The native Californian in sunny Oregon was celebrating the New Year by making a potful of hoppin’ john while he watched a team from Oklahoma play a team from Georgia in the Rose Bowl.
Category Archives: procrastination
Writers Horoscope December 31: A familiar question wells up…
Maybe you took Austin Kleon’s 30-Day Challenge. And you nailed it.
And then that question: What’s next?
Consider this thought from Ian Svenonius, Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock ‘n’ Roll Group:
You will never know exactly what you must do, it will never be enough… no matter what change you achieve, you will most likely see no dividend from it. And even after you have achieved greatness, the [tiny number of people] who even noticed will ask, ‘What next?’” **
And so the question: What next?
This is not to dismiss what you might have accomplished in the last month…or year…or decade. Or to evoke dissatisfaction.
Instead, use the question as a prod to pursue new projects, skills, friends.
Or maybe I’m just nudging myself in that direction.
Either way, have an adventurous–and fulfilling–2018.
**got Svenonius quote from a blog post by Austin Kleon
Note: The link for Svenonius’s book is an affiliate link. It doesn’t raise the price on the book, but it will bring me a very small amount of money.
Writers Horoscope December 29: Tethered to your work?
If not, latch on to another tidbit from Joel at LifeHack…
If you’re not on a tight deadline, walk away
and do something completely unrelated.
Like biscotti, for instance.
First of all, more than a few of us are never on a tight deadline. [A common obstacle to productivity, by the way.]
So, when inspiration from pen and keyboard is lacking, well, what is more unrelated than Nonna’s Biscotti?
As I shared with a friend tonight: Writing just doesn’t feed the soul like mixing sugar, flour, and eggs and seeing something concrete [and tasty] emerge, as opposed to something abstract and lifeless [my writing].
Note: My wife’s eyes lit up when I suggested that there was no reason half of these raisin-walnut cookies couldn’t be dipped in chocolate.
Another note: I don’t use almond extract. To put it bluntly, yick. Just seems too fake. I’d just as soon add extra vanilla. Or, as the recipe includes, brandy.
I should be writing. Instead…Cafe Beaujolais Coffee Cake.
Actually, I was writing.
But this was more fun.
Nestled in the northern half of the cake is a cup of chocolate chips for my wife, who would probably drop a few into tuna salad if it didn’t send me summoning a divorce lawyer.
[Ssssshhh, don’t tell her I poured in a little molasses with the buttermilk mixture.]
This has been one of our go-to recipes for close to two decades.
There is nothing more comforting on a December Sunday afternoon than hot coffee with this decadent departure from ‘store-bought’.
Writers Horoscope December 10: Your self-talk continues…
So yesterday’s little chat on paper helped a little.
Time to delve a little further into your inner writer?
You’re welcome to download a PDF version and a Word version.
Writers Horoscope December 9: You have a little talk with yourself [on paper].
Writers Horoscope December 8: Today, you can’t make up your mind.
Who can blame you?
Some folks post content about setting goals, about finishing, establishing habits.
And those same shmucks then post suggestions to break habits, to mix things up. And they glorify those times when they procrastinate on their writing.
Who are these people and why are they allowed to publish this drivel? It has to stop!
Maybe tomorrow.
In the meantime, just to add to the confusion, take a look at what Susie Orman Schnall says in Writer’s Digest about balancing work and life. Pay particular attention to tip #4.
Writers Horoscope December 7: Don’t let your groove become a rut.
Your sacred habits?
Behold the thrill of breaking one.**
Change things up.
Write a letter to the editor.
Write a letter to an editor.
Set the timer for twenty minutes. Race against the clock and generate as many words as you can. [If you need to cheat, list a few topics at the top of the document/sheet of paper, and then set the timer.]
Of course, none of these ideas will send you hurtling through the snow like Truffle here.
Maybe that comes next.
My camera will be ready.
** Those goals you set days ago? They’re not going anywhere. Neither is your discipline.
Writers Horoscope December 6: Today, you aim for a detour.
Every day, you head straight to work.
Why don’t you head straight to play instead?
Maybe–armed with your journal and a favorite writing book–a side trip to a quiet coffee shop?
Not a bad way to start the day–as a writer, not as a colleague working on the Herlihy account.
Writers Horoscope December 5: Excuses, excuses…
Hey, we all need them.
How about…
“I’d be writing but…
- “That chocolate chip skillet cookie just had to be made. And eaten.” [My wife did the baking; I helped her with the eating.]
- “Geeeez, that Hallmark movie’s Nielsen Ratings need me.”
- “Right now, I’m getting more concrete results from cleaning the garage than rewriting that last chapter.”
- “I just have to call my friend back east, even though she hasn’t acknowledged my existence in the last eighteen and a half months.”
Okay, there you go. But you can only use them once. And then it’s back to work.
Tell me your favorites you’ve used [overused?] through the years.
Word Inventions 