writing practice

Writing practice. That’s what it’s all about. Me practicing this craft that I feel so passionate about. The past few nights I have shied away from it. I have let other things distract me to the point that I did nothing but play video and computer games and chat on AIM. Anything to avoid the practice of writing.

Yesterday morning at Starbucks I really got into it. I was so quiet in my corner for so long that one of the Barista’s came over and asked me if everything was all right. Maybe the silence with which I sat there, methodically writing in my spiral notebook was a cause for alarm from some of the other patrons. I have no idea. I had the store tuned out and my focus was on my notebook. I wrote for the better part of an hour.

Lately I had been shying away from writing in a notebook in favor of typing away on a computer keyboard (laptop or desktop). I felt like writing things out longhand was too slow for the way my mind moved. I’ve said before that my mind moves at one hundred miles per hour. Sometimes I am three thoughts away by the time my pen catches up to what it is I am trying to say. Yesterday it was different.

Yesterday I applied some of the principals I’ve been reading in the Natalie Goldberg book “Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life”. I am learning to tune out everything that is going on around me and find that place within me where my voice resides, where my thoughts are waiting to spring forth. There is so much that I want to share about what I am learning in this book but I am waiting until I am entirely finished with it before I begin trying to explain it to other people. I feel good about the things that I am learning though, and more confident in my ability to write.

So yesterday I sat in Starbucks and I didn’t let my internal editor take over. I just wrote what I felt. It was the most amazing feeling in the world. I felt like I was in control of what I was writing for once. I needed that. I was beginning to lose confidence in my ability to write and get down to the “meat” of what it is I am trying to say.

I am going to keep at it. I have set that time in the morning aside so that I can go into Starbucks each day have a cup of coffee and sit in my corner and write. Natalie says that you should schedule time for yourself to write. That is what my latest accomplishment is. I find the mornings to be easiest and better because by the time I get home I am distracted by so many things it’s unreal. When I do it first thing in the morning before I go to work, I have time to unwind from the commute. I have time to let my brain relax and say what it wants to say. It feels wonderful.

So Jason, when you asked me why I was in such a super mood, I suppose this is part of the reason. I am making breakthroughs in my writing.

And now for a bit of laziness. I am going to be moving the site over to Movable Type v2.0. It says that I have to export my entries in order to do so. Bleh. I’m lazy and I haven’t quite figured that part out yet which is why all the old HK stuff did not make it onto this site. The entries that are here that I consider to be exceptionally good I will probably add to the new list manually. Then again maybe I won’t. Depends on how lazy I feel. Anyone want to do it for me?

Also, the Lakers lost to the Spurs. DAMMIT.

And now I must go get ready for work. On my new company issued cellular phone you can send me text messages through email. I wonder if I should add that link to the site?

Yes, company issued. Unlimited calling of both local and long distance numbers and no cell phone bill. Unlimited text messaging. Plus we have the cool Nextel phones which have two-way radio so I can call my friends from work up on the radio/walkie talkie instead of dialing their number. Don’t hate.