Wayside

A text message from an old friend* today has prompted this, in that she has started a new blog, for which any of my readers who enjoy listening to anecdotes possibly containing tea / baked sweetstuffs** should most definitely wend their way. I’m not going to paraphrase its contents any further than that and instead let it speak for itself.

Nevertheless, I am always interested when people restart things, most usually because I find myself doing the same far too often. There are loads of things I enjoy that for whatever reason, I have stopped doing as often as I should. Towards the end of a period of letting things fall to the wayside, I tend to find a build-up of tension and a desire to do any of these things (currently: running, fiction writing and blogging). I feel that I really should do this again, and feel bad for not doing the same.

Although often I just don’t do it.

I’m not entirely sure why, and I don’t necessarily even want to dig too deeply to find out. Talking about the waysided projects seems to have an interesting effect in both releasing the tension but simultaneously deepening it. It’s like scratching an itch.

But there are times when you need to just do it. I can’t tell if I will do so now or not, and really even this is just a case of scratching in itself, unless it is symptomatic of the end of the current dearth.

Life’s been a bit rocky recently, with lots of changes and not a little amount of stress. Added to that, it’s getting towards the end of Year Eleven’s education, which brings with it its own additional pains. I don’t know if I’m necessarily using this as an excuse, because it’s not like I’m actually too busy to do anything. Just lacking in motivation. (Actually, it’s something I can see in a number of my elevens at the moment…) What I do know is that there’s a well of tension within me at the moment that reaches up and bubbles over every now and then, and that I don’t know how to syphon it off is frustrating. I don’t know if these creative and physical projects will do that, or if there’s nothing tangible that I can do. I’ve had similar upwellings before, but this one doesn’t seem to be swayed by Hammerfall.

…

* She’s not that old, especially considering that I’m older.

** Whilst no nuts are included in the recipe, cannot guarantee nut free.

 

Intermittence

As I write this, I am seated on a train headed to Canterbury, for the first time in a long time, to see an old friend, and am sad that tablespace on trains is now so lacking to be inexistent.

Earlier in the week, my ratings went up, and stayed up, rather well. Much of this I attribute to the regularity of posting so that new material reared itself* almost every day.

My good friend and fellow academic Byrnsweord tells of similar success when the situation is the same.** Indeed, the sheer wealth of Post-a-Day and Post-a-Week attempts suggest that the lifeblood on the intertubes is fresh content. New replaces and succeeds old.

I decided explicitly to not attempt to post every day (like my other*** friend Laura did). I think I would find the regiment stifling. While I ascribe to Mark Rosewater‘s belief that restriction breeds creativity, I don’t think this manner of enforcing sets me up in the right mood. I once tried a weekly blog, and failed by the third.

So, how do I counteract this entropy? Regarding the blog, I tend to self-propel now. I’ll find myself pre-blogging in my head, and not being able to shake it until the words are out. Regarding fiction-writing, I have a guideline that if I didn’t write yesterday, I must today.

I didn’t yesterday.

…

* I am aware that writing of it in this way suggests it should be self-propagating.

** Ooh, assonance.

*** I have three.