Apologies and Salutations

It's been a while since I've posted on here, hasn't it? I can't believe it's been nearly six weeks! I'm trying not to feel that I've been neglectful or derelict. While it is true I haven't done much work on Entropy, I have been starting other projects. I haven't put anything up here because I have nothing to share yet. I haven't made much headway into anything, and I certainly don't have anything polished enough to go on here.

I haven't been feeling up to much lately, either. Winter (and I find 'winter' tends to encompass November as well) is a hard time of year around here. I've been pushing myself very hard in some areas--too hard, really--and not enough in others. I haven't done enough writing to suit me, so I am making two different efforts to help change that, and I shall be posting them here.

One: I am going to attempt a weekly book review. Believe it or not, one of the best things a writer can do is to read a lot. I have been reading many books lately, and I want to continue to read. Sometimes I go through periods where I don't read a book for weeks, and I really don't like that. I hope that doing the reviews will encourage me to finally get around to reading all those books I've been intending to read.

Two: A daily free-write. Instead of a timed free-write, though, I'm going for writing as long as it takes me to get to a natural stopping point. (I guess that would mean I'd be writing a scene's worth of material or so.) Maybe it's better to say that I'd be working in miniature? It drives me nuts that I have all sorts of ideas for really long stories that I never finish. I'm trying to look at this free-write exercise as permission to go ahead and do something really short that will never become part of a larger story. I hope that, in accruing this body of disconnected scenes, I will be then inspired to work more on something else, maybe something that is long and needing a lot more attention than I've paid it before. Maybe I'll just end up with a pile of great ideas.

Anyway, I'm not sure exactly what time I'd be posting these scribblings, but I am kind of fond of posting shortly before I go to bed. It makes me feel accomplished, somehow. Still, it's something to look forward to in these rather dark and chilly times.

~Later