Restless Stillness

The other day as I stepped outside on my lunch break, I was met with a sudden warm wind that for a moment felt exactly like the Santa Anas.  The Santa Anas are a phenomenon of southern California and they have a tingly, energized feeling, as if the air is simply tired of standing still and wants to get up and move around – I feel the same way when I’ve been sitting at my desk all day.  No rain coming, no storm.  The air is just restless and tired of nothing happening.  Jack Black has a line about it in The Holiday, and it really is something that feels mystical, as if the air is alive.

As I stood outside the other day, and the wind swept over me, I wondered what the Santa Ana winds were doing so far from Orange County.  I guess the air in California isn’t the only air that gets restless.

Staying motivated to write-The most important writing tip

Writing for the web is fun. Writing for the web is also hard work. Sometimes, sitting at my desk with nothing else to do, it’s easy to just let the fingers fly and the words just come pouring out. Sometimes, though, I’ll do my research, and get stuck. Not that I can’t figure out what to write, but I’ll just sit there, maybe make an outline, and get stuck surfing wikipedia or trulling through digg. Still, I have to get something out. What is the one time-honored tip for jump starting your blogging muse?

Just start writing. That’s it. Fear of the blank page can have a hugely de-motivating effect, even for experienced writer. Now, I’m definitely no Hemmingway, but I do know that every writer’s had that anxiety about putting some words down. What if it’s no good? How is the best, most clever way of saying what you’re trying to say? Just put it down. You can revise it later, and I usually find that once I start writing my brain will just slip into that writing mode by habit and suddenly halfway through I’ll find myself getting into my groove. Then I can go back and redo some things if they’re not ‘writerly’ enough.

The same holds true for motivation. Often it’s the initial energy to get yourself moving that takes the most effort, and then your inertia will take over and you’ll find yourself just skating along almost effortlessly. It’s like physics. It takes more energy to get something to start moving than to keep it going. Sometimes it’s good to just start with an outline or even something completely unrelated to what you are supposed to be writing about. All you need is to get it going.

I know, no great insights here.  It may even seem too simple.  But that is the most important tip you’ll ever need. A lot of the other problems, style, motivation, even quality, can be overcome just by getting started and giving your brain a chance to do its work.

Snakes on a Plane, in the Mail, Riding a Bike…

This is disturbing.  In South Africa, inspectors found poisonous snakes being smuggled in the mail hidden in video cassette tapes.   I have a thing about snakes.  I don’t like them, I just don’t trust how they move.  Add to that the fact that when I was working on the Animal Planet Expo Tour I learned from Dr. Kevin that snakes can’t be tamed.  There’s no such thing as a tame snake.  They only get used to being handled and basically tolerate it.  Which is why you occasionally hear about the house pet python suddenly and without warning strangling the 4 year old or something.

See, this is disturbing because occasionally I get the neighbor’s mail.  Sometimes the post office decides to deliver the mail addressed for 1234 to 1232 instead.  So what if Mr. Livesat1234 orders some smuggled spitting cobras or something, and they decide after a long plane ride over the ocean, not even first class and with only a package of peanuts, that they’re getting hungry and can’t wait to arrive at 1234 but would like to step outside for a bit and suddenly my 3 cats are gone and I’m in the hospital.  Tragedy.  Isa loves those cats.