Sussing Out the Rhythm of Writing Redwoods

Since completing the River post series I've been pondering where I go next with my blog, LIFE-BUILT POEMS: Living Out Loud.Right now I'm leaning towards starting another new lo-o-ong "symphony" dealing with another biggie thought-construct that has been a fascination for humankind forever...the one about the power of intention and how you can use it to manage the way your life flows.I like writing long. I like writing in layers. I think I am getting better at keeping folks interested in what I

What writer's block?

The biggest question writers always get is this one: "Where do you get your ideas?"I just realized I've stumbled upon the best answer yet. (It actually works.) All you have to do is choose a topic that has fascinated humankind down through the ages and set out to write a series of long-form redwood posts.You will be swarmed by ideas. You will be plagued by them. You won't be able to beat them off. They will just keep coming and coming and coming. You and the teeny little spaces you want

The Saga Keeps On Rolling.

The month's been going very well. Woo-hoo!I actually did finish my River 5 post amid the holiday hoohah, the friend and family connects and reconnections as well as the usual assorted chronic crises. I am very pleased with the result.I had to laugh, however, because just getting to the end of River 5 and publishing it did not mean that I was done with the Time thing. Nor is it done with me, it seems.I get to practice doing one of those old-timey cliffhangers! Hee! The muses are swearing th

Argh-ness multiplied.

Okay. So I am finding out things about writing a series of redwood posts on a topic of epic proportions: TIME (for pity's sake). Time is one topic that has had a bazillion words written about it already since it's one of our best human thought constructs and the most complex.So far I've been through seven (or is it nine?) complete post rewrites and pounded my head against the walls and the desk and so on, thrown books down the hall and growled a lot at the wandering geckos on the ceiling. (I'm

Exploring incubation

An interesting month. I've been busy mostly completing pendings and long-term projects, fine-tuning systems that got wonky, making crisis response moves that lead to other interesting dilemmas and all the other achievement junkie stuff we all know and love.And, in the background, as this is happening, I am also apparently exploring what Makers who study such things call "incubation."Incubation is when you slowly take in all kinds of information in teensy-weensy bites and you let your subconsci

Riding the Chaos-Beast 101

I've spent the month dealing with addressing the challenges Life-Its-Own-Self have been throwing at me and the rest of our poor old consensus-world lately. (No empathy needed, guys...it's just all research, after all. When your "niche" is trying to suss out how little ol' you is going to shape your world, all this hoo-hah is "raw material." )I've made the discovery that, f'r real, deep pondering is a lifestyle choice. In order to get to it you have to be in an environment (of your own making

Ongoing Maui Wildfires

Oh, wow! What a month! Into every writer's life, it seems, Life-Its-Own-Self intervenes. Three fires are still burning on Maui. The most devastating one was in our beloved Lahaina, on the West Maui Mountains, where five square miles of the island burned hot. It has gotten a lot of attention in the press and on social media. Two other fires still burn on the slopes of Haleakala. Either one of them -- the one in Olinda and the one in Kula -- are both smaller than the biggest one. Either o

Oh, wow! Is that the date?

This past month I was so focused on the latest of my River series posts that the whole thing whooshed by without my noticing. Argh!The good thing is that I'm almost done with another redwood post (after about five total rewrites plus hair-pulling, wailing and other nonsense) and I'm happy with it... mostly.It'll be showing up on the blog any time now.I know, I know. Bots "save" time. Got it. Really.The irony is that the redwood posts I'm working on are about the various ways we humans deal

Morphing Posts Saga

All ri-i-i-i-ight! This month I managed to construct two redwood posts in my River series about making time big that I think I did well. Cool!I started out with one gynormous mountain of interrelated material and just kept adding to it, taking away from it, then adding other stuff to it, and so on. The ideas rub away against each other and gain or lose traction and momentum. This resulted in a way overstuffed brain and no-way-in-hell-am-I-going-to-make-sense drafts of posts that died a-borni

Planting Evergreens and Other Oddities

I am learning a heck of a lot about the difference between producing the prolific fast-and-dirty posts that are here-today-and-gone-tomorrow and the ones that are meant to last a while.I'm choosing to pursue the latter mostly because my aim is still to write a book or three that doesn't end up beinga collection of random bits that sort of connect with each other or else one that morphs into a listicle-on-steroids or, worse, a scrapbook of old ads and persuasive, proselytizing calls-to-action (w