July 2021

July's post is going to be about procrastination, and guess how I started it.

I watched a music video. 

Was it worth it? Yeah, but that's not the point. The point was that I was going to start writing a blog post about July and procrastination, and I followed this link earlier from an email. It was sitting in an open tab unwatched, and I noticed it... and watched it. 

You can distract yourself and watch it here  https://lrain.bandcamp.com/track/blame-me 

Sometimes I sit down to write, and my brain reminds itself of a thing it saw earlier in the day. Maybe it was something slightly interesting, most of the time, it was something stupid. Doesn't matter though, a distraction is a distraction. 

When I'm supposed to be writing, I end up reading about publishing or looking up editing tips, or I'll look for information about the story I planned to work on. Those are good distractions sometimes. (When I say 'supposed to be writing,' I just mean that I had set aside time to sit down and write something. I hold myself accountable to do it.) 

Research for a story is always good as long as I don't get pulled down a rabbit hole only to get distracted and end up off the research track listening to a new band. Looking up tips on publishing or editing is always an easy procrastination go-to because it helps long term, I try to convince myself. 

Writing this blog is me putting off working on a story where I wrote myself into a corner. And rather than do the work to figure out how to get through it, I started this blog. 

And while writing the initial 279 words, I have watched two videos, debated buying an album, and took the time to stop writing and see how many words I had written. 

It's a wonder I am able to write any stories at all, but I do. I write stories all the time and occasionally finish them. It's never a lot of words. I have been able to jump back into a story after just writing a few hundred words. I have figured out that I can write stories in the smallest of bits. Tiny little text blocks that remain fairly coherent and are able to tell a story. Same for editing, but I tend to procrastinate more when editing. 

I don't think I'm going to fix this procrastination thing. I think it's part of the process I like. I write when I am able, and I let my mind wander a bit when it needs to wander. I try not to obsess about any one thing and try not to stay on any topic for too long. 

And then, in July, I read a lot. I finished the Patrick Rothfuss Kingkiller Chronicles, and now I am waiting like the rest of the people who read the books earlier for the final one to be published. I guess he's written it, but he's perfecting it. I understand writing is hard, but sharing is harder. I imagine it's even harder when you have a few loved books leading up to it. I cut George R.R. Martin some slack as well. 

I'm currently reading Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, and the first half has been great. Its point of view is from a companion robot.

I am working on a ghost story. That's the one I should be working on as I type up this blog post. I like where it's going, and the final battle will be fun to write, but I have to get there and write it. 

And I just distracted myself again but going online and looking up information about Klara and the Sun. 

And I finished this blog on a completely different day. 

That's it for July.

Thanks for reading,

Here's a photo of some mushrooms growing by a bike rack on the college campus (Photo by Jennifer Gammon)