Month: June 2017

Today’s Theme Music

This song began streaming into my thoughts yesterday afternoon. It’s a a song about struggling with yourself as you struggle through a situation. I like the singer’s voice and style, which strikes me as projecting authenticity and vulnerability while being strong.

Here is “I Try,” by Macy Gray, from two thousand.

0

Turkfloofle

Turfloofle (Definition): A cat who gains weight and starts resembling a turkey.

In Use: “Although black, with a wondrous white ruff and white mittens, Tucker resembled a large turkfloofle being prepared for Thanksgiving when he crouched down.”

 

2

The Net Results

The phone voice has always fascinated me. It’s like we have a different personality when we’re answering the phone. The ability to switch was impressive.

Are you familiar with this? I first noticed it when I was a child. We shrieking, arguing, playing, fighting children would be running amok around the house, and Mom would lose it. A stream of orders, admonitions and angers would be launched, stopping us dead. In the midst of her tirade, the phone would ring, and she would answer it with such a sweet, polite voice, it was amazing.

That’s back when we didn’t know who was calling. She was also answering a phone hard-wired into a system and affixed to a wall. Cherry red, this wall phone featured a thirty-foot coiled cord. At first, that phone had a rotary dial. Push buttons — they were always gray — eventually replaced the dial, and then the Princess replaced that big, clunky phone, and the Princess succumbed to the smaller, neater Trimline.

But the coiled cords stayed long for many years. That long cord enabled wandering around while on the phone. If you could also master the neck hold, you could practice hands-free calling. The neck hold meant the phone was wedged between a shoulder and ear with the mouthpiece angled toward the mouth. Mom was able to do this so frequently and consistently, I was amazed that her shoulder returned to its normal position after she hung up.

These things have changed. Hands-free means you’re not using your shoulder. Speakers and headsets are available. The phone voice isn’t gone, but tailored specifically to who is calling. Caller identification and ring tones dictates the phone voice tone. One young friend says that when her Mom calls, she always answers with a flat, weary, “What is it, Mom?” This is because Mom is calling with worries, complaints and concerns, and never just to chat. On the flipside, a Mom I know answers the same way with her son, because he’s always calling to ask for money or help.

We did have a caller ID system, and did tailor the phone voice to the situation. When I was younger, we children were excited and honored to enjoy the privilege of answering the phone. Of course, it also meant we didn’t want to give it up, telling our parents, “No, I’m talking,” when we were toddlers just getting the hang of it. As we aged, we became the caller ID system. “Dad,” (or Mom), “it’s work.” Or Aunt Sally or Uncle Doug, or Grandma Barb. “The person taking the call would usually mutter something about, “What do they want?” Accepting the phone, they would turn on the phone voice for that specific caller.

That sweet, ultra polite and professional phone voice still exists at work where customers and clients are calling. In the military, we were required to answer according to which lines were ringing. I was in the Command Post, where phones abounded. Crash lines and hotlines to headquarters were not answered; you just picked them up and listened while scrambling to copy information. For outside calls, we identified the location and function, along with our rank. If it was a non-secure line, that was mentioned, and then we asked them, “May I help you?” For the direct lines to the various directors and commanders and their homes and offices, we only answered with our name and rank.

My, how we’ve trained ourselves. Of course, I use this growth and phone specialization in my writing and try to extrapolate how and what might come about. In the novel of the distant future now in editing, people don’t use phones. They’re on nets, basically a voiceover wireless protocol. Most people have a team net, ship net, corporate net, social net, private net, personal net, system net, family net, and friend net. Many have additional nets. While some of those seem redundant, they’re sliced and diced according to individuals’ preferences.

Various systems of bioware direct the calls, with your personal assistant – who is on their own net – informing you of who’s calling on what net. Virtual presence, virtual intelligence, and virtual personalities provide greater options. Calls can be answered, ignored, or shunted into various automated systems. Virtual personal assistance then often digest the calls’ contents, feeding into memory what needs to be known, remembered, or accomplished.

This is done effortlessly. It’s not unusual for a person to be on multiple nets simultaneously.

All of this thinking about phone voices was triggered by Twitter. The current White House occupant loves his tweets and Twitter. This has inculcated a shadow Twitter nation that responds to his tweets with their tweets. Then the media analyzes the tweets and responses even while reporting their takes and tangles. Even though it’s all in so many characters, there’s a distinct voice to everything written.

Often, though, it really seems like a toddler has gotten hold of the phone, and is yelling at the others, “No, I’m tweeting!” Yet, oddly, my future folks don’t text, or Twitter, because that requires using hands. It makes me wonder, though, what’ll it be like in another twenty-five to fifty years?

Writers, what do you see in the future?

2

Minifloof

Minifloof (Definition): a cat that is the striking image of a larger breed of animal.

In Use: “Although weighing about ten pounds, Papi often looks like a majestic lion eyeing the plains as he sits on the backyard hillock.”

0

Today’s Theme Song

Accumulating steps and miles for my Fitbit in Ashland’s downtown yesterday, I heard a busker belting out an acoustic version of “Simple Man.” Remembering it from my high school years, I started singing along to myself. Lynyrd Skynyrd was part of the rising southern rock movement in the seventies, along with ZZ Top, the Charlie Daniels Band, and the Marshall Tucker Band.

The song, with its clear vocals and power guitars, reminded me of those years and a simpler period of life when my main concerns were getting gas money and passing tests in school. When the song stopped abruptly yesterday, I hunted the busker down in an unused business entrance on Main Street where he was changing a guitar string. We chatted a bit and I donated a few bucks to his cause.

The song, of course, hijacked my mental stream and stayed, so I pass it on to you. Here’s Lynyrd Skynyrd with “Simple Man,” from their first album in nineteen seventy-three.

2

Editing Fatigue

I don’t have the statistics on this, so I don’t know what the hell I’m writing about. What’s new? many ask. Yeah, thanks.

I believe I have a case of editing fatigue. I’m experiencing these symptoms:

  • General malaise
  • Boredom with my novel
  • A lack of will to keep editing
  • The urge to write something else

My first anxiety upon experiencing that today was that I’d written a boring book. The book could be boring, no doubt. But I believe I suffer more from almost continuous exposure for almost a year. Such exposure can cause malaise and boredom. Even people seeing naked people for a year can become bored with them, if they’re the same naked people.*

I believe that two hundred pages into the editing and revising process has inured me to the novel’s charms. When I began editing, I was excited about it. First, hurrah, a first draft was finished! Second, I saw editing as a chance to shape raw material. Still true, these points, but the chapters I’m editing and revising have been subjected to editing, revising and polishing for several months. That’s part of my process. Naturally, those sections that are older have gone through the process more often.

What do I do about it?

Which is more important, to know and acknowledge a problem, or to do something about it? I assign equality to them. Being blind to the problem, I can’t fix it. If I don’t fix it, the problem will continue.

Of course, in this sense, I don’t see it as a problem to be ‘fixed’ as it is more something that must be endured. Putting it into the context of my life, I have a demonstrated tendency to go through these periods. It helps to know myself.

Knowing myself helps me understand that this is temporary and that I’m not as doomed as the Titanic. It helps me regain balance and momentum, and address the issue from emotional, intellectual and physical aspects.

So the first thing to do….

  • Have some coffee
  • Sit
  • Think
  • Read
  • Write

Being who I am and old enough to understand with some degree of reliability in this matter, I had a cup of coffee, sat down, and thought about what I was thinking. Knowing that I can be trapped in my own thoughts and victimize myself by making it seem worse than it is, I researched the subject, looking for confirmation that I’m not alone, and that I’m not the first to endure this. I also read about what others did to cope with it, looking for anything new and different that might help me.

I don’t specifically find articles on editing fatigue, but on writing fatigue. To broaden thoughts about all this, I read about medical fatigue and material fatigue. It’s striking to me that it’s actually more like material fatigue that I experience. Expanding my thinking, I hunt for articles on burn out.

And then, because I am me, I write about it to help me explore and understand what I think about it.

Others’ Suggestions

Others experiencing this commonly suggest, “Take a break.” Yes, that seems like a logical and natural reaction. That’s what I want to do. But again, being me, I have that whole absurd guilt about taking breaks. Taking a break seems like a violation of the Writing Code — Thou shall write, edit, revise and work continuously until the blooding thing is done, or the Writing Gods shall curse your book — so I struggle with it.

I’m afflicted by this in everything I do. Once I start a project, I want to go until a ceasefire is declared, and I’m given permission to stop. But again, logically and emotionally, through experience, I know that taking a break is beneficial. The benefits include renewed energy and dedication, and often even new insights into what’s going on with myself and the process I’m engaging.

Reading about occupational burn-out provides me more powerful understanding of what I’m enduring. I’d suspected that some of the problems with the editing and revising process versus the creative writing process is that I’m addicted to creative writing. Creative writing engages me in multiple ways, and is rewarding. I can create and enjoy the results.

Editing and revising is more about improving existing material. While I can enjoy the results, there are often pages with few or no changes. No changes, no work engagement, no satisfaction with a job well done.

Is that your final answer?

My final answer is that I will take one or two days off from editing and revising, and instead address other areas of the novel to be, and also take the time to address other languishing areas in my writing career.

I’m not worried about setting a specific amount of time. I know that I’ll return to it. Just giving myself permission to take a break, I feel relief, and can feel my internal stores begin to replenish. I’ll go read for pleasure; as a writer, reading stimulates my writing inclination. I just need to ensure I channel my energy into editing and revising the current N.I.P. and not allow myself to wander into a new project.

So what about you?

Hey writers, do you feel any of these symptoms? How do you cope?

I really want to know.

 

*Regarding looking at naked people. I’m sure there are some who can gaze upon naked others without break and remain eager for it every minute, hour and day, ad nauseam. I also suspect that the subject of such watching might affect results, along with the age of the naked watcher.

So, your results may vary.

9

Today’s Theme Music

Today’s music constitutes sober reminders of how we affect others, and how deeply others can be hurting, and not fully display it.

“Jeremy,” by Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam, was about a high school sophomore, Jeremy, who committed suicide by putting a gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger in front of his class one day. They based the song on the short newspaper article telling about it.

The video progresses from slower, more abstract ideas about the news, the world, and Jeremy, until Jeremy is shown as the only person in motion as he shouts at others. Meanwhile, Pearl Jam’s music is rising in volume and intensity, until the climax.

Not a fun fact, and a disheartening reminder. But sometimes, reminders are required.

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑