Category: Writing

We all have a drive behind us. Something that pushes us to produce, to create, to work, and to, hopefully, thrive. It’s different for each of us. The little voice that tells us what our best life is, and how to live it.

Often times, we ignore that voice.

You see, it’s difficult for the world as it is to remain as it is if everyone strives to live their best life. The system doesn’t work if everyone pursues their own goals.

To keep the system afloat, we must compromise. A bit of our best possible life to promote overall happiness, health, and well-being. To what extent, though? That’s the question.

Apple’s event today promises to usher in new Apple watches, and perhaps a new iPad. We’ll have to wait for the phone.

I’ve been thinking about watches lately. From this story of a collector who sells vintage watch ads, to this retired Air Force veteran auctioning off his Rolex he purchased in the service, to this quirky piece about how watch-wearing people are superior.

I was a bit of an amateur horologist prior to receiving my Apple Watch. I’ve gotten a few wristwatches since then, mostly as gifts. The thing about the Apple Watch is, you don’t really wear a traditional watch. I imagine it’s true for any smart watch on the market.

You condition yourself to looking at the watch for notifications. Even the phantom vibration syndrome, usually associated with the cell phone, now is applicable to watches. I can be using my digital watch, think I’m recieving a notification, and look down to find it’s not the smart watch. Just my Casio.

Yes, Apple Watches and other brands give more people reason to wear watches than before. And yes, younger people are now predominantly decorated upon on their wrists.

But there’s a kind of cool satisfaction with wearing a watch that will only tell you the time, and that will never go out of style.

I haven’t submitted very much of my writing, and most of the long form I’ve done either hasn’t been seen, or it’s not yet completed. To wit, I’ve pieces from at least as far back as 2012 that haven’t been fully realized.

Authors of all shades tend to have pieces in drawers and on their computers, all in varying states of completion.

It’s part of the reason I started posting here – to get me more apt to share the work I have finished, or at least maintain a writing practice beyond the morning pages.

About six years ago I shared some writing with someone, and she said I wrote in a flowery way. Conversely, I’d read her essays she was submitting and they were very forward and straight to the point.

There’s value in both methods of writing, and neither one of us (I believe) was issuing a criticism. But it’s something that I’ve remembered, and perhaps it does actually color my writing.

Now, when I’m not writing for the blog, it generally is longer. With fiction I include a lot of descriptive words. I tend to get mired in the descriptions. Working my way out through the weeds can be tricky.

No matter what you’re writing, though, it’s important to find your voice. Your authentic voice. Whether it be flowery, straight-forward, or somewhere in-between.

Fortunes were made in the past with less than you can purchase over at Best Buy for about a thousand dollars. The novelty of new creative devices has leveled out, and the equality is spread far enough now that fortunes are more difficult to make in the traditional ways.

Everyone is looking for something of meaning in their life. Something of value. Everyone wants to contribute.

When my brother pointed out to me the fictitiousness of certain cop procedurals on the television, we started talking about how boring actual police work can be.

The same is true for most onscreen depictions. Life, when exposed in two hour increments, or less, is often quite dull. Yes, there are those moments of excitement, but in general they don’t come all that often.

That said, we should embrace the quirks of our own lives. In Lois Roelofs’s Write Along With Me, she states, “No one wants to read boring stuff, so look for those things that make you unique. None of us is the same, so capitalize on it.”

This advice goes to writing by using yourself as character, but it’s also a reminder that while we entertain ourselves with stories of truly remarkable circumstances, there’s plenty in our own lives to keep us interested and engaged.

I was driving through Jacksonville recently, and as I crossed the Fuller Warren Bridge, I recalled a bit of the audio book I was listening to one time as I drove across.

The story was Thanks for the Trouble, by Tommy Wallach. Looking back, I found that I had read it in sometime between October and December of 2017. Admittedly, it was young adult novel. But there’s a girl who’s planning to jump from a bridge to end her (unusually) long existence. So, perhaps it was the bridge that triggered the memory. Hard to say.

But it’s interesting that some stories will stay with you long after the experience. I can recall my first time seeing Lord of the Rings (as well as other movies from the late nineties and early aughts). Reading Gaiman, Godin, and Ferris. That joke my stepmother told me concerning Mickey’s divorce from Minnie (though the language used is probably the rationale for that remembering).

At the time it may seem so innocuous. But years later, it truly is amazing which of the narratives have stuck with us. Something we heard, or felt, that really resonated with us – indelibly burning its content into our memory.

As with all things we’ve done for a while, you’ve probably developed a way that you like doing things. Disruptions to the process are inevitable, and sometimes those disruptions are permanent.

Finding workarounds is a way to keep the system running as close to the way you like it as possible. 

Workarounds can become part of the system as well.

Early in Photoshop’s development, there were some photographers who would repeat editing tasks – like coloration, for instance, or including a copyright or watermark. They used external software at first to batch these actions, but the functionality was eventually included.

Workarounds can make use of new technologies, knowledge of other industries, or even just a little ingenuity. 

At the end of the day, it’s what we leave behind that matters.

And I don’t mean the things we accumulate. It’s connections, the people whose lives we touch, and who mean something to us in return.

It’s what we produce. The thoughts that we’ve written down, the creations we’ve made, and the lives we’ve built.

Think about the legacy that you want to leave behind. 

There’s a divide in numbers that we don’t often think about. For instance, the distance between one million and one billion.

One million seconds is 11 days. That’s not too bad. One-half of a month, and you’ve covered one million seconds.

How much do you think a billion seconds is?

Go on, take a guess.

It’s 31 years. When we only have a vague understanding – the words, but not the concept – than we miss the context of what is being talked about.

Sometimes I’ll ask of what I’m doing – “is this the best usage of my time?” You know, I write a lot about being creative, and being productive, and not being distracted. That’s all well and good, but we’re not machines.

I’ve seen some truly remarkable people at work and they’ll barrel right through. Nothing seems to get in their way. But it’s not for everyone. The best use of your time isn’t always what others would call the best use of your time.