Wednesday, March 3 🤓

Alright let's do this...

Ward C

Look at me

I dare you

I dare you not

Tell me what do you see

Be honest

Or feed me sweet lies

I gaze unto this mirror, which

I hit my head against

Smashed

Into shards

Now

Reflection in my mirror

Look at me

I dare you

I dare you not

This darkened soul

Sadness smothered

Madness

Drugs

And poison

Vengeance

Bloodstained

Desires

Forbidden lust

Guilt

Heavy as my chains, and

Their rust

Now

Look at meeeeee

It's ward C

The criminally insane

Victimizing

Tormenting

Empathy

Redemption

Your way out is simple

Life in this lonely dungeon

Then

A clean white silk coffin

The spider's web

Of rotten and forgotten

Caught a zombie head

In this abyss of mundane

1103 words today. :) Spring was definitely in the air today - hope it sticks around! I always think of fall as new beginnings - maybe because of a new school year but really any time can be inspiring. Certainly looking forward to hanging out on the balcony writing and reading come summer. Yes!

I can definitely see a connection between my creativity and the seasons. And by seasons I don't just refer to the 4 seasons but also seasons within ourselves that are affected by the Moon and our own cycles, especially when you're a female.

Having gotten to know my own cycles, I notice certain time of the month gets my creative juices flowing. And then there's the slower weeks when my body feels like hiding away and resting, and I have no desire to create anything.

In hindsight, I can see that I am way more creative with my hands during the summer. I make fiber art so the warm early mornings and late evenings of the summer definitely invite me to knot more than the cold winters. I am currently going through a draught in my fiber art. But on the other hand I find I am more drawn to writing in this season. Now, that's something I will definitely keep an eye on as my writing practice evolves and develops. It would be intersting to see how the seasons affect my desire to write.

I am so new to my creative practice that I’m not quite sure how to answer this question.  Dedication of time to creative work began for me this past fall.  Therefore, I don’t yet have a sense of how my work may vary with the seasons.  

Raised with an appreciation for the natural world and trained as a scientist, I often find inspiration in nature when it’s abuzz with activity - emergence, growth, death, decay, transformation - concepts that provide a bridge to my philosophical brain.  I also know that the winter months can make me feel like a bear seeking out a cozy place to hibernate.  Sleepy, foggy-brained, and slow all come to mind.  Therefore, my inclination is that my creative work will flourish in the warmer months and go dormant in the colder ones.

Contrary to that, my studies tell me otherwise.  Winter is a time for slowing down, reflection, and looking within, which leads me to believe my writing should flow more abundantly during my hibernation.  And in the warmer months, my energy will be higher leading me to be more physically active and distracted from creative work.  

But, who’s to say?  Must our patterns follow the norm?  Perhaps I fall outside of the bell curve.

Which will be the case for me?  I can’t wait to find out!

In the meantime, I'm anxious to hear what others have to say.

2027 - Didn't get much padding on the count but I'm putting it down for now. 

I don't think there's a real distinction with the calendar seasons. I keep a year at a glance calendar on the wall next to my desk and mark it up with the things I've done. Most people use them for planning. I use them for accountability. 

For the most part I track two things--my word counts and my daily walks. I have colored Sharpies in red, blue, and green. Green is best. Blue is "you tried." Red is a flag. 

I've been doing this for a few years. I have a stack of these plastic sheets and lay them out on the floor periodically, just to remind myself of how I'm doing over the long haul.

What I've noticed is that my writing "seasons" are less about the calendar and more about my inner life. More about whether I'm doing the support work I need in order to maintain the words. 

If I walk less, I write less. There's a connection that I don't think is coincidental. It's true that I walk less in the heart of winter because of the conditions outside and my unwillingness to get on the treadmill. It's also true that many of those red marks have red marks (or blanks) for writing. The same is true any time I have a period where I'm not walking--even in spring and fall. If I'm not walking, I'm not writing. 

I write less when I read less. When I spend too much time in games and not enough time in books, I tend to let the slow motion conversation of letters lapse into silence. I started re-priming that pump in January. I was ready for the writing challenge in February. 

What I believe is that I have fallow seasons. Periods where I put few words on the page separated by periods where I can maintain a harvest of story. I recognize the pattern as part of my writing practice. There are weeks--sometimes months--where I cook, play games, read. Almost anything except put words on the page. When writing isn't front of mind, there's room for it in the back to slowly recharge on its own.

2020 was a hard year. Most of it was a fallow season for me where I wrote little, published most of the books I had in the pipeline, and generally focused on getting up in the morning. I was successful in getting up in the morning almost every day in 2020. 

I want this year to be different. I still want to get up every morning, but my pipeline is empty. I want to get more books drafted, revised, edited, published because it's fun. It's what I love doing. 

But in the meantime, I'm planning on trying to find a balance that allows me to shorten the fallow seasons and farm the writing seasons more sustainably. 

My goal is 2k a day every day again. That's enough to keep the story flowing and little enough that I'm not emptying the well every day. I know I'll have another fallow season eventually. The mindscape that supports my storytelling will become barren and I'll have to let it rest. Let it refresh. Give myself the break I need to begin to look forward to the next writing season.

For now, it's writing season and, for as long as it lasts, I'll enjoy it. 

Good morning all,

I am a farmer (growing healing plants) During the growing season it is very easy for me to find inspiration for writing on social media. Something new always happens in the garden, in the drying room, or in my kitchen. Its easy to snap a picture and write my thoughts. You would not believe the type of deep philosophical thoughts that go through my mind while doing something very mundane such as weeding.

But it is actually during the winter time when I can not work outside that I write most of my content. The garden here in NH is still covered with snow. I will start seeding in the greenhouse in April but the season really begins in late May, So from November to May I spend three days every week writing content.

What do I write?

I am now finishing a 8 weeks series on holistic treatment for GERD or heartburn.

I am also working on a program for food allergies, inflammation, and autoimmune disease. 

So I write, content, slides, cooking book, shopping list, menu and all kinds of handouts. 

I enjoy writing and creating content that help people. Sometimes it feels too much because I think people's attention span is getting shorter by the minutes.