Friday Morning

Wow, I can't believe a whole week went by. Mostly, I've written a bunch, played with Milo, and did yoga. I've had a productive week writing wise. After today, I'll have a good draft of the first section of the last chapter. I really should have a good draft of the whole last chapter by the end of December, then I have some revising of the whole to do. That's sort of how the process goes for me. I write what Anne Lamott calls a "shitty first draft." and the drafts become less shitty until at some point I consider it "a good draft." Then, I revise several times after that. Other people read it around the "good draft stage."

Ellen Hogan, a high school friend of mine, asked me about my writing process. If I have an inspirational pen or if I'm totally computer et al. I do like the idea of an inspirational pen, but basically when an idea comes to me I use what ever is available to write it down. Then often, I'll start writing for the day getting those thoughts into the computer. I do most of my writing and revising on the computer, but I do revise by hand also.

I've been struggling a lot with issues related to motivation in writing for the past couple years. I do increasingly think some of that lack of focus was due to thyroid issues because I'm really starting to think more clearly and not mind sitting down to write nearly so much now that I'm on herbs and medication for it. I tend to work pretty well with deadlines, but they really do have to be externally imposed. Setting deadlines for myself doesn't work. So now the end of the sabbatical looming is motivating.


Lately, a lot of ideas have been coming to me in meditation. More ideas about the character development of Plato's Agent. That really feels like ideas simply are coming. When it is an idea about A Philosophic Muse it is more like a puzzle piece fitting together. I enjoy that part of the writing process. Most of the time creating a SFD isn't so bad because I do manage to turn the censor off. Getting from SFD to GD is quite painful. I don't mind editing/revising. It is a lot like doing a crossword puzzle or something. I'm definitely enjoying writing Plato's Agent.

In terms of other aspects to writing, Craig Williams gave me a chant to Mercury that I've been working a lot with lately to stimulate writing. Somewhere along the line I also came across a prayer that Aquinas said before writing and studying and I read that every morning. He was quite productive, you know, the Summa is sort of the tip of the iceberg. Of course, Aquinas ended up saying all of his writing was "straw." so who know what works. I also like reading about the writing process of other writers. Bird by Bird is probably still my favorite, but I really like Stephen King's On Writing and Annie Dillard's The Writing Life.