Tag: Funny

My daily rituals

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment
  1. Wake up and fill a mug with coffee.
  2. Grab the paper from the front steps.
  3. Do Spanish. (Not a bad way to wake up.)
  4. Check emails, the blog, etc.
  5. Clean the coffeemaker and refill for tomorrow.
  6. Write, revise, whatever.
  7. Household chores plus yardwork and errands.
  8. Check the mail.
  9. Try to get some exercise in. Laps in the pool, a hike up the hill, that sort of thing. Maybe followed by a nap.
  10. Sit down together for a lovely dinner.

~*~

So much for the plans I’d set up for my retirement years. Extensive meditation, Bible study, copious reading?

What frames your days?

Trailings from a writer’s life

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Random notes in no particular order:

  1. Consider each chapter a movie – beginning, middle, and end – conflict and some resolution. Boy meets girl etc.
  2. My characters don’t lie … it’s one of my defects.
  3. Any time it sounds like writing, cut!
  4. Always go for RIGHT BRAIN revisions
  5. Each book is unique, special, fragile in its own way. Honor it.
  6. Talk to your readers. Like in a smoky bar.
  7. Rereading an old favorite, only to realize how much my own standards have risen.
  8. Certainly, there is room for a range of Midwestern writing as well – and for recognition of the manifold subtleties among the smaller localities within that country. It ain’t as bland as you’d think.
  9. “Riotous complexity moving swiftly within a basic unity” (from How the Irish Saved Civilization) … not a bad formula for creativity, is it?
  10. What was I really hoping to accomplish, back when there were only 500 new novels a week?

Words or phrases I overuse

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

All those years in the newsroom, I still tend to conditionalize everything, rather than strike for a bold statement.

  1. I think.
  2. I guess.
  3. Maybe.
  4. Would. (Example: It would seem that …)
  5. I hope.
  6. I fear. (Or worry.)
  7. I realize.
  8. That sucks.
  9. Are you sure?
  10. Martini. As in, Quitting Time.

~*~

What I find difficult to say is “I need” or “I want.” At least directly. I usually beat around the bush with soft questions.

How ’bout you?