A Writer's Notebook, Day Seven-Hundred-And-Fifty-Five

 I am beginning to push myself to write more poems each day.  I have been writing at least four, and I know I can press farther than that.  I feel that it is time for me to press myself again in this way, and I think I am going to begin that tomorrow morning.  I know that I sort of wore myself out for a bit, but I never fully stopped writing daily, and I have been doing a lot of other writing as well.  In the end, I am not really certain that their is any specific balance, but I know I work best when I have things planned out.  The bigger question is about how I can be a bit more flexible, without just allowing myself to slack off.  When I have a set amount of work I want to do, I will work and get it done, but I also recognize that it is useful to allow myself a bit of leeway.  A range might work, but I worry I would fall towards the bottom end of it too often.  I could create a plan based around a certain number of poems a week, where I have a minimum for each day and a minimum for the week as a whole, but I worry about making things too complicated, as I don't want to need to keep track of things that way.  It just plays into a lot of difficulties, and I know I am not the most reliable for that.  It may be that I just need to keep to a regular schedule and not worry about this issue, as I have had a great deal of success with that approach, but I also don't want to burn out again and am hoping that I can find a way to give myself enough slack to prevent that.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poem: Neighborhood Inhabitants

Neighborhood Inhabitants There was a fox once, and another time, otters, and now a peacock that we think got lost during one of the storms. She stays down on the other end of the street, though, does not visit us. We have a racoon family that stays in our tree some nights, and there is a baby lizard, a brown basilisk, who we have seen several times. It is not supposed to be here, is invasive and troublesome to the local ecosystem, as are the duck.  I hear there are giant snails now who eat stucco or concrete or something of that sort. I have not seen one, though, I just heard they are here and big as my fist.
Read more

A Writer's Notebook, One-Thousand-Eight-Hundred-And-Seventy-Three

I am still finding it difficult to get back to a more productive work schedule at the moment.  In part, I am sure it is that I gave myself permission to slack off a bit, and it is difficult to walk that back, especially because I am still writing and being productive, even if not to the same degree. I know it would be good to get back to doing more writing, but I also know that I am still meeting my core obligations, even if at a more minimal level.  Really, I just need to make the choice and force myself to stick to it.  To that end, I am planning to at least get back to work on my longer projects again tomorrow, even if I don't increase the poetry output right away.
Read more

A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Thousand-One-Hundred-And-Thirty-Three

I received my acceptance to attend workshop at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival next year and am very excited to be working with Matthew Olzmann, a poet whose work I have admired for some time.  He has a rare capacity for being simultaneously absurd and serious in ways that are hysterical, but with devastating insights underneath.  I feel quite fortunate to have the PBPF, and can say, honestly, that each workshop I have attended there has been incredible.  As a person who has taken many workshops in my life, and who often finds them wanting, I am always astounded at the caliber of the classes at the festival, both in the instruction and in the community of poets I have encountered.  I only wish it could be more than just one week out of the year.
Read more