other people getting published

Once when I told my grandma’s friend that I want to write, she told me it was impractical, but if I must, I could do something functional like transcribing medical textbooks into online versions.  Boy, does that sound fun.

I’ve been reading Joey Comeau’s Overqualified website, which is a collection of real cover letters that he sent out with job applications to dozens of corporations over the past few years.  When I first discovered this website at least three years ago (though now I no longer remember how I first came across it) I mostly read the comic, but soon discovered the Overqualified section and was highly amused.  Now it turns out Joey has turned the letter into a book, which is getting published.  Rock on!

And what struck me was that from this small idea he had, or some way he entertained himself, or some fluke, he’s now getting a book published.  Think about Julie and Julia, that movie about cooking and Julia Childs that was based on a blog written by somebody named Julia in New York.  These things are crazy to me, call them what you will, mini success stories, entrepreneurship, miracles.  What I wonder is if Julie and Joey have forever had burning desires to be published, or if this was just something great that happened in their lives and all of a sudden they were Real Writers.

I’ve noticed by way of this blog that all I want to write about here is writing.  Lots of things happen to me every day.  I’m in England and I’ve seen cute towns and snow and sheep and family and friends, and there’s a lot to write about that might be interesting to read, if only for my mom.  But.  I can’t seem to force myself to write every day, though that was my goal…to write every day for a month.  I thought it would be a good New Year’s Resolution but then realised that I had no computer access on the first because I was in London, then was staying at Benny’s house on the second and third, and I feel weird blogging on other people’s computers.  So maybe I’ll start small and see if I can blog every day for a week.  Except starting Thursday I’ll be travelling again, so who knows what will happen.

I used to have this goal to write in my journal every night before bed.  I think that may have been a resolution once as well.  But now I look at my journal and the dates are separated by three to five weeks, usually.  Even though I always have one with me (there are many; I’ve started at least three or four at the moment and can only think of two in my whole life I’ve finished).

Bottom line:  if I want to get published (ever) I’m pretty sure I need consistency, a routine, standards, discipline.  It ain’t gonna happen from me just thinking about it.  I actually have to write.  Consistently.

I also think my blog needs more links and pictures to be more interesting.  Working on that too. But that’s another issue.

guilt

I’m really just writing because I feel guilty that I haven’t in a while.  I feel as if I should set some sort of goal for myself– write once a week, once a day, more each month, something?  Writing every day would be great.  Not that I think people would really read it every day, but as a discipline thing to me.  I do have thoughts every day that would be interesting to document, if only for my own benefit of being able to go back and see my thinking/ideas evolve.  But then I also feel this pressure (pressure from who/where?) that each post needs to be a certain minimum length, which also is ridic because

1. Says who?

2. I am not a concise writer to begin with, so if I did just write something, then soon enough I would be writing more… my thoughts lead me places.  And some days maybe they wouldn’t, and that would be okay.

What if I stopped this post right here.  So what?  There is no problem with that.  But instead I’m about to fill it with thoughts that have been popping into my head recently.  I guess I really like lists.

• Being at my Grandma’s house for the past week, I keep seeing old pictures of myself in which I am wearing the same clothes I have now.  Time to get some new clothes.  This is also a guilt thing.  I don’t like a lot of my clothes (because they are old and don’t fit right any more or I’m bored of them) but I hate throwing things away and spending money so I don’t buy new ones.  But it would be okay if I did.
• People (like my Grandma) can fill their time up with things that other people might not spend as much time on.  Little details, like cleaning things and organizing and paying attention to things (which I guess is not always little) can take up a lot of time if you let them, or if you have the time.  Which I don’t always.  But sometimes I let them.  It’s like how when you get an assignment at school (or work) and there’s a quick way and a slow way to do it, and the slow way might be more thorough but it might not.  And I still usually do the slow way.
• Now I have nothing else to write, or at least nothing comes to mind at the moment, but I feel compelled to write at least one other bullet because things go well in threes.

I guess I need discipline with this blog. Self-imposed discipline.  Last night I skyped with Pat and told him I haven’t been writing as much as I want to (not in the blog– actual writing. like stories plays poems etc). So he gave me a deadline and I have to write something for him by Saturday morning.  This is good for me.  Even self-imposed deadlines can help.  Or peer-imposed ones.  Lots of times I have heard writers speak, they have talked about how they have a writing buddy who they sit with and monitor each other and almost force each other to write for a few hours or something.  And they can take breaks.  But having that sense of accountability is important, which I guess is why people need jobs and school and can’t just educate themselves and get things done in the world that need to be done.  Unless they are passionate enough, like some of the nonprofit people I work with who do their own nonprofits after work, unpaid, because they feel they have to.  Or like Abraham Lincoln, who educated himself by reading a lot.  But I barely have the discipline for that, except I just read The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin in five days because I had to return it to my cousin Nina.  And now I’m trying to finish The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami before I see Josh on December 14.  So here I go to read.

yet another blog

This is ridiculous considering the fact that I am new to blogging and resisted the idea until very recently.

I have made a recipe/food/cooking blog.  Click the link and read the explanation on the blog itself.  I decided to do it on blogspot, not wordpress, because I know it’s the other popular blogging site, perhaps even more popular than wordpress, and I want to compare and see what’s better, or worse, about it.

blogging for HSC

First of all, in case I haven’t yet included it yet, here’s the website for the Human Services Coalition, the nonprofit I’m working for this semester:

www.hscdade.org

I recently attended the Miami-Dade county budget hearing.  To learn more about that, and read one of my first ever pieces of journalistic writing, click below.

You can read it on facebook, or on Ning, a blogging network for nonprofits.

Let me know what you think!

Mmmmm

So I haven’t written in a month. Or two. But when it comes down to it, if I have the choice between fleshing out thoughts on a computer screen, or talking to some of my favorite people on a porch after dark, I choose the latter.

After months of debating with myself, my plans for fall have changed a bit. Not sure exactly what I’ll be doing now, but it’s in the works. As if I have any spare time to plan between capture the flag, low ropes, CILTs, and PB&J. But whatever. I actually feel a lot more settled now that I’m not locked into a plan that I never felt fully comfortable with in the first place.

As I consider how to spend my time from September to January, I’m realizing that my attitude towards people is changing. I have always been more of the type of person who does what she wants, regardless of friends or family or whatever group it is. I went to camp alone, then the Outdoor Academy, then college across the country. And I had planned this semester to be very independent as well. But I’m realizing more and more that I can simultaneously be independent AND be surrounded by people I love. Such as my aunt in England. Or friends and family in San Mateo. Or crazy camp friends travelling to New Orleans. Maybe what I need to get from this time is to feel close to the people I already care about, instead of isolating myself from them in order to try to grow on my own. There is a time for that, but I don’t think that time is now. The more I think about being close to people I love, the better I feel about these coming months. There are so many people I care about scattered across the globe that it seems almost ridiculous to go somewhere that there isn’t anybody who is already a part of my life.

things i like include…

• story people
• my friend Pat
• a softer world, overqualified, and joey & emily
• Brian Andreas and his blog, zen bandit
• the blog I told you to read by Hannah who’s in the peace corps in Mali
• Colette

… basically I would just like to encourage you to peruse the links on the bottom righthand side of my page.  All things I feel are worth your time to read.  Don’t get carried away– I could spend hours on these things.  But it’s better time spent than facebook, I think.

now i’m figuring it out. slowly.

I’ve had a blog for a whole week! Woo hoo. I’ve tried to write something for the past few days but not actually ended up writing anything.  That means I’ve clicked on the link in my bookmarks, looked at my blog’s 3 whole posts (or is it 4?), thought about writing, and not even tried.  One thing I’ve learned in writing classes is that you have to try. You have to physically write something down, anything, or it doesn’t count as trying.  And when you write something down, it’s a start, and usually ends up provoking something else that you like.  You can toss what you wrote in the first place, but you won’t have what you ended up with if you never started with anything.

 

I’ve been reading a blog by this girl who’s doing the Peace Corps in Mali, just so I can get an idea of what it will be like there.  I would send you the link to her blog but I’m not sure what the etiquette is like for that.  Also have been reading some blogs through blogher, where my mom works.  It’s crazy how many different things people do with blogs.  Some people seem to tell about their lives using lots of pictures and then explaining the pictures.  Some blogs are a set “100 days” or something so people can keep track of a challenge or idea.  Some people write about their art, or new music, or politics.  Here’s some more music for ya:

 

 

This was discovered by Jake, a guy I danced with in the Househedz project at school.  The song came on randomly when Micah, our DJ, was playing some stuff while Meida (choreographer) worked with us on some new material.  For the rest of rehearsal, all we could say was : and I’m Carolii-iii-iine!

check box, day one

I survived my first day as a blogger.  Instead of feeling uncomfortable whenever I thought about it, I felt excited when I thought about going back to my blog.  That was a surprise.  True, I did tell my parents they couldn’t see it, but then I realized they were the only ones who would look at it in the first place.  So I told them the web address and hoped they wouldn’t judge me.  

I feel compelled to talk about what I did today; is that what bloggers do?  I spent a ridiculous amount of time on my computer, my thighs burned from the heat of my lap top, then I had lunch and went to the park with my mom to play some frisbee.  I kept forgetting that she doesn’t play ultimate and throwing the disc too hard (sorry about the bruises, mom!).  Whoops.  Then later I walked the dog, Blackie, with my dad.  Blackie is a dog my parents are fostering from the Humane Society.  He’s really sweet– you should adopt him!  He just gets freaked out around other dogs but they’re working on that.  It’s nice having a dog in the house.  

This evening we watched “The Lives of Others” which is about the GDR in the mid eighties and the secret police.  Really good.  But long.  I feel like all movies are long, at least the ones I’ve watched recently.  Benjamin Button.  Harry Potter.  Magnolia.  Revolutionary Road.  Milk.  The list could go on.  All really good movies though.  I think I’ll balance it out by catching up on Grey’s Anatomy Season 5.  I heard the season ended a few weeks ago, but I don’t have time to watch it at school– don’t tell me what happened!

on second thought

this whole first person thing freaks me out. can’t I write in third person? i feel whiny