The children around the contraption moved with determination. Their little brows wrinkled in a cute display of concentration. Some used their arms to spin handles; others pulled on ropes wrapped around pulleys. An occasional exclamation (“Hey, someone needs to come over here!”) mingled with the tinkling sound of small metal BBs falling around them.
Continue reading “Don’t Forget About the Rest of the Museum”
I’m sitting in our bed. Maile is asleep. I just heard thunder outside (either that, or the neighbors up the hill are shooting fireworks again). Two lights are on in the house – the one beside the bed and the one in the hall. That hall light is for the kids, because how would they find their way to our bed in the middle of the night if it was completely dark? They rarely make the trek, but they also like to know that, if they need to, they can.
Our living room is a wreck – looks like our minivan over-ate and then threw up in there. Suitcases and tote bags and plastic bags filled with dirty clothes are lined up. There’s a bag full of peed-in clothes – I’ll get to that in a minute. We got home late, so tomorrow is clean up day.
Continue reading “My Family, Peeing on the Narrow Curb of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway”
41,861 words written in 42 sessions spread out over a two-month time frame, my novel progresses. I am over half way, whatever comfort that might bring.
I think it’s the plot that keeps me writing this time – I have such belief in the idea and the concept that I feel I have to follow it through. If it doesn’t work, it will simply be my inability to pull it off, my lack of skill, or my inexperience. The story is strong – my writing is the wild card. This both motivates and scares me.
But no matter how the finished product turns out, I’m learning lessons along the way. Five, to be specific:
Continue reading “Five Writing Lessons I’ve Learned in the First Half of Writing a Novel”
Today I’m guest-posting over at the inimitable Ken Mueller’s blog: Inkling Media. Ken is an expert in all things social media, as well as an internet friend I’ve had the fortune of meeting a few times for real-life coffee. Here’s an excerpt from today’s post, just to get your taste buds ignited:
Before I came to the yurt for my four-day writer’s retreat, I thought it was solitude that would lead me to production. I imagined that getting away from my daily routine for a few days would put me on the path to uber-productivity.
And the last twenty-four hours have seen many words amble on to the page. I read more last evening and so far today than I have read in the last month. But I’ve also realized that my personal enemy of productivity is not people.
It’s the internet.
Continue reading “The Internet is Destroying Me”
If you don’t already know the latest Mark Driscoll fiasco, please jump down to the next section. I don’t feel like rehashing the whole thing, for a few reasons, but mostly because it’s depressing to me that a Christian leader continually says ridiculous, hurtful and just plain stupid things. You’d have to illegally monitor most people’s phones (that ones for you, Rupert) to hear them say the things that Mark posts openly on Facebook.
If you are familiar with the whirling dervish that is Mark Driscoll, you’ll know that yesterday. It was one of those blog posts that allowed his followers to say, “Attaboy, Mark!” and his detractors to say, “Wait. Was that an apology?”
Out of this whole thing, I found encouragement in one aspect – he has elders who respond to valid complaints and put pressure on him to do something. It is a relief to know that someone so prone to either inadvertent blunders or serial mean-ness at least has a group of people to whom he is accountable.
(By the way, you know what would be cool? If everyone who brought attention to Mark’s stupid Facebook post would sometime in the next few months also bring attention to something good he says or posts. Just saying.)
* * * * *
Speaking of accountability, aren’t you glad that when our country runs out of money all we have to do is raise our own debt ceiling?
That’s a relief.
In fact, next time I run out of money I’m going to call the bank and say, “Hi, this is Shawn. I’m out of money. I’d like to raise my debt ceiling. Please extend my overdraft protection or issue me a bank-backed credit card.”
Yeah, right. Wouldn’t that be hilarious?
Wait. Most of us already do that. So why are we surprised that our own government, voted into office by a bunch of indebted, credit card addicts (us), are running the place the way most of us run our lives?
We need a debt management makeover, all the way from Mr. Bernanke down to that high school kid writing out his first check.
* * * * *
But what does all this really have to do with anything? How does Mark’s broken mouth filter and our country’s broken debt filter and Rupert Murdoch’s broken news filter have anything to do with my everyday life?
To me it’s a reminder:
Live simply. Fame and money and power lead to such complicated problems. The writer of Proverbs says that “A pretentious, showy life is an empty life; a plain and simple life is a full life,” and “A simple life in the Fear-of-God is better than a rich life with a ton of headaches.”
That guy knew what he was talking about.
I think I’ll go help my girls organize their marble collection.
* * * * *
Related post:
A Knee-Jerk Reaction to the Casey Anthony Verdict
I think there is something inside all of us that wants to be found. Like an American Idol winner, we want to be plucked off the street and handed a lucrative contract to do what we love, instantly surrounded by adoring fans.
Discouragement looms when we are faced with the reality of many long years of learning and the high level of dedication required in order to perfect our craft. Why put in decades of hard work, when there is still no guarantee of fame or success?
Continue reading “How the Desire to be an Idol Will Keep You Off Track”
