Category Archives: writing

What’s the opposite of writer’s block?

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This last year I’ve spent a lot of time writing, reading about writing, writing about writing, and thinking about writing. It’s been my strength for as long as I can remember. Give me an equation or something science-y and I’m almost immediately out of my depth. Make me give impromptu remarks off the cuff and I’ll likely repeat myself three times and then sit down not having said anything that sounded so good in my head before I opened my mouth. Let me put it in writing and it’s a different story. That’s when I can really find my voice and make a coherent and passionate argument. Maybe it isn’t quite as grand a skill as being able to deliver soaring oratory, but it does get the job done.

Getting writer’s block is a common enough problem, but lately I’ve been suffering from its polar opposite – too many words all trying their best to come flying out all at one time. Since you never know when the well might run dry again, all you can do is try to get as many of them down on paper as possible so you’ve got something to see you from the lean times. While it was a rough work in progress, I sort of assumed that What You Didn’t Learn in College would be a one off – just something I’d put together for shits and giggles and the right to say I did it. As it’s slowly closing the gap between concept and reality, I’m finding some other notions that are just begging for the ol’ Jeff Tharp treatment.

It’s entirely possible that I’m throwing the cart way out in front of the horse, but I think I may be starting to glaum on to what’s next.

Voices from 2007…

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The latest batach of “memory lane” posts from April 2007 are loaded up for your reading pleasure and cover the last few days of the Italian vacation and a bit of commentary about how jacked up the moder world had become. No, the irony that I continue to comment on just how stupid the world continues to be is not lost on me in the least. When you write about people doing dumb stuff, one thing you never worry about is running out of new material.

Enjoy the latest posts from the archive and be sure to “like” me on Facebook for the latest on What You Didn’t Learn in College: A Field Guide to Surviving the Cubicle Wars… Coming soon to an ebook retailer near you.

Big things in a short month…

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This is the space where I had planned to rant about the sequester (again) since today is the big day. Since you’re probably as tired of hearing about it as I am of writing about it, I’m opting for a different direction entirely. Even though the republic does seem to be in a constant of financial distress, there are a few high points to the week and month that was

First, www.jeffreytharp.com broke through the 1000 visits mark for the first time in almost year. I was pretty impressed with that since February is a short month anyway. Usually we slide along here with somewhere between 600-800 hits, so adding 200+ to that is kind of a big deal. When it comes to blogging, the more shrill it gets, the better people seem to like it. There could be a lesson in there somewhere.

Second, but first in pride of place, I launched a “fan page” for what I hope is the first of at least several book ideas I’ve been kicking around for as long as I can remember. Since both blogging and writing are extreme part time gigs, neither one happens as quickly as I might like, but things are happening. Every day the plan comes just a little more into focus, another couple of hundred words hit the page, and I realize that there may actually be an audience for the things I have to say. I’m not going to lie, it’s a pretty damned awesome feeling.

So, in summary: 1) February was a great month; 2) Even better things are in store for March; and 3) Thanks to everyone who is reading the blog, helping edit the Field Guide, “liking” away at what they see on Facebook, and retweeting whatever random thoughts and links show up in Twitter. You guys really are the best.

So here’s the deal…

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I took every spare minute I could scrounge up over the last six months and wrote a book. Thanks to the generosity of a few friends, What You Didn’t Learn in College: A Field Guide to Surviving the Cubicle Wars is now working its way through the editing and “beta” process. In a couple of weeks, the plan is to have this little gem available as an ebook through three primary retail channels: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. Eventually, Smashwords will spread that distribution out to other retail outlets like the Apple iBooks, Kobo, Sony, and others smaller venues. I’m still looking into ways to bring the book to market in print that don’t require a) dealing with a publisher or b) cost a small fortune and result in boxes of inventory sitting in my basement.

Rest assured, as soon as the editing is finished and the retail side is up and running, you’ll be among the first to know. In the meantime, there are a few things you can do to support the cause:

1. Follow me on Twitter – @jdtharp

2. Like my new “official” fan page on Facebook and share it with your friends

See how easy that was? No fuss, no muss – Just a few clicks and your good deed for the day is done. Now all you have to do is sit back, relax, and stay tuned.

Beta…

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I’ve been working on a book. That’s not exactly been a secret. It feels like I’ve been tinkering with it since just after the dawn of time and I’m sure you all feel like you’ve been hearing about it for even longer than that. The good news is that the actual writing is (for the most part) finished, I’ve made the first pass at editing over the last few nights, and earlier today I seeded the text to a handfull of people who have graciously volunteered their time to be beta readers. Once they’ve finished and gotten comments and suggestions back to me, I’ll take a few more swings through the editing process, address some layout issues, and come up with a cover that doesn’t look like I designed it using PowerPoint.

So yeah, the good news is you’re going to be spared the pain and aggravation of listening to me bitch about writing for a while. To compensate I’ll be ratcheting up the volume on my complaints about editing. I mean, I want everyone to feel like their part of this process right along with me. I mean who doesn’t want to know fun facts like the first draft contained 137 separate instances of the word “likely” and 27 sentences that started with the phrase “Go ahead…” Let’s just say that first draft version 1.1 showed some significant improvements.

This blog was very clearly the inspiration for the book and if you read it, I think you’ll notice the same tone come through almost immediately. Where the blog ranges out over whatever topics happen to strike my fancy, I limited my efforts on the book to a topic that’s near and dear to my heart. With a working title of What College Didn’t Teach You: A Ground Guide to Surviving Your First Big Job, I’m going to do my best to deliver 35 chapters of observations, generalizations, and snarky commentary about the lessons I’ve learned from navigating big, bureaucratic organizations for my entire professional life. Mostly, it’s just a collection of things I know now that I wish I’d have known in the Summer of 2000.

For now, it’s all about editing, cleaning, figuring out if I’m going to get wrapped up with the US Office of Government Ethics, and reminding everyone repeatedly to read the disclaimer.

The hardest part…

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With much respect for Tom Petty, I have to tell you that I don’t necessarily agree with his conclusion that the waiting is the hardest part. As far as I can tell from personal experience, it’s the writing that regularly threatens to knock your teeth down your throat and beat you into a bloody pulp of submission… But hey, maybe that’s just my perspective.

PressDoing a day’s work with your brain is exhausting. It’s naturally a different kind of exhausting than baling hay or digging a ditch, but it’s still an activity that will leave you mentally spent at the end of the day. Normally, I’d recommend making sure to take the time to mentally recharge, rest, recreate, and relax, but when you’re in sight of the end, the only thing your exhausted brain wants to do is keep pushing ahead. Even with your eyes glazed over, your brain wants to drag you across the finish line. Or at least across the first of several finish lines you need to get past.

I realize the last two paragraphs probably read like gibberish. In this one instance, I’m going to be OK with that. You see, I’m two chapters away from being able to call what I’ve been madly typing away at for months a First Draft instead of just another Work in Progress. Trust me, that’s an important distinction if only to the guy behind the keyboard. It means that in maybe a week or two the first draft will get its first full length read through, polishing will start, and then it will make its way to several people who have graciously agreed to read a first draft that’s sure to be full of grammar, punctuation, usage, style, and myriad other problems. Then it’s more polishing, revision, cover design, formatting for e-publication, polishing, developing sales descriptions, publication, figuring out how to leverage jeffreytharp.com to sell ebooks on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and trying to wrap my head around whether it’s worth putting a book of snarky observations into a dead tree edition.

Two thousand or so words now stand between me and where I want to be. This isn’t the end. It’s not even the beginning of the end… but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Three zeroes and a birthday…

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Let me say that it’s a big week for me personally and that as a result I’m about to geek out on you guys a little bit. Today marks the 3rd birthday of jeffreytharp.com and running this blog as an independent website. After spending my formative years blogging on MySpace a short stint on Blogger, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed having a permanent place to hang my virtual hat. Having the name right there as the web 1000 Postsaddress means you’d damn well better be willing to be accountable for whatever comes flying out of your mouth. Even though it’s occasionally caused some friction, it’s made be a better blogger and a better writer in general. It’s absolutely worth it.

In addition to marking a birthday, this week also saw my 1000th post go live. Since there is still more good stuff coming from the archives every Sunday, I look for that total to keep going by leaps and bounds. All my old blog posts from MySpace are now available here and I’m working my way through the Blogger years every Sunday. I’m really looking forward to finally having all my posts under one electronic roof sometime in the next four or five months.

Finally, thanks to everyone for keeping up with me from June 29, 2006 to today. I know the “about” section claims that I don’t write for an audience, but we all know differently. No one throws this much life and opinion into the ether if they don’t secretly enjoy being the center of attention from time to time. I supposed that’s not really much of a secret anyway.

19,526 visits, 1,003 posts, 314 comments, and 59 countries over the last 1,095 days. For one sane voice in the wilderness, that’s a pretty respectable record.

Stall speed…

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The thing you have to keep in mind about writing is that it’s way more art than science. Sure, there’s a set of basic rules about where the comma goes, what gets to be capitalized, and something about predicates and adverbs that I really never caught on to when I was in school. Since the rules are sort of flexible and there’s no actual penalty for ignoring them, I find it easier just to go with what looks right than what may be technically accurate. Encyclopedias are often technically accurate, but when’s the last time you saw someone reading Volume K for fun and relaxation? That’s not my point, though.

As much as I’d hoped to be able to get my work in progress to the point where it could spend some time with an editor this spring, that possibility is looking less and less likely as more and more days go by without actually making any progress. I seem to have reached stall speed and stayed there since a week or two before Christmas. It takes some serious self discipline to plug away at something like a book day after day, especially when you’re in the middle part of the tunnel and there’s no end in sight. It’s sure easy to set aside for just a few days… but damn is it hard to pick up again a month and a half later, even when you realize you are desperately behind your self imposed schedule.

The solution, of course, is to just sit down and force yourself to do it – to stay at the keyboard until word come out either from inspiration or are wrung out of your head by sheer force of will. In either case, the words won’t necessarily be good, or even usable, but it’s the first step towards getting back into the routine and getting back to the point where you can see progress again. Until then, all the pissing and moaning in the world isn’t going to do any good… even though it does make you feel better. Momentarily. Sooner or later, though, you’ve just got to suck it up and get back at it.

Hard work…

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You wouldn’t know if from how well put together this place is, but blogging is hard work. As ever, it’s a finely honed knife’s blade balancing what I want to write about versus what I’m going to say that gets me in trouble at the office, with friends, with family, with society in general, and in the eyes of the law. Other times it’s just the general daunting feeling you get when you sit down and try to make the cursor move across the page. In any case, sometimes there is plenty to say, but none of it seems like quite an appropriate topic. During those times you end up sitting at the keyboard smashing out something that rambles one from point to point without ever getting to a “so what” moment. Sorry about that, but it’s just the way it goes. Sometimes the only thing you can do is sit down and let your fingers do whatever it is they’re going to do and accept the final product as what it is… not exactly you best effort ever, but an effort none the less. For any of you out there who have spent any amount of time writing, you’ll know that occasionally that’s as good as it gets.