In the Absence of Something Substantial: Sucker Lunch

Okay, so the title means nothing much at all. Sort of a play on words. But it's not completely irrelevant towards my novel. Maybe I'll talk more about why it's important later. And by later, i mean some other day that's not today.

First things first...i went running today. What does this have to do with all of what i'm talking about? Well, more on that tomorrow. I ran what I believe (i'd have to double-check) to be my best time on my normal 4-ish mile run (technically, it's a little short of 4). felt good. felt really good. It has been about a week since i went running, and I was itching to get out there. I lengthened my stride and it felt really smooth and natural. I've got a month to be ready for my next half, and tonight was a very encouraging run. More on why running is important tomorrow. i think i already said that.

But today is about why this blog is important.

I only wrote anothe 170-ish words (as recorded by Open Office) today, and that's not including this blog. it's a slow start; i haven't even written one full page of my novel yet. But for 2 days in a row i've added to it. you have to start somewhere, and this blog is practice.

I'm one of the best writers you know. believe it, and i'll go into more details about that someblog soon, but I'm out of practice. WAY out of practice. I don't write nearly as often. And this is where the blog comes into practice.

i'm training myself. I'm sitting in front of the keyboard and excersizing my brain. Writing, like anything else, is a learned skill. Certainly natural skill has it's advantages, but spending a little bit of time in the woodshed working on your chops is good for everyone. Why am I blogging this? Well, i'm training my brain to communicate it's thoughts clearly through my fingers. After i've been writing regularly for awhile, it could be that I don't blog much. I won't need it, then, because my brain will be in practice.

In the meantime, I'll sit here and ensure that I'm still working on it.

3 days down. I almost didn't do tonight. i'm glad I did. That's what it takes. I may not write tomorrow. Fridays will be a potential day off. My goal is 30-60 minutes a day, 5 days a week. At least to start. I've got a half marathon to train for on top of that (which will take another hour or so per day, 5 days a week) plus the rest of my life to live. Deal.

Anyways....activities for today...

Writing 170 words on my novel
Further on-line research about 1930's Kansas City, including bookmarking some good websites
Ordering Blue Monday, a historical novel by Harper Barnes concerning prominent Kaycee jazz musicians
Gather together the notes I've scribbled about the novel from my scrap notebooks
Investigate purchasing a saxophone

Music of the Day