Gray Wolf Productions

Category: Musings

  • Tis The Ides Of July

    I know, we never use the term ides except to talk about the Ides of March, but it means the 15th of several months, including July. So I decided to make a graphic because I couldn’t find one that did this. 

    I’m having trouble writing, but I can play with images.

    And one of the things I’ve learned over time is that if I play with enough images or download ones that speak to me – they do something in my head that helps me write.

    For those of you who have trouble writing sometimes maybe this is something you could try. In fact when I get around to writing that book about having trouble writing, I am going to put this in for a suggestion.

    Another thing I used to do and the challenge is helping with that is when I was supposed to be writing my thesis, and that was a long time ago, I had the issue of not being able to sit and write it.

    Everything was done except the writing – so I sat at a friend’s typewriter in her office late at night and I typed something like Mary had a little lamb on line after line after line and after a time of doing that words started to flow that had something to do with my thesis, which was psychology and a research project I had done. I finished the thesis and I got my PhD – so it worked.

    That’s what this challenge reminds me of – I’m trying to put words on a page almost every day whether they’re published here or they are texts to a friend of mine about why I’m not writing. I am trying to put words out every day just like I typed Mary had a little lamb because I know from past experience that sooner or later the book about not wanting to write a book is going to get done.

    And when I think about it, I have now written about two behaviors that one can do to start writing. Yay – I got two parts of the book done!!

    that calls for another image!

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Lazy Overcast Day

    cloudy

    I’ve often said I am in need of sunshine because I have a solar powered brain. There’s very little sun today. Therefore, my brain is not going full speed. It’s getting things done. Just not a lot of the brain work needed for the book project.

    But starting tomorrow, we creep back into another heat wave – at least it’s not supposed to hit 100 this time and I am more ready for it [I hope].

    One thing I have learned this summer is there’s a reason I left the mid Atlantic the first time and the heat waves will make me leave the mid Atlantic for the second time – and that thought feels good. It won’t be immediate, but thinking about moving to a cooler climate will motivate me and keep me happy in my “looking ahead to a move” mode. [By the way, I hate moving, and I’ve done it a lot!!]

    But the thought of a cooler clime near cool water will help me during the next hot/humid/buggy spell….

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • A Writing Idea

    steno pad

    For decades, I wrote in steno pads. Took them with me all the time, especially when I was riding public transportation. But then I started taking my phone and dictating into it, which was good, and it was still mostly on public transportation.

    With my current move, I am now in an area that lacks public transportation, and I don’t use my phone when I’m driving [except for google maps.].

    So I’m back to computer and phone and no longer use steno pads. I miss them. There is something about writing words out on paper. I remember hours I spent in the museums in D.C. with a cup of coffee and jotting down words, or what I was thinking about, or whatever – but I was always writing.

    In fact I can’t remember a time in my life I didn’t write. I think I was born with a pencil in my hand.

    Over the years there have been times where I don’t feel like writing – and I remember someone once saying if you want to do something, you can’t have moods.

    Well, I have moods. I’ve always had moods and some of those moods tell me don’t write today and I live with it because I’ve never figured out how to work around that mood. What I’ve learned is when the writing mood strikes get all the writing done that I can because I know another “let’s not write today” mood is coming along.

    Thus my thinking I’d write about indoor gardening has gone to “I don’t wanna do that until I’m ready to have my own window garden and I’m not gonna do that till it gets colder out” – so that book will be on track to be started in the fall. I promise.

    I promised – but that doesn’t mean it’ll get done. I often break my own promises to myself. That’s me. I live with it!

    So – I had a great conversation with my head and said – I sort of feel like writing, but I don’t know what to write about and I’m getting into in “one of those moods” – and my head said back what it often does in these days of technology: “go play online with your ideas.”

    The result? It’s going to be a short funny book about how to start writing when you don’t feel like writing.

    I figured I’m not the only one who thinks this way – so what is coming up next is not gardening, not the other topics that I thought I wanted to do, but this one – which has popped up frequently in my head.

    Here’s to brains, and technology!!

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Window Sill Gardens

    Well – it’s day 8 and I am again writing. I think that’s a good record for me. It hasn’t been all eight days, but it’s been more than 2!! And that’s better than the none record that I have had of late….

    I did have my usual post-heat-wave-reactions over the past two days and I didn’t feel like writing very much or even thinking very much except for about an hour this morning, so I fiddled around online looking for a topic in which I have some interest and which the world at large said is one where people actually buy books.

    I settled on growing herbs and veggies on your window sill.

    Of course I now have to sit down and write about it. I’ve given it some thought because it’s something I keep thinking I’m going to do but in actuality I really have only done once or twice in my very long life. I grow stuff outdoors, and I rarely bring it in in the winter – so this year I’m not only going to write the book, I’m growing veggies now and will bring some in for the winter or even start some new from seeds in a few months and have them grow all winter.

    And that does assume that the cats won’t knock them over which is usually one of the reasons why I don’t try growing too many things indoors – my cats knock my plants over. I’ve never had a cat that did not do this! I do have some special plants that I have been tending to for decades and I’ve managed to keep cats away from those, but those are very large plants.

    Herbs and vegetables in smaller pots seem to be much more interesting to cats.

    One plant I’ve never tried to do indoors [and I will try this year] is a tomato plant. I have several growing in my garden, but I know a few people up in the New York area, who actually grow tomatoes in their apartments, and I thought OK, I can do that this year and I’ll write about how to do it – and then come back and let every one know how it went!!

    I now have ideas for the next challenge which hasn’t even been announced yet.

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • July Thunks

    brain and neurons

    What a month – and it’s only the 7th day of it.

    I said in one of my earlier posts that I had planned on doing a lot of writing this month in lead up to redoing older books with new additions, breaking some of them down into a series, and writing up ideas that I’ve had in my head for years, but have never done anything much with except to make lots of notes!

    Those were great plans.

    Then the heat wave came and stayed. I don’t do well when it’s over 85 and it was near 100 for most of the week. I was inside in air conditioning which gave me some time to think but one day when I had my dog out I managed to touch something that somehow my body didn’t like. I have no idea what it was I touched, but I didn’t have gardening gloves on because it was too hot. I developed a contact rash, hives, etc. so I took a Benadryl, which I hate doing, but it made the itch go away – and also left me feeling foggy.

    I got over that only to be facing more days near 100 and when I was out with my dog again, something bit me. I have no idea what it was at 7 o’clock in the morning but something I couldn’t see bit me. I came in, sat down, and I saw hives or swellings, traveling along veins on my arms and legs. and itching like crazy. So what did I do? I took another Benadryl. The itching and swelling stopped, but my brain went foggy again.

    One would think this might give me time to sit around and think but all I could think of that was how much I hate taking Benadryl and how much I hate how hot it is. That’s not conducive to getting book writing done.

    I did play around with some ideas because my accountability buddy was around and we plugged away at this, even though I was foggy, and I discovered something that I’ve probably known before, but didn’t verbalize.

    Often when I pick a topic to write on, it’s because I’m interested in it and very few people buy those books – and in my foggy brained state, I finally said I am going to do it the way everybody suggests which is find a topic that I’m interested in but is a topic or take where people actually buy the books!!

    So – I’ve been doing some research on topics that people actually spend money on. But I’ve also decided I have to semi-like the topic – it has to bring me some amount of joy. The joy can be the challenge of writing on something that doesn’t interest me all that much, but I have to work that one out myself.

    I realized I had done that before, but I was getting paid for it. One of the things I recounted to my friend was when I worked for a major consulting firm in the Boston area where we bid on government contracts, we very often were writing proposals on topics that none of us knew very much about. This was before the Internet so you had to do some quick research and write quickly – we won a lot of those contracts so I know I can write and write quickly on topics where I’m kind of semi interested…..

    That is my goal and my big thunk for July. I can actually pick a topic I don’t love. I just have to like it and know that other people want to read about it – and make it a fun challenge for myself to write a book, an interesting book, on that topic – that is a successful breakthrough for me and that is what I am going to do during the rest of July.

    AND – the heat wave is gone for now!!

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • February Has Been A Challenge

    February Has Been A Challenge

>