Cultivating Creativity

In the course of any creative pursuit, I find that things tend to follow a familiar pattern: there's the initial spark of idea, followed by a furiously productive period, then a slight cooling off, a reconsideration of the merits of the original idea, and then downright frustration with the thing.

For shorter projects, this arc is not as applicable. If you can finish the thing off before the initial excitement wears off, you can maintain that furious work ethic will still remaining inspired by whatever initial inspiration you had. But for longer projects, it can be killer, and I find that the longer you keep sludging away on a thing, the more fed up with it you get.

Growing Old

I have a significant fear of growing old. Not death, just growing old, although I guess I fear death too, in an abstract, I'll-worry-about-it-later kind of way, but it doesn't weigh as heavily on me as growing older does.

I woke up early this morning from a dream about two men, one of whom was convincing another to donate his kidney upon death; and, upon reminiscing, the one uttered a line in passing, like "When I was 24, and at the height of youth..."

Now, I am at the very height of youth, although it doesn't seem that way; at least I never think of it that way, unless, say, I wake up in the middle of the night from a dream thinking about it.

Writing programs, and allowing yourself to think

I composed my first novel (currently in 'suck' draft) in TextEdit.

I happen to work on a Mac, so TextEdit was my default writing program; I'm sure if I had been on a PC, Word would have served the same purpose.

I don't know why it took me so long to realize: your choice of writing program plays a huge role in affecting how you write. The ways you construct story, organize plot, and enjoy the process are all influenced heavily by choice of tool.