Lena Corazon

Flights of Fancy

ROW80: Linky Silliness and Mid-Week Goals

Happy Hump Day, friends! I’m ever-so-slowly transitioning back into the world of the useful and productive, but the ascent is a steady one. For today’s ROW80 check-in, I thought I’d share a few treasures that I’ve run across in the last week or so before getting to my list of progress and goals.

  • First up, Philip Hensher’s fascinating essay on handwriting that was published in UK newspaper, The Guardian. Given my recent commitment to return to writing by hand, at least for free-writing and brainstorming, the essay is a timely one. Hensher explores the role that handwriting has played in society over the generations, muses on its displacement, and suggests some simple ways in which we can reintegrate handwriting into our lives. It’s his closing thought, however, that I find quite striking:

I’ve come to the conclusion that handwriting is good for us. It involves us in a relationship with the written word that is sensuous, immediate and individual. It opens our personality out to the world, and gives us a means of reading other people. It gives pleasure when you communicate with it. No one is ever going to recommend that we surrender the convenience and speed of electronic communications to pen and paper. Though it would make no sense to give up the clarity and authority of print which is available to anyone with a keyboard, to continue to diminish the place of the handwritten in our lives is to diminish, in a small but real way, our humanity.
 

  • Tumblr has become one of my favorite ways of wasting time entertaining myself in between projects. Some of you (especially my teaching friends) might appreciate “Office Hours Are Over,” which basically sums up my day job life. My favorite entry so far? This ah-mah-zing Tyra Banks gif that expresses EVERYTHING I feel about grading papers.
  • And speaking of gifs, please behold the most amazing thing to ever, ever happen to the internet. Excuse me while I go off and squeal in the corner.

Onto the goals…

Day Job: Erm, I mentioned that “slowly” is the operative word this week, right? That is all I can say about day job goals for the moment.

Writing: I’m almost caught up on my #OctPoWriMo goals–just 1 short. I’m also working my way through a couple of craft books–Ensouling Language by Stephen Harrod Buhner and Story Engineering by Larry Brooks. Plotting for my still-untitled NaNoWriMo novel will commence by the weekend, and I will need all the tools and resources I can get my hands on.

However, all of the journaling and brainstorming that I’ve been doing has done wonders for shedding insight on (1) why I write and (2) what I ultimately want to accomplish through my writing. Having a sense of direction has been doing wonders for my inspiration.

Exercise: Managed to walk 3 days this week, for a total of 12.5 miles. Wednesday is my day off, but I’ll resume on Thursday and Friday. I’d like to try integrating a little weight-training, but that might be too ambitious…

Social Media: Still trying to transition into sitting at my desk, in front of the computer, instead of running around and having playtime. There will hopefully be something good to report by Sunday.

Self-Care: I am learning to understand my body’s rhythm, and to accept the fact that I can’t steamroll my way through life without a little downtime.

-oOo-

And that’s my very, very modest progress for the week. 😛 Hope everyone’s doing well!

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15 Comments

  1. I’ve been doing my brainstorming by hand lately. And I find the ideas flow better and free-er(that so didn’t look right) than when I do it on the computer. The actual story will still be written on the computer. I’m too slow of a hand writer to be happy writing the story by hand.

    I’m thinking about adding Story Engineering to my to-read list of craft books if I can ever find it. May end up ordering online. How are you liking it?

    • Fallon, I also type WAY faster than I write by hand, so I’ll definitely be doing my actual writing on the computer (so much more convenient to edit, too). Bu I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one that brainstorms by hand!

  2. Aw, that sloth is soooo cute!
    I wouldn’t say it’s very, very modest progress. I would say it’s very good progress! Give yourself credit! You’re doing great! And progress is progress no matter what!
    Have a great rest of the week!

  3. Any progress is good progress! And that baby sloth yawning – squeeeeeeeee!

  4. Keep up the walking and other healthy habits. The baby sloth is toooooo adorable.

    Patricia Rickrode
    w/a Jansen Schmidt

  5. lol That Tumblr is awesome, I can definitely relate to some of those 😀 I have always liked the idea of handwriting in theory, but unfortunately my writing is so illegible that even I can’t tell what it says a few days after I’ve written it. But handwriting does feel a lot more ‘personal’ than typing.

    • Bwahaha, I thought you’d appreciate that tumblr! My grad school friends have been posting the most amazing ones, and they help me to laugh through the pain. 😛

      I definitely fall into the category of “handwriting of questionable legibility,” if that makes any sense. I was trying to reread some note I wrote the other day and was able to decipher roughly 75%… so I’m going to have to work on that, lol.

  6. I keep trying to steamroll through life…. then all of the sudden it’s like a dog who races to fast to the end of his leash. I am flat on my back. There has to be a happy medium, hope you are able to find it. My cat just lays on my face if she decides I need to rest… seems to work.

    Love the sloth.

    • Charis, that is the PERFECT image! I’m definitely working on understanding my cycle of productivity and hibernation, but I will say that my cat is also useful in all of that. He just passes out on my lap, and then I am forced to nap with him. 😛

      Thanks for stopping by!

  7. The handwriting quote is nice! I’ve never stopped doing my brainstorming in hard copy — it seems to be the only way my brain will allow me the freedom to play with ideas. 🙂

    Good luck brainstorming your NaNo novel. That’s on my to-do list too!

    Have a great rest of the week. 🙂

  8. I love handwriting, especially for outlining and plotting (or to do lists!).

    Self-care is such a great goal to be aware of, and one I have not been good about. I’m trying to really get things in order for my 1st attempt at NaNo, and it’s made me realize how I do just manage and push through.

    Looking forward to cheering for you through NaNo, too!

  9. I’m squealing in the corner with you! And as I was reminded several times last ROW80 round, modest goals are perfect for some of us. Sounds like you have a good handle on most of them. Baby steps, remember? (Although how baby steps and modest goals fit with NaNo, I don’t know!) Best of luck to you.

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