{ "attachments": [ "./cover.png" ], "title": "My summer spent avoiding a writing habit", "tags": [ "metablogging", "writing" ], "year": "2022", "month": "10", "day": "01", "isDir": true, "slug": "my-summer-avoiding-a-writing-habit", "type": "entry", "date": "2022-10-01T19:00:00.000Z", "postName": "2022-10-01-my-summer-avoiding-a-writing-habit", "html": "
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Back in April, I wrote this about building a new creative writing habit:

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What's different this time? I don't know. I have an intention and I'd like to follow through on it. This is not one of my strengths as a serial enthusiast. But, nonetheless, I want to try.

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So, yeah: I tried and I kept it up for a while. It wasn't on a strictly daily basis, but I wrote more story-like words over two months than I have in literal decades. But, I couldn't make it stick as a habit.

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I mean, this shouldn't be a huge surprise to anyone who knows me. But, every now and then, I convince myself that I can brute force my way through ADHD via sheer willpower. I blame all the self-help books I've read since I was a pre-teen.

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Anyway, other interests scrabbled at my brain that whole time. When I finally let go of the focus, I did a bunch of other things that weren't writing stories:

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And, of course, I've had a relatively new job during all of the above and I didn't wander off. Folks consider not wandering off to be important for sustaining a livelihood. So, that's an achievement at least.

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Also, I regularly hang out with my wife and our critters. That's an important way to spend my time.

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I write all this to remind myself that I did interesting stuff, even if I couldn't arbitrarily command my brain to stick to writing.

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Anyway, how was your summer?

\n", "body": "
\n\n[Back in April](https://blog.lmorchard.com/2022/04/20/building-a-new-creative-writing-habit/), I wrote this about [building a new creative writing habit](https://blog.lmorchard.com/2022/04/20/building-a-new-creative-writing-habit/):\n\n> What's different this time? I don't know. I have an intention and I'd like to follow through on it. This is not one of my strengths as a [serial enthusiast](https://blog.lmorchard.com/2006/05/26/confessions-of-a-serial-enthusiast/). But, nonetheless, I want to try.\n\nSo, yeah: I tried and I kept it up for a while. It wasn't on a strictly daily basis, but I wrote more story-like words over two months than I have in literal decades. But, I couldn't make it stick as a habit.\n\nI mean, this shouldn't be a huge surprise to anyone who knows me. But, every now and then, I convince myself that I can brute force my way through ADHD via sheer willpower. I blame all the self-help books I've read since I was a pre-teen.\n\nAnyway, other interests scrabbled at my brain that whole time. When I finally let go of the focus, I did a bunch of other things that weren't writing stories:\n\n- [Fixed a Commodore Amiga 1080 monitor](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108699751126420898) that had fallen off a shelf.\n- [Revived a Macintosh Classic](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108739286165954562)\n- Got [a sudden urge to try live streaming](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108754772902176234) chiptunes and tinkering again\n- Livestreamed myself [learning more about surface-mount soldering](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108795115809544003)\n- [Built a BlueSCSI for the recently-revived Mac Classic](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108799852956678754)\n- Played with [serial cable adapters for the Mac Classic](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108812798153497357), have yet to get one working.\n- Bought a RaSCSI kit for my Mac Classic, but haven't built it yet.\n- Played with [a Raspberry Pi camera](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108822465697261813) and [ESP-32 cameras](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108823762885705330)\n- Considered a livestream of typing in code listings from \"[Program along with Joey Ramone](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108834146866373336)\"\n- Tidied up [the basement computer lab](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108948528520769920) in anticipation of shenanigans.\n- Started [a dry-run of a basement livestream](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108975996204810870) but never went live.\n- Spent some weekends feeling bad that I wasn't doing any livestreams.\n- Rode my bike for about 150 miles, albeit not all at once.\n- Cooked a bunch, mainly brunch, sometimes dinner.\n- Replaced light fixtures around the house, replaced locks on doors.\n- Glared at schematics for my Atari Tempest in hopes to get back to repairing that thing.\n- Got shot up with the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine booster.\n- Abruptly fell down [a rabbit hole reviving my old gamedev hobby coding](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108982280058567354)\n- Spent a week messing around with [flocking, steering, and bouncing boids](https://github.com/lmorchard/sketches-v02)\n\nAnd, of course, I've had a relatively new job during all of the above and I didn't wander off. Folks consider not wandering off to be important for sustaining a livelihood. So, that's an achievement at least.\n\nAlso, I regularly hang out with my wife and our critters. That's an important way to spend my time.\n\nI write all this to remind myself that I did interesting stuff, even if I couldn't arbitrarily command my brain to stick to writing. \n\nAnyway, how was your summer?\n", "parentPath": "./content/posts/archives/2022/2022-10-01-my-summer-avoiding-a-writing-habit", "path": "2022/10/01/my-summer-avoiding-a-writing-habit", "thumbnail": "/2022/10/01/my-summer-avoiding-a-writing-habit/cover.png", "needsBuild": true, "prevPostPath": "2022/07/13/taking-the-red-shoes", "prevPostTitle": "Taking the Red Shoes", "nextPostPath": "2022/10/07/5am-is-the-enemy", "nextPostTitle": "5:00am is the enemy" }