Writing is fun.
What I do when I’m not writing keeps it that way. In fact, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say what I do when I’m not writing is more important than the writing itself.
The majority of my free time goes to my favorite activity: reading. If I had my way, all my time would go to it. I would happily do nothing but read all day long.
Read, read, read (click here to see what I read).
My obsession with books has mostly to do with my general philosophy towards life, that what you take in matters more than what you put out. In that vein, nothing influences my writing more than what I read.
I’m also in the habit of journaling every day. This is where I practice, work out ideas or unload emotional baggage. A secondary benefit is that the feeling of journaling transfers to the writing, the feeling that the result doesn’t matter at all.
Then I just go about my regular life, teaching and practicing piano, spending time with dogs and wife. As I’m doing this, the lines, more or less, arrive on their own. Once I’ve collected enough, it’s just a matter of deciding what I want to write about when I finally do.
The only constraints are as follows:
Publish on a weekly basis
Write on paper with a fountain pen
Listen to classical music
Besides that, I don’t have any hard and fast rules (although having a backlog certainly helps). I’m free to write as much or little as I choose. I know what I’ll be writing about as often as I don’t; I’ll either put something down I’ve thought about for a while or discover something wholly unexpected.
I find labels constricting. I don’t try to fit my writing into a box since it ebbs and flows, along with the books that I read, along with the experiences life gives me. Hell, I’m not even sure I consider myself a writer, I think I’m more like a reader who writes. Possibly I’m closer to a musician that reads.
I do, however, feel my writing corresponds with certain musical forms and you’ll find the following terms under the title of each essay:
Impromptu - a (usually) short composition that reflects the character of spontaneous improvisation.
Intermezzo - an independent character piece that is often intimate, reflective and restrained.
Rhapsody - a free-form composition that is loosely structured and characterized by expressive intensity and contrasting sections or episodes.
(As an aside, these forms are not to be confused with actual length)
In the spirit of the non rules mentioned, sometimes I know what form I’m starting with but most of the time I don’t.
That’s all there is to my process at the moment. I don’t pretend it will always stay this way. I don’t think anything ever does.
(If you made it this far I humbly thank you. If you’d like to know why I started this website, tap in your email address below.)