When I came to the page this morning I found myself staring at the two calendars on my wall. To the right is a calendar from Half-Price books turned to May. Directly behind my screen is another larger calendar that shows July with the days marked out through the 17th. Well, at least they are both 2017 calendars. I think that has a great deal to do with follow through. As an idea guy I come up with a wealth of structures and one offs on how to be better organized, what to write, how to do things, and so on. I dive into these plans with gusto, often spending money to get the little parts that help me execute these plans. What I’m left with is a cluttered space with too many calendars (I also have 4 notebook calendars within arm’s reach) and the vestiges of half-thought plans that never went anywhere.
My office is littered with the carcasses of good intentions. There are unused RFID tags from the time I helped my kids set up an RFID tagging biz. There are rocket parts scattered everywhere. Half-finished offensive concepts lay crumpled beside the books that refined them. Post-it notes polkadot the desk itself. The pivot then is to take those intentions and focus on one plan, one idea and see it through to the ultimate conclusion. As a writer I have to allow myself the freedom to fail, but I have to maintain the commitment to see the plan through to that ultimate failure.
Some Thoughts:
- Was talking with my partner about how Naruto is based on Japanese mythology and got to thinking about how other anime is also based on myth. Beyblade, for example is based on mythology. I never considered how useful that could be in a classroom setting. Heck, I teach a mythology class and have never used that stuff… till now.
- BER’s The Night Begins to Shine has become a Teen Titans staple. This week they released a 4-part episode chronicling the life and war taking place in a dimension created by the story. Puffy UmiYumi showed up. So did Ceelo. Yeah, I bought the album.