunity for unintended bloodshed.

I’m really glad the weather is turning. I moved to the Pacific Northwest in large part because I love rain. There wasn’t nearly enough of it in Colorado. (Though the thunderstorms back there are spectacular, and missed.) I expected to relish the rain, and I do. What I didn’t expect was to fall in love with Spring. The world opens up when the temperatures start rising, stretching its arms toward the sky and giving off a great, big, wholly refreshing yawn. Except, instead of morning breath we get this delicate floral perfume carried on gentle breezes.

This year, I strive to be more like spring. Renewed. Renewing. Open to freshness and light. The last few weeks have not been easy. As I mentioned to a friend the other day, my mantra feels like it’s been “It could have been worse.” It’s time to spring clean the negativity that’s been building up. I’m not entirely sure how to go about doing that, but I have a few ideas.

  • Exercise more. Fo’ realz. And not the treadmill, or even the gym. That place depresses me. Makes me irritable. I want to get out in all that lovely awesome nature PNW supplies at every turn. Every year I say I want to do more hiking. This’ll be that year, dammit.
  • Plant things. I’ve never been a green thumb, but I love watching things grow. Probably the scrap of maternal instinct I’ve got floating around. Plus, I hate paying four bucks for a bundle of rosemary, most of which I’ll just throw away. So having a little herb garden would make me happier on two counts.
  • Make things, specifically clothes and jewelry. I need to create, which is a large part of why I write. But sometimes I need to have a tangible product, and that it’s something just for me. No editors, no readers, no critiques. Just a flirty skirt or a new necklace. The latter will also help salve the robbery wound, since they took nearly all of my jewelry.
  • Write more. Write fun things, with crazy-ass characters and wild settings and terribly beautiful monsters and color and gorgeousness.
  • Sleep more. Because I love sleep. I could use a nap right now, actually.

In conjunction with the sun and mild weather, I’m hoping these steps will help me shake off the gray that’s been clinging to my skin. Replace it with violet and lime and..gah…maybe some pink.

What are your plans for Spring cleaning, either literal or figurative?

Photo by promanex.

Buying Beautiful Rugs: When Advice Starts Making Sense

Posted: February 19, 2013 in advice, creating, discovery, writing
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Not my cat

Five months ago Mr. Eliza and I moved into a new house. We found a really cute 1918 Craftsman style home, 2 bedrooms, 2 stories, and an addition jutting out from the side of the house. French doors, a weird levered window, a built-in liquor cabinet and a great view of our backyard conspired to make this our favorite room in the place.

We don’t know when the addition was constructed, but what’s pretty obvious is that whoever built it didn’t do the best of jobs. The insulation is sparse, and time has done it’s job on what is there. That levered window I mentioned? Coupled with single pane glass it lets in a fair amount of chilly winter air. The main problem, though, has been the floor. Because of the lack of insulation, cold emanates from the hardwood, bringing down the temperature and making the one heater vent in the room work extra hard.

As a result, the main house got overheated just to bring this room up to comfort levels. When we got the ensuing gas bill for the busy heater, we decided the best thing to do would be close up the room and hope for the best. Having just bought a new house, and a car, we didn’t have the resources available to get all the rugs that would be needed to help insulate the floor from the top down. Putting the room, and it’s cold, under quarantine was the best solution we could come up with at the time. Which sucked, because it was also the best place in the house to put our TV, couch and–as I mentioned–the all important liquor.

We moved the entertainment to our front room, positioned before the huge plate glass window. Now, the entire neighborhood could share in our Star Trek:TNG marathons.

Yeah, not ideal.

One night we went over to our friend’s new place. They’d gotten into a similar situation, with hardwood floors and a need for warmth. As we were talking about their big, new rugs, They mentioned CraigsList as a source.

Mind. Blown.

I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. I’ve purchased televisions, couches, tables and chairs and all manner of housey things off CraigsList. But this one thing took hearing my tried and true solution from an outside source before it clicked.

I think this happens a lot in life, and can happen in our writing, too. Sometimes it takes the voice of a teacher to bring something into light. More often than not, for me at least, the moments of clarity when it comes to writing advice happen more often like my rug moment of clarity happened: by seeming coincidence.

I remember, for example, when I finally started to understand the real meaning behind ‘write what you know’. That single piece of advice is probably the most touted platitude in the writing world. For so long I, like many others I’m sure, took those words to mean write what you’ve done. What you’ve seen. What you’ve directly experienced. And in a way, I think that’s true, but not in the manner I originally thought. When I realized, instead, that this piece of advice should be applied more to the core of things, rather than the surface of things, it made more sense.

Have I ever been in charge of a magic book, or possessed by an angry spirit, like in Toulouse? No. But I have been caught between doing the right thing and doing the easy thing. I have pined after someone I couldn’t have. I’ve definitely done things I’m not proud of, and worked hard to make up for them. Just like the characters in my book.

My point here is to keep your eyes and ears and, most importantly, mind open to new advice, and new perspectives on old advice. By reading, a lot, we can absorb information. Writing books, good fiction, and bad fiction alike all give us pieces of advice. They swim around our brains for a while, and, if we’re lucky, one day they make sense. That feeling of ‘damn, why didn’t I think of that?’ will combine with ‘yes, I can finally use this.’

And you might end up with a bitchin’ new rug.

photo used under creative commons license from Spamily

My TBR 2013 Shelf: Books on Writing

Posted: January 31, 2013 in advice, career, discovery, reading, writing
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1. Writing the Other by Nisi Shawl

I was fortunate to receive this book in our handouts during Clarion West 2011. A slim volume, dedicated to exploring the idea of writing, as it says, the Other. That is, anything that isn’t you. A different race, a different sexual orientation, a different culture. In order to write books and stories that reflect the diversity of real life, every author will eventually need to write about (and often from the persepctive of) someone who is very, very different from the author themselves. I’m excited to read Shawl’s thoughts on this particular challenge.

2. How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by Orson Scott Card

I read this book a few years ago, and I think it’s time to revisit. I’ve learned a lot since then. In particular, I’m interested in rereading his thoughts on what he calls the M.I.C.E. quotient. Essentially, he says, every story is one–or a combination–of the following: Milieu, Idea, Character, Event. After hearing it referenced twice in recent Writing Excuses episodes, I’d like to brush up on my understanding of the idea.

3. Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass

I see this book recommended a lot, especially to people looking to write more ‘commercial’ fiction, which I absolutely am. Criticized by some for being too clinical and crass, praised by others for being organized and informative. Based on everything I’ve read and heard about it, I think I’ll like it, if taken with a big grain of put-up-with-hyperbole salt.

4. Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction by Patricia Highsmith

I don’t remember my exact reasoning behind picking up this book, other than the title. I can’t even remember when I bought it. But since I like writing suspenseful works, and want to get better at doing just that (and I already own the book), this is on my list.

5. The Art of Time in Fiction by Joan Silber

Recommended by Jenni Moody, as one of the books she read and benefitted from when working on her MFA. This book looks at the different ways to use time in a story, and how time can effect a story. This sounds fascinating to me, as I’ve been an almost exclusively linear writer. I can’t remember a single story where I played with time at all. It’s always seemed a kind of intimidating and tricky element, which I’d like to learn more about. Hopefully it’ll inspire me to bend my stories more.

6. Don’t Murder Your Mystery by Chris Roerden

This recommendation comes from Minister Faust, one of my instructors at ClarionWest. He was very enthusiastic in his recommendation, citing that a lot of books–not just mysteries–benefit from pointers in how to divulge information and create tension, ways to keep readers guessing without annoying them. And since a lot of the stuff I write is, in some degree, a mystery, I think this’ll be helpful.

7. Creating Character Emotions by Ann Hood

This last book was recommended to me by Folly Blaine. With a lot of ‘mini-lessons’ designed to help the author dig deeper into the description of emotions, and stop relying on eyes, or hands, or the timber of a character’s voice to give readers clues into the mental states of our beloved heroes and heroines. (Geez. That’s a mouthy sentence.) I know I spend a lot of time talking about voices, for one. And eyes. And occasionally strange movements. (I had to explain to a reader recently that the witch touching my heroes cheek was creepy, not sweet. That should have come through without an explanation.)

Do you have any books on writing you’ve read and loved? Or any you’re looking forward to tackling this year?

Putting Brain Food In My Icebox

Posted: December 17, 2012 in creating, discovery, not writing, planning
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From late August to mid October I did my first major novel revision. The last two weeks of October I spent outlining and brainstorming my NaNo novel, while in November I wrote said novel. Then December came, and in a flurry I did my second full novel revision. This one, however, was much lighter than the one I undertook in August, but substantial and time-crunched nonetheless.

In the meantime, I started a new round of writing dares with a friend of mine getting back into the word-slinging gig.

(In case you are unfamiliar with the idea of a writing dare: two [or more, I suppose] people trade of sending one another ‘dares’, pictures, phrases, etc designed to spur the imagination. The recipient then has one week to write ~1,000 words or more based on the dare, and return their writing to the sender, along with a dare of their own. Good for inspiration and accountability. The inestimable Catherine Krahe introduced me to this practice.)

So I gave her a dare over Thanksgiving, which she responded to, as planned, a week later with words to read and a picture to write from.

So, like I generally do with shorts, I dove right in. I fished around for a while, exploring the setting, possible back stories for characters, endings that may or may not work. I ended up with a mish-mash of randomness that, I think, has potential. But when I sat down and tried to thread the damn thing together, to figure out where I needed to steer it, I felt something very unfamiliar.

I felt empty.

I’ve talked about the need for creative input before, and I was able to recognize exactly what had happened. I wasn’t a washed up writer. My ideas weren’t all used up. I was just spent. I’d been bleeding all over the page for about four months straight, without much rest in between, and I’d become creatively anemic. Not a great feeling, but not the end of the world, either. In fact, I’m looking at the next week, or maybe the rest of the month, as a great opportunity to get in some socializing, catch up on critiques I owe, go see some performance art, capitalize on quality reading time (I’ve been daydreaming about this book for months). Intake, intake, intake.

Along with gorging myself on art and words and people, I’m going to draft up a list/schedule of goals for next year. I’ve got a few things whirling around already, including *finally* tackling an idea I’ve been stuck on for about three years, as well as refreshing my collection of short stories. And revisions, of course. There are always revisions to be done.

So, right now I’m looking for book, movie and artist recommendations. Who do you turn to when you’re feeling tapped out? Read/seen anything amazeballs lately?

photo used under Creative Commons license from flip.01

Gut-Wrenching Romance

Posted: January 23, 2012 in discovery, writing
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This weekend my boss went to Laser Quest with his ten year old son. That’s a weird way to start a blog post about romance, but there it is.

(Fun fact–my first romance novel was inspired by something my boss said.)

The romance doesn’t come from my boss, or his son, or even Laser Quest, really. But those things spurred my thinking.

I’ve played laser tag exactly once in my life. It was a snowy, winter evening in Colorado, and I was a teenager.  A lovelorn teenager, as was typical for me in that time of my life. I don’t remember the game very much. It’s all a blur of shadows and neon, pretzels and Pepsi.

What I do remember is the ride home.

I sat in the back seat. The object of my (at the time) eternal love and devotion sat in the seat directly in front of me. I could see the way his neck sloped into the collar of his jacket, the fringe of blonde hair, his freckles. All of this, so close, just six inches of foam and a million miles away.

Right before I started high school my parents moved to the middle of nowhere. This meant that any kind of activity that involved driving into ‘the city’ inevitably entailed a long car ride, half an hour at least. Throw in snow, and a bunch of teenagers happy to be away from home, and the drive can easily streeeeeetch out.

At some point during this drive, and don’t ask me how because for the life of me I cannot remember, my hand wound up on his shoulder, and his hand wound up on mine.

That’s it, folks.

But for a girl full of butterflies and self-doubt like myself, that touch was a revelation. I survived on the memory of that touch for months, because after that, affection was not very forthcoming from that particular arena. It was the MO of our interactions, from where I stood. A dance that I won’t describe here, and now.

So there I was, this morning, eleven years after the fact, folding hospital gowns, thinking about how cute it was that my boss played laser tag (and schooled the younger kids, apparently) and wham, this memory hits and for a moment I am breathless. I pause. I look around, and consciously reorient myself. Because the emotions attached to that memory were life and death, end of the world stuff.

And isn’t that what being a teenager is about?

I’m revising my YA fantasy novel right now. As I recently told a friend I need more Bad Guy, more Self-Sabotage, and more Romance.

I need more of what I felt, remembering that long winter drive. I need the truth of it, injected into my character’s relationships. And maybe, I’ll let Sydney get what she wants.

At least, for a little while.

Our work needs these intense emotional experiences. Have you been working on anything lately that forces you to face these deeper, possibly buried, emotions?

Photo used under creative commons license from kreg.steppe

On Rejuvenation: NaNoWriMo Day 19

Posted: November 19, 2011 in NaNoWriMo, not writing
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Isn't he handsome?

This Thursday I took a scheduled day off from writing. Not just from writing, but from everything that involved using a computer. For the entire day, my laptop stayed shut, its secrets sealed away while I indulged in all the things that writing 3,000+ words a day leaves little room for.

I read half of a book. Graveminder by Melissa Marr, for those who are interested. I made a yummy breakfast of bacon and eggs (nearly smoking my roommates out in the process). I spent a full hour and a half getting ready for an evening out, which included a nice long shower, carefully chosen clothes and more makeup than I’m used to. (My husband said I was pretty. But he always says that. *grin*)

Then we battled traffic heading into town and dropped into a record store to buy some music. Automatic by VNV Nation and Talk About Body by MEN. (Again, in case you were curious. Also, a note for Le Tigre fans–MEN is front by JD Samson.) After which we headed further south to catch one of only four showings in Seattle of Steve Jobs: A Lost Interview.

This presentation was an interview Steve Jobs gave for Channel Four something or other back in 1995, for an interview series they ran back then. Only a portion of the interview was shown at the time, and then the master tape was promptly lost, and everyone involved assumed the interview would be lost forever. Fast forward to..sometime recently. In a garage, a VHS tae with this interview is discovered, and eventually released into the world.

If you get the chance, go see this interview. Steve Jobs is charming and funny and crazy inspiring. He talks about his motivations behind making Apple products so fantastic, the difficulties he went through when leaving Apple, and why he thinks superlative products can help our country rediscover its culture, among other things. The interview, by the way, took place one year before Jobs’ company was bought by Apple, and he went back to working for the company.

The day, as a whole, was a round success.

I think it is extremely important for people who create to occasionally schedule an entire day away from their creative works. Not an accidental “I didn’t get work done today”, but a real, conscientious effort to put some space there, and then fill that space with things the benefit and enrich. There have been plenty of times when I’ve had a ‘day off’ purely by happenstance. One thing leads to another and suddenly I have no motivation and/or the day is over. Without exception, those days make me feel lethargic, regretful and bored.

My Thursday off, on the other hand, was anything but boring.

We need to feed creativity; it can’t exist in a vacuum. Art, books, music, interactions with people and with the beauty of the world–all of these things serve to pump fuel into the creative engine, giving you more to work with when you do come back to the computer or the page or the easel.

What’s your favorite way to get rejuvenated?

Though I’m sure this isn’t the original source, this photo was used through Creative Commons License from Dekuwa.

What Has Been Done, What is To Come: Week 2

Posted: May 16, 2010 in Creativity Workshop, planning
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Hoo boy, this has been a weird week, schedule-wise. I had engagements Thursday all day, Friday night and Saturday afternoon/evening. I took Monday evening and early Tuesday afternoon off from writing, to boot. Which, all in all, left me with a tiny amount of writing time available!

All that aside I think I did pretty well.

What Has Been Done

This week we got an idea building assignment. Three diverse pictures, culled from the lands of internet. We were to brainstorm ideas on each picture, moving through, and past cliches to find three original ideas for each prompt.

The prospect of using pictures to form ideas is not new to  me. My story A Kind of Death, which earned an honorable mention from the WotF contest, was prompted by a picture I found on DeviantArt. But using a picture cold like this was different. I’ve always used pictures that have prompted ideas, as opposed to using pictures in order to prompt ideas, so the process was kind of turned on its head. And, using pictures I would not have normally been attracted to, I had to stretch myself a bit to make the good ideas come.

Always good to push yourself beyond your comfort zone. I’ll include the pictures and my favorite idea from each one at the end of this post.

As far as writing this week goes…well, like I mentioned I didn’t give myself much time. I really like my story, and where its going. And I managed to find a reasonable breaking point today, so that I can feel okay going away from it for a while. It definitely is not an unfinished story, necessarily, but I do want to expand upon it. I’ve learned that I need to give myself more time to work with. A couple nights and one morning are not enough.

Also, I learned what a beekeeper is called! An apiculturist. One of my characters is an apiculturist, in a fun turn of events. And he loves Dickinson. He’s a sweetie, I’ll tell you what. No wonder my main character is in love with him.

What is to Come

Merrilee just posted about organization, and I have had my short story file box pulled out and ready to be sorted for nearly two weeks now. Time to get on top of that.

Also, I desperately need to do some edits on *Mystery Project* and get it ready to submit. Seriously, I can’t believe I’ve let it flounder for so long. It needs to be mailed by the 30th!

And story the second is on my plate now. My interest is still dystopian settings, and I will be focusing where education choices are made by the government. I noticed this last week that my focus really ended up being more of a prompt, and I’m betting that theme will continue. The focus of this last story certainly wasn’t on the fact that romantic expression is limited, but it did influence the tone of the story. Maybe I’ll write something with a teacher as the main character…I think that would be an interesting angle. And an angry parent as the antagonist?  Or maybe she is an underground textbook trafficker, and a fellow teacher (or student!) is the antagonist.

Ah, time to brainstorm!

Lastly…

Here are the pictures, followed by my favorite story idea for each.

Great picture, huh? Terribly expressive, even if they do both end up looking like twits.

I got a couple of favorites for this. Hard to choose, so I won’t bother. :) Both are pretty stream of consciousness.

1. The woman has just received the news that she is being excommunicated from her church because the casserole she brought to the potluck had the face of satan cooked into the cheese. She has devoted a lot of time to this church, but the new pastor makes his own way. He’s been looking for a reason to get rid of her anyway, and with the climate of the times being as fearful as it is, he found a good opportunity. Without the protection of the church, she doesn’t know what to do. It is organizations like churches and support groups like AA that keep people safe. Without those mini communities individuals are only prey for–what?

2. He’s dating her much younger daughter–who is he? The mother’s boss. Met the daughter and fell into lust. He’s married, and unapologetic about the whole thing. Mom is furious, because she wants her daughter to marry a doctor and there is no way that’s going to happen if she runs around with this jerk. She keeps her job, and creates an escalating scale of blackmail, eventually culminating in murder. Of who? the boss? Mom? The daughter? The man mom wants her to marry?

This was my favorite picture of the three, and my imagination really took off.

1. These houses serve only as drying houses for a massive marijuana crop. They are far away from most civilization, and while the sea air can be a detriment, many customers have said they can practically taste the ocean in the pot. The houses are a secret, and the crew takes turns living there throughout the year, while they all live there through the winter tending small individual use plants. They have a pact, and a comfortable lifestyle within these limits. Until one of them falls in love. With the daughter of a woman running for president, who vows to legalize marijuana. In the current age, her vote looks good, and she is squeaky clean. The boy truly believes in her cause, that’s how he met the daughter. But if the press pry into his life, and find out that he does something that is still currently illegal, her hopes of being elected will be crushed. And the rotten contender will rush into office.

This one gave me fits. I’m not a real abstract kind of person, so it was difficult getting into this piece. But I managed!

1. A woman who works in a battered woman’s shelter begins to wake up with bruises. At first they aren’t so bad, but they get worse and worse. Who? Woman- abused in a previous relationship, and he got killed in a car accident under dubious circumstances. New boyfriend is a super gentle pushover, who never pressures her into anything she doesn’t practically beg for. She’s missing the excitement of her old boyfriend, the thrill of it. What- her intense desire for the old boyfriend, as well as the guilt that goes along with it, manifests in either a ghost, or a psychological issue where she bruises herself.


I Found a Shining Jewel…

Posted: May 11, 2010 in Creativity Workshop, planning
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Okay, you guys are awesome!

Had a crappy day yesterday. Vented. And got back a wealth of constructive and comforting responses. I just wanted to drop a quick thanks.

So last night I did as I had planned, and took the night off. Watched a movie, finished Shiver, drank two (!) martinis. It was a nice night, I’ll tell ya. Very indulgent.

Then today after work, since I only work until about noon on Tuesdays, I took a nice long hike. Longer than I had anticipated, actually, because I ended up getting lost about three quarters of the way through. No matter, I made it back to my car without being raped OR murdered, so I consider it a win. I know my legs are going to complain tomorrow, but such are the wages of directional sin.

Here’s what I found out: The whole going for a long walk thing? Priceless.

As I was wandering through the undeniably fantastic beauty of the Pacific Northwest in Spring, enjoying the smells and the solitude and the buzz of the bees (which I’m glad were in relative abundance) I stumbled across something beautiful.

My first scene.

Story the first has officially been started, and I’m raring to go. I do have a busy week, with a craft night on Thursday, a romantic dinner on Friday and an all day social/potluck/gathering on Saturday, but I will triumph! Even if it means locking myself in the garage at the social and banging out the last words.

Then rewarding myself with dessert!

NPI Word Count Update

Posted: March 1, 2010 in novel push initiative
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Hello!

On this, the first day of the Novel Push Initiative, I wrote a gran total of 287 words. Long day at work means low productivity. But at least I produced something!

Huzzah!

Go check out the other slam dunk babes and heroes joining in this year’s NPI, at the link above.

NPR and NPI- Tiny words.

Posted: March 1, 2010 in writing
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I let a small opportunity slip through my fingers yesterday. I have mixed feelings about it.

On Valentine’s Day, National Public Radio announced their third annual Three Minute Fiction contest. Simple concept, really. Write a piece of fiction that can be read in three minutes or less. It seems like a cool idea, and well formatted for radio broadcast, where anything longer than three minutes is either a talk show or a classical music piece.

Basically, three minutes computes to about 600 words, according to their rules. Yesterday was the last day entries were being accepted, up until midnight. This gave all serious literary types two weeks to puzzle out a 600 word masterpiece, and shoot it off to NPR.

Now, I don’t listen to NPR. I have a lot of reasons for this, including the fact that listening to the news tends to make me angry. cranky and depressed; and I prefer listening to audio books when I’m in the car. I’m not the kind of person who needs noise filling up my space while at home, either, so it’s never left on a radio around my abode. I lived with someone once who did that.

I like silence.

My lack of listening to NPR meant that I had no idea this contest even existed until Friday, when a well-meaning client came in and told me she’d thought of me when she heard the broadcast about it. Aw, sweet, right? Yeah, it’s the thought that counts.

For this particular ’round’ of the contest, NPR decided to employ a visual prompt for its aspiring writers.

Oh! I thought, as soon as I saw the photo. That…might be…interesting…

And then my brain died.

Because, really? I think that is one of the least stimulating photographs I have ever seen. It looks like a weekly rag, left on a table by someone so bored by the content they didn’t even get to the end, in a nondescript coffee shop, in a nondescript city.

Still, I tried.

First, I started a story about a man who goes into the coffee shop, starts reading the paper, and finds an ad for a prostitute service with his daughter’s phone number on it.

Gag. I don’t want to write about that.

Then I started a story about a man who finds a memorial picture of himself in the paper, and meets Death, or maybe Satan. It felt like slogging through ankle-deep wet newspaper trying to write that, so I never got far enough to find out who the old man really was.

At that point I changed screens to work on my novel, swearing to myself I would get back to it on Sunday.

Which, obviously, I never did. I took a long walk, instead, and planned out three weeks worth of meals.

Much more satisfying.

On another note- This month starts the Novel Push Initiative, hosted this year by Nick Enlowe. A month-long challenge to get your manuscript out of a drawer and into your thoughts. Plus writing! 250+ words per day.

This is a great challenge for me, because, while I can easily pound out over 1,000 words on my off days, I have trouble getting anything written on the days I have full shifts. It always makes me feel really fulfilled when I get off my butt and DO it, though.

There are grace days, which you can earn by writing more than a thousand words on any given day, but I am going to make it a goal not to use any such laxness.

Every.

Single.

Day.

Like a pro.

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