Coffee in hand, he was ready to write like crazy one more time. That initial moment when he was about to begin to write was the best for him. The session could be great or mediocre. (Is there such a thing as a horrible writing session?) In that way, his sessions were something out of Schrödinger’s thinking: it might be good, it might be bad. Its dual state existed until the session was done.
Execflooftive
Execflooftive (floofinition) – Animal is who part of management or shares in the decision-making process.”
In use: “Quite often, people will include their pets in their decision making, asking the animals, ‘What do you think I should do’, for example. But that often leads to the animals assuming they have execflooftive privileges to eat what they want, sleep wherever desired, and do whatever impulse seizes them.”
Becoming you – how to develop confidence as a writer
Writing a novel is always a separate and personal journey. I’m getting better at recognizing what’s successful for me. This article captures the essence of the drift and bounce experienced while riding the writing currents.
On a recent episode of Litopia’s Pop-Up Submissions, we intended to talk about writer confidence, then the show went in another direction. But it’s worth a proper discussion.
Litopia founder Peter Cox, who is also a literary agent, told me confidence is a major issue for his members. ‘Either it never gets a chance to develop, or gets fatally knocked by so much conflicting advice (thank you, internet). But without a sense of self-confidence, I don’t believe a writer can develop their own true voice.’
Voice
First, let’s define voice. It’s what makes you unmistakably you. Your style. Your thematic signature. The distinctive hue of your world. As Peter says, this comes from confidence.
Here’s my take.
I remember when I wasn’t secure about my voice and other distinctive whatnots. I regularly rebooted myself, to be like the authors I was reading, or to act on feedback from critique groups…
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Monday’s Theme Music
Monday muscled into the morning, declaring, “Ready or not, I am here.”
It’s October 17, 2022. Half of October has fled under the bridge and over the horizon of the past. But they tell us the past doesn’t really exist once it’s done; really, all the previous days have evaporated, except for what we hold in our minds.
After reaching 95 F yesterday, half a dozen degrees higher than prepared for, today will drop into the upper seventies, maybe striking 80 (26 C). It’s a clear enough sky for it. Nothing but blue from my vantage. Trees have at last begun shifting colors here. Local leaves are mostly going gold or yellow.
Monday’s sunrise tiptoed in at 7:26 this morning like it had a hangover. Sunset will come at 6:26 this evening, just eleven hours later. Next Sunday, we ‘fall back’ in most of the U.S., resetting our clocks to be an hour later, part of a hugely debated bi-annual ritual adopted as law last century.
The Neurons were spying on me this morning. No surprise, right? The tiny peckerheads often do. Going about the usuals needed to void my body and begin to re-assume form and manners for being among humans, I found myself examining a memory about meeting a man. After carefully checking it to see where it came from, I realized it was from a dream – ‘we’d met each other in a dream.’ Case closed, I decided, but the dream was suddenly so vivid.
Well, The Neurons heard ‘we’d me each other in a dream’ and called up Heart and “Magic Man” (1976) for the morning mental music stream. It’s been going over and over in an endless loop, kind of like how phone calls and meetings take place on Monday. Chuckle, chuckle.
So that’s the theme music for this October Monday. Stay positively oriented and negatively tested when it comes to COVID and its variants and the flu. It is definitely coffee time for me. I’m positive about it. Here’s Ann and Nancy and the band with their song. Cheers
Helifloof
Helifloof (floofinition) – An animal, particularly a pet, who pays close attention to another being, often a human.
In use: “The rescued puppy gained energy after a few days of care, showing a curious and playful nature while developing into a helifloof who was there for everything from people’s bathing to their eating and sleeping.”
Sunday’s Wandering Thought
*throat is cleared*
He has a small, really tiny rant today. Websites like to entice him with a headline. While he reads that article, a video plays about the same article. Then, though, another video about a different article begins.
Seriously, WTF? It’s chaotic and annoying. They must think we’re children, running around, high on sugar and caffeine, too buzzy to pay attention.
Sunday’s Theme Music
If you guessed the temperature in my area would be around 60 degrees F, plus or minus one or two, you’ve been paying attention to the recent posts from me. That’s the temperature now. It’s supposed to again reach 89 F. It actually struck 92 F yesterday. I was so surprised seeing that on my home system. With doubt riding high, I checked several net weather stations. All agreed within a degree either direction.
Riding starlight, Sunday sailed in last night after sunset and took up position, greeting everyone as sunrise joined her at 7:24 this morning. Sunrise was polite, a little sedate but gracious, flowing evenly out from across the eastern horizon in a pale gold-white frock with apricot fluting before shapeshifting into daylight. Sunday is expected to stay until midnight. Daylight will only stay until 6:28 PM. I would say that a better union is responsible for the sun’s shorter hours but must hasten to point out that the sun must do this every day, whereas Sunday is on a seven-day rotation.
I suppose the day and month, 16 and October, and year, have the best gigs. 2022 will pull a one-year tour before declining into memory, but then will never need to work again. The sixteenth shows up every month, every year, while October is working twenty-four/seven for thirty-one days straight, but then takes eleven months off. Don’t know which schedule I’d prefer. I mean, imagine the coffee it would take to go back to work after being off for eleven months. I guess that’s exactly what many felt as the pandemic loosened its hold so they could return to work.
Acting upon something they think they heard, the Neurons have ferreted a song out of my dusty memory. “Kickstart My Heart” by Mötley Crüe (1989) was introduced to the morning mental music stream after I thought, I need some coffee to kickstart my brain. Yeah, the heart could use it as well. See if the pulse could find a little more speed. The Neurons thought that the perfect theme music. I told them that they need to quit being so literal.
Anyway, here’s that music. Keep up a positive charge, and do the things needed to have a negative test result, and then, if that fails you, do the tasks needed to get better quickly and fully. Like bedrest and fluids, and whatever else. You know what I’m talking about. (Funny but The Neurons immediately pulled in that line from ZZ Top and “La Grange”. Those cheeky brain boogerheads.)
Seriously, I’m stepping out for coffee now. Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 