---
title: "My summer spent avoiding a writing habit"
date: 2022-10-01T12:00:00-07:00
url: https://blog.lmorchard.com/2022/10/01/my-summer-avoiding-a-writing-habit/
author: Les Orchard
tags: [metablogging, writing]
---

# My summer spent avoiding a writing habit

<figure class="wide"><img src="./cover.png" /></figure>

[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/):

> 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.

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.

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.

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:

- [Fixed a Commodore Amiga 1080 monitor](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108699751126420898) that had fallen off a shelf.
- [Revived a Macintosh Classic](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108739286165954562)
- Got [a sudden urge to try live streaming](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108754772902176234) chiptunes and tinkering again
- Livestreamed myself [learning more about surface-mount soldering](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108795115809544003)
- [Built a BlueSCSI for the recently-revived Mac Classic](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108799852956678754)
- Played with [serial cable adapters for the Mac Classic](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108812798153497357), have yet to get one working.
- Bought a RaSCSI kit for my Mac Classic, but haven't built it yet.
- Played with [a Raspberry Pi camera](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108822465697261813) and [ESP-32 cameras](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108823762885705330)
- Considered a livestream of typing in code listings from "[Program along with Joey Ramone](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108834146866373336)"
- Tidied up [the basement computer lab](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108948528520769920) in anticipation of shenanigans.
- Started [a dry-run of a basement livestream](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108975996204810870) but never went live.
- Spent some weekends feeling bad that I wasn't doing any livestreams.
- Rode my bike for about 150 miles, albeit not all at once.
- Cooked a bunch, mainly brunch, sometimes dinner.
- Replaced light fixtures around the house, replaced locks on doors.
- Glared at schematics for my Atari Tempest in hopes to get back to repairing that thing.
- Got shot up with the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine booster.
- Abruptly fell down [a rabbit hole reviving my old gamedev hobby coding](https://hackers.town/@lmorchard/108982280058567354)
- Spent a week messing around with [flocking, steering, and bouncing boids](https://github.com/lmorchard/sketches-v02)

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.

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

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. 

Anyway, how was your summer?