Sunday Journal Issue 05

Where I write about writing.

Saturday — August 6: The past couple weeks involved a lot of social events that I was happy to put aside writing for. I was falling behind but I didn’t worry too much about getting in too deep a hole to write myself out of. I knew the upcoming weekend and week would be pretty free. Slowly I’ve settled on a routine that’s working. I can finish posts.

I’m still keeping my goal of 100 posts in 100 days, ending on August 23rd. Today was one of the big catch up days. I worked through a backlog of posts that were in (very) rough draft states and finished them.

Sunday — August 7

9:40 AM: Yesterday was really good so I want to try to get similar results today to make sure I can reach 100 posts. Right now, I just came back from the laundromat and put clothes in the washer. It’s been a couple years since I washed my own clothes in New York. Since I’m starting meditation, washing my own clothes will probably bring me a step closer to transforming into a beam of energy.

This morning I finished Simon Rich’s Spoiled Brats. A few weeks ago I also finished The Last Girlfriend on Earth. I’ll write a book note post on this today. Particularly on an interview at the end of Spoiled Brats that I thought was one of the best parts of the book that also happens to be from an online interview. He gives some thoughts on writing, like how he started taking writing seriously:

But I think it sort of shifted around when I was 17. That’s when I started writing every single day, whether or not I had an idea. Until then, I would only sit down and write a story if one occurred to me, and then I started to wake up every single day and write for a few hours whether or not I had anything worthwhile to say.

Along with that book notes post, here are the other things I want to finish today¹:

• Friday Links Issue 7: I picked the links out and have written a few passages. This is probably about halfway finished.

• Japan trip – More as seen on: It’s the last of the ten posts I wanted to write about my trip to Japan. It’s been sitting in my drafts, haunting me.

• Vomit draft: I was listening to Mike Brubiglia on the Tim Ferriss podcast and they talk about the “vomit draft”. Where people take turns selecting their favorite vomits to build a team of best vomits. Of course, it’s another name for two crappy pages and other phrases people use. I always find it interesting how different writers approach their first drafts.

• *Book note #3 on *Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV: I’ve written a couple so far and I want to finish the book and write a third post today.

And I also have the rest of this post to write.

10:43 AM: I finished the post about the Japan trip: More as seen on TV. Back to the laundromat to take the clothes out of the dryer and fold them.

11:58 AM: Jesus that took long. Took clothes out, folded, brought them home, put them away. I’ll stick to dropping off my laundry and I’ll let my brother know I won’t be entering the energy stream after all.

12:55 PM: Ordered food and banked on the delivery taking at least 45 minutes to get some writing in. Turned Focus@Will on, started a 25-minute timer, started writing. Then a couple minutes in, the door buzzer went off. Time to eat.

Actually. Hot soup should stay hot for a good amount of time. I’ll power through this time block.

Post-time block update: That post was more complete than I thought and I finished it — Friday Links Issue 07: Write themselves.

Now time to eat.

9:55 PM: I ate, then I napped for a very long time. I eventually got up and went to The Bean to read more of Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV. I’m really enjoying being more deliberate about reading. I wrote and finished a post—Book note on Comedy Writing: Semi-scripted.

Including this post, I’ll have finished four posts today. (I didn’t get around to finishing writing about the “vomit draft”.)

I still have some drafts that are more than halfway done, so finishing 2-3 posts in the next few days should be possible.

100 posts in 100 days, still on track.