Eat more of what you are

"If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that." -Stephen King

      Today's idea piggybacks on the same kind of idea I shared last time, just from the other side of the beach. I have to admit, digesting the quote is one thing, but to have the great Steven King's words staring at me while I write this really makes me feel like I should be in a  book right now. It's seriously a fight for me not to run away from this computer and get into one of the lonely and waiting books on my shelf. Only the equally strong forces of wine and Sims 3 keep me right where I am.
      When I first heard this quote, I was listening to Wil Wheaton's podcast and driving another early morning, into another 10 hour day, of another 50 hour work week. As much truth as I found and find in it, as much I wanted to act on the idea that reading more will make me a better writer, I couldn't. All I could do is eat it and let the inspirational particles float around my stomach until I felt so bloated with the day's other crap, it naturally passed out of my system. I know I need to read more if I want to be a better writer, but fuck me is it hard.
      Look at everything you love to do or want to do and consider how much time you already spend in that world as a consumer. A perfect example for me is podcasting; Teresa and I listen the shit out of some podcasts. As consumers, we can both critique and enjoy as we consume, which is as close to multitasking that anyone can get these days. Even the most terrible podcasts have the potential to inspire us to actually want to meet up and continue to create our own art. Wil would say "to create a thing where there was no thing before."
      Reading is the sharpening stone to the graphite of your mental pencil. Take the idea in context of the world we live in. Even those who hate to read are likely reading Facebook updates or other news stories all day long. So what do you really hate about reading if you're voluntarily doing it all day anyway? Putting in the time, attention, and focus that the longer reading adventures demand of you? We may not always have as much time as we want to do everything the way that everyone else says things should be done... but we can always find the time to use the ideas of others to inspire us on how to be more effective users of our own time.

New Muses

            In the business of writing, there is a saying that may or may not exist that I may or may not have just made up.

“Some writers write when they can, other writers write when they can’t.”

Reading this might give the initial impression that I or the proverbial “they” think that writers make time to write even when they have none.  The actual meaning is that writers are writing even when no ink hits the page or letters funnel into the word processor. 

            A great friend came to visit over this past weekend and it was nothing short of awesome.  Much needed vacation time was had by me, great conversation was experienced by us, and inspiration was aboundly all aroundly.  Never mind that I wasn’t able to write a single page of anything, I may not have written anything if he hadn’t been here.  The only thing I know for sure is that without him, I wouldn’t have gotten the ideas and inspiration that I’m now planning out in my head.

            One of the biggest challenges in undertaking large novel and novel-like projects is in fighting the urge to become a shut-in.  Sure, being alone in the basement may provide much needed time and space for writing the thoughts plotting about in your brain, but it does little in terms of raw inspiration.  Could I write something without the raw inspiration?  Of course, but it wouldn’t be nearly as interesting as this one will be.

            Bob issued me a single challenge, to write in a style that I have not attempted before.  Challenge accepted.  It’s going to be exciting, it’s going to be new.  Yes, I’m going to finish telling my personal Starchildren story, but as Bob would say, shit’s about to get real.

Capstone

      A weekend full up with reflection over last week's "Experiment" did not yield much additional information that would be considered interesting. What do we know? We know that focusing on the emition of positive energy did appear to effect my surroundings for the better. We know that the ability to emite positive energy was highly dependant on how tired I was and whether or not I was having a 1D, 2D, or 3D interaction with people. And lastly, we know that more than anything else, when I focus on the release of positive energy, it causes me to receive the input from others as less aggressive and pointless as I so often inadvertantly do.
      From the outside, it's easy to say that this is all information that is known and any such infintile testing is little more than pointless. Today's world makes it easy to approach all testing and experimentation as a waste of time and energy. We justify not putting time into one trash can so that we can go back to putting it into the trash cans that we're used to, the trash cans within our comfort zones. 
      If I don't run mental experiements with myself now, and do other exercises of this nature, later on in life will find me wondering why I didn't and why I don't understand myself better. The comical part of the question I'll undoubtedly ask myself is that I won't even consider the idea that I discarded the prospectous as "Pointless." All I will be able to remember is that I did not spend time getting to know myself, and at the end of all things, I will not be ready to die. 

and Fail

      If yesterday were a checkbox it would have two bold diagonally crisscrossing lines drawn through it. Back at work and around people did not find me able to pulse the inner light of my being as I had so easily Monday. Each night this week has found me more exhausted and unable to complete the goal as intended. With that being said, I do think it is an interesting way to start an experiment. Live the days as you normally would, but keep the mental code of a goal running in the background as often as you can. Just see what happens, see how it affects you.

      Thursday did bring with it a log of successes that are worth noting. Brianna and I disassembled the dishwasher and fridge without arguing even a single time. Noteworthy because we generally fight when house projects get the better of us for extended periods of time. I don't know if the positive vibs had anything to do with the not fighting, but I was more confident and she didn't randomly put us down for being mechanically retarded like she normally would.

      There was also a point in the day where a new hypothesis was formed. I'm not comfortable saying that other people are dramatically affected by my release of positive energy, but I am more than comfortable saying that how I react to other people is dramatically affected by my release of positive energy. When releasing positivity, I don't view questions as accusations and I find myself more open outside input. This of course means that I treat people better, they feel treated better, they respond better, and the world is almost always better for it. We can dig into this more in a weekend Synop(assuming I get around to writing one).

Working from home

      Foolish was I to think that working from home would make the positive energy experiment easier than when at work. All of the time spent alone made it much easier to lose myself and the context of which for myself to be held... by me. 
     One dimensional communication, such as IM and EM, are easy tools of negativity if you're not careful. Not only cannot we not feel the grounding energy of others, but we are also removed from the ability of seeing how our typed words have affected their energy. One would have to use exclaimation points like surgeons tools if she or he wanted to even fake a 1D conversation into a 2.
      At the end of the day, this is getting harder. I would even say that there were definite points of failure while at home last night with Brianna. Failures that were my own, caused by creeping thoughts of little consequence or reason. 

Tuesday Too

      As it turns out, a second day of pushing positive energy out and into the universe was more challenging. I was able to stay aware of the goal and keep it going, but I did find myself taking several moments to breath as the day got later and later. It's not enough to just push the energy out from the core. Your responses, your tone, and even your body language have to be spoken brightly, a shower of colorful light.

      From what I can see, or at least from what I perceive, it is appearing to help keep my co-workers in generally good moods as well. It's not an exageration to say that over half of my team spends a majority of their days putting out a negative energy. One of the more difficult pieces of the puzzle is that when my co-workers do put out negative energy, as every normal person in the world does, it absorbs into me rather than reflects. If there was a reflection, I'd have a sort of shield against the drulls of everyday life. Absorption means that the bad energy of the world adds into my own until such time that it disperses back to whereever such things disperse out to.

      Yes, I realize that these are just graphical representations of what I imagine to be happening. This experiment won't have any actual facts that are not saturated with my own bias and subjective thoughts. Today I'll be working from home, I wish there was a way to measure the vib of the office when I'm not there, grab an imaginary baseline :-).

Projecting Testing

      In light of my whole weekend of writing procrastination, I do have a new project that I'm going to work on.  The idea behind the project will be for me to keep track of whether or not I'm able to project positive energy all day, for how long, on what days, and what might be causing the success and failures to happen.

      With today being Tuesday, I can already say that Monday was a pretty easy success. I projected good energy all day and it was more than easy. It could have been so easy for a number of reasons, a restful week + first day of trying + random variables to many to list. As of this morning, I can already tell that negative thoughts are creeping into my brain more easily. The negative thoughts are mostly spawned by a work related uncontrollable-inevitability that may come to a head this week. 

      Happy Tuesday!

As a Hobby

      The problem with writing as a hobby is that writing is always limited to the same time constraints of other hobbies. Free time in the adult world is often stretched between several different ideas and often all at the same time. Not too long ago, I was one of those many people out there who believes that human-beings can multitask themselves into successful ventures. Countless years of near fruitless ventures have taught me that if you want to do somethings well, you should probably just do them one at a time.
      For the first book, I often found myself locked in the basement of a mancave that I call my creative space. Hours would go by with myself and my computer, working plot point to plot point with little else on my mind. Truthfully, I did have the tv on… but it was always one of the tv shows or movies that I’ve seen so many times that I can recite the lines at will. Why have anything on at all? One might ask. Because some movies(Inception) and tv shows(Stargate Universe) can serve the same purpose as a scented candle or low volumed classical music. We all have our inspirations, we just have to be careful that they aren’t distractions as well!
      Another thing about writing as a hobby is that it’s one of those things most people don’t really understand. A lot of people write, but not many of the people I know are actually writing with a purpose. So when I say that I want to spend the day writing, it can come off as more of an excuse than a goal-oriented project. Sitting in the basement writing is not a day of nothing, it’s a day of catching up! Seriously, it’s like a wood working project or rebuilding an engine, it just doesn’t get that same kind of respect.  This may be why “Write a novel” is one of the many unfinished bucket list goals for so many people.  Everyone knows that anyone can do it, so why extend the support people need in order for them to get it done properly.
      I made a huge sacrifice in choosing to grammatically illustrate my first book with the plot points and character references I did. After it was published, I wanted nothing better than to stand on the roof tops and scream out to the world that it was done and that I had done it! Instead, locked myself in a room with a few of my closest friends and yelled as loudly as was socially responsible. Someday I’ll have a book that can be screamed, but this way is actually pretty cool too.