Tag Archives: writing

Missed milestone…

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In the mayhem and chaos that has been the month of February, I have to confess that I completely missed a major milestone for jeffreytharp.com. You see, February 13th was the two year anniversary of landing here on WordPress and making the leap into hosting and managing my own domain. I don’t mean to make that sound more complicated than it really was. Basically all that means is I registered the site, pointed it towards WordPress, and then set up a few widgets. Oh, and then paid for the privilege of not advertising someone else’s service as part of my web address. Everything costs, even here on the internet.

What I’m trying to say here is that two years ago, I got serious about writing for the first time. I’ve always had the bug, but this is where I found my voice and turned something I’d largely been doing for myself into something that would be seen by an audience. That’s a huge step, even when the audience is mostly made up of family, friends, and a few random people that discover you by accident. Writing here has led into other opportunities to contribute and work with other writers and to take on other “spare time” projects that I wouldn’t otherwise have attempted.

Writing is a deeply introspective act. It’s a force for refining and clarifying where you stand and who you are. It’s also a tremendously time consuming pain in the ass. I’m glad I’ve never stopped to calculate the amount of time it takes to churn out four or five new posts a month, let alone what it’s taken to throw in on those other projects. I can see now why it’s only the one in a million who ever make any money doing this. I have a new appreciation for even the worst of the hack writers who have managed to scrape out a living based on the written word.

I’ll resist the temptation to go into the usual list of statistics and just say that it’s been a good two years. Site visits are up, comments are up, and pretty much any meaningful metric is up from this point a year ago. Writing in a lot of ways is its own reward, but knowing there are people out there interested in what you have to say is decidedly a feather in my cap. Thanks for sticking with me. Let’s see how things look a year from now.

Turned to mush…

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Hard as I’ve been trying to write today, I think it’s time to confess that my brain turned to mush before I even managed to leave the house this morning. Sure, it was firing well enough to do some editing and crank out a couple of emails, but it just wasn’t in a place today to do any heavy lifting. If you spend enough time writing, you’re going to have days like that now and then. It’s always good when they show up on days that don’t require that much editorial horsepower, though, since needing to write and not being able to squeeze anything out ranks right up there with any other kind of constipation on the ol’ Annoy-O-Meter. Since the week looks like it’s going to be more about exerting editorial influence than actually creating anything new or interesting, it might just be a good idea that it’s getting a period of pronounced mush out of the way now instead of showing up later when I really have something to say.

As a reader, I’m sure these occasional bouts of brain cramping are even less interesting for your as they are for me, but since there’s no real solution other than slogging through them, I’ll just keep plugging away until I hit on something that resonates. In the meantime, I think the best course of action is to find some mindless drivel on television and let the gray matter get some rest.

Output…

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As a rule, I try to write 300-500 words a day. That doesn’t include anything I write for this blog or others I contribute to from time to time. It definitely doesn’t include anything I write at work – Nothing is more hostile to good writing than applying the Army writing manual. And it absolutely doesn’t include texts, emails, or other sneaky ways you can easily get into that range. As with most things that I actually enjoy doing, the biggest issue is figuring out when the hell I actually have time to sit down and focus on just one thing at a time. That’s not a complaint, just a statement of fact.

The reality is, I might actually hit that goal once or twice during the week if I’m lucky. Weekends are a little easier to manage. Usually after letting the dogs out and getting them fed, I can settle in for an hour or two early on Saturday and SUnday mornings and punch out about 1000 words without too much trouble. Mornings seem to be best for me. I’ve gone back and reread things I’ve written in the hour before bed the next morning and let’s just say it’s not my best work. Not even close. Back when I was a history major, I wrote my best stuff after midnight. A decade’s worth of crawling out of bed to the 5AM alarm seems to have brought that to an end once and for all. I don’t really mind that so much, though, as long as some point in the day is still a good time for it.

Picking up aluminum cans on the side of the road would probably be a more lucrative use of time, but something keeps me coming back to the keyboard day after day. As soon as I figure out why that is, I’ll probably have found my best seller.

Hope (and change)…

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All that’s really left to do now is hope that at some point I’ll start feeling better. I’m not saying that I’m lying on death’s door or anything, but I’m feeling crusty enough that I’m pretty much not interested in anything – including writing. That’s saying something for a guy who likes nothing so much as the clickity clack of his own keyboard. The fact is, I’m mostly preoccupied with trying not to launch into a coughing fit at the morning meeting and sitting at my desk pondering what on earth could be going on in my sinus cavity that would turn mucus a disturbing blaze orange color. Seriously. Without getting overly graphic, my right nostril runs in blaze orange and the left in day glow green. Back in the good old days of cigarette smoke, I was no stranger to odd colored things shooting out of my face, but this new color palate is a little disturbing. Sorry about that. I know it was more sharing that you’re really use to here.

I’m sure there are plenty of other things that are comment worthy going on in the world right now and I hope you’ll forgive me for being a little self involved at the moment. All this is really the doctor’s fault if you’re looking for someone to blame. If he’d have just written the prescription I told him to, we’d be happily back to business as usual around here by now.

10K…

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According to the handy little section on metrics that WordPress provides, I’ve been plugging away here for 24 months now. The reason I bring that up is that sometime in the last day or two, the page passed the 10,000 visitor mark. As always on these little occasions, I wanted to say thanks to everyone who’s playing along at home. Sure, Google hits that in a fraction of a day, but since I’m not really providing any function or service other than freelance ranting, I’m plenty pleased with the numbers the way they are.

After the week long break for Christmas and the eternal head cold that made focusing on writing something close to impossible, I’m hoping that thing will get back to what passes for normal around here pretty quickly. Since the sick appears to be passing from debilitating to merely annoying, I’d say we’re on the right track. So that’s a long way of saying I’m hoping to ease back into the whole writing thing. Bear with me as I blow out the cobwebs and get back to business.

Looking…

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If you stopped by looking for some new foolishness, you’re going to be disappointed. I haven’t gone back to work since Christmas. And when it comes to work, out of sight is definitely out of mind. Except for the fact that I have to go back on Tuesday, I haven’t given the office so much as a thought for the last week. It’s been nice. Of course I know there is a mound of stuff piling up on my desk that will demand immediate attention when I wander in, but just now it’s nowhere near the top of my priority list. This is yet another strong indicator that I’m better suited to a career as a lottery winner than as an actual productive employee. When it comes to work, my apathy indicator is blazing green.

Editorial Note: This part of a continuing series of posts previously available on a now defunct website. They are appearing on http://www.jeffreytharp.com for the first time. This post has been time stamped to correspond to its original publication date.

Back at it…

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You’d think taking a week off from writing would mean that I’d be bursting with things I need to get off my chest. I thought so too. Reality is a little less interesting. I managed to get sick two days after Christmas and since then the most productive think I’ve managed to do is a couple of loads of laundry this morning. Laying on the couch sucking down DayQuil and cough drops doesn’t tend to make for interesting stories and just complaining about being sick has pretty much been over done.

I guess my point here is that it’s a new year and while I’m not feeling 100% yet, I’m better than I wasI think it’s safe to assume that things will get back to normal around here soon. I’ll spare everyone the requisite year in review or year ahead predictions and just say that 2012 will be what it is, good and bad. Unless something changes, I plan on being right here to write about it as it happens.

I hope everyone reading this has enjoyed their New Year’s celebration with family and friends, because the break is almost over. Rest up, relax, and get your head in a good place, because it’s just about time to get back at it.

Christmas Hiatus…

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I’m thinking about taking a Christmas hiatus. Seriously. I mean it this year. I’m really considering just pulling the plug and letting this place gather dust for the next week or so. After all, it’s not like many sites put up a whole bunch of new content during the holidays when people are paying attention to other things. It really seems like a perfect time to take a little break without too many people noticing I’ve been gone. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before actually. It might be interesting to see how things play out when “how can I write a post about this” isn’t always pinging around the back of my head. Then again, maybe I’ll hate it and be right back to posting before the weekend even rolls around.

Right now it’s just an idea I’m kicking around, but if you don’t hear from me for a few days, it’s just because I’ve idled the engines for a few days not that I’m taking a permanent vacation. Or not. I think everything depends on how I feel and how interested I actually am in writing on a day by day basis. Just now I happen to think that a week off is just what the doctor ordered of course that could easily change the moment some shiny bauble catches my attention. How’s that for being indecisive and noncommittal?

Secret…

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I confess. Sometimes I have blog posts written hours or even days in advance. Today was supposed to be one of those days. I had a nice 300-odd word post all worked out and was ready to go, except suddenly it doesn’t reflect at all what’s actually going on any more. That sometimes my ranting from around lunch time doesn’t translate to later in the evening isn’t is unfortunate but true, which means its going straight into the recycle file to be used at a later date. It’s bad for blogging, but good for just about everything else. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Stream of consciousness…

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As much as I’d like to say I’ve been using the last five days to churn out my magnum opus, the real story is that I’ve mostly just been to lazy and disinterested to write much. Those are two attitudes that rarely lead to interesting posts. In fact I’m probably as bored writing this as you are reading it. Sure, there’s plenty enough going on. The Occupy people are mostly getting what they deserve. Europe is poised on the brink of catastrophe (when aren’t they). The Middle East is a tinderbox (as usual). The federal government could shut down later this week because Congress hasn’t gotten around to approving a budget and the Supercommittee on deficit reduction can’t seem to find their collective ass with their shriveled, tired, old hands and a flashlight. So basically the world is a hair’s breath away from spinning off into any number of possible nightmare scenarios. As much as I should be paying attention, I can’t seem to muster so much as a healthy give a damn. At this point I’ll consider it a victory if we just manage to keep the lights on and food on the table. How’s that for lowered expectations?

None of that really explains why I haven’t been writing. As far as any explanation is really possible, it’s mostly because I’ve momentarily run out of witty and sarcastic things to say. I’ve pretty much taken a stand on all the issues I feel strongly enough about to bother mentioning. Although it doesn’t seem like it sometimes, I’d really rather avoid beating the same tired horses over and over. When something interesting enough to catch my attention passes by, you can believe I’ll be back in spades telling you why it sucks. Since in all likelihood that will happen tomorrow or the next day, this entire post has served only as a placeholder until I can think of something more interesting to discuss.