What they don't tell you about Nor'easters
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Welcome to The Writing Rundown, a weekly newsletter that offers advice, short essays, and reading suggestions to help driven writers (like you!) improve their writing craft. It's nice to see you here! If someone forwarded you this email because they love your writing, you can subscribe here. Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes “After our earliest ancestors crawled out of the oceans, how soon did they feel the desire to crawl back in?” ― Sherman Alexie, War Dances What do I mean when I say “Life happens” or, more recently, “Life’s gonna life”? Let me paint you a picture of the past week. I start it out all excited, blocking out hours left-right-and-center on Focusmate to blast out writing and frameworks and little marketing thingy things. Vaguely, in the background, I’m paying attention to the weather reports that warn “a big one” is on its way. You can’t always trust the weather reports at the end of winter here. They are desperate to stay relevant for one more weather event, so they fear-monger you with their warnings and contagious nerves. But there is an awful storm that tends to hit the northern East Coast of the US, colloquially mishmosed into a term call “Nor’easter.” If the weather were a kitchen sink, where everything from blizzard to sorta-hurricane, along with ice and then rain, could get thrown out of the sky in a 24-hour period—that would be a Nor’easter. When one hits, the world stops working for a little while. No electricity, no internet, no heat…in my flat, no running water….it’s a situation. And it lasts for 37 hours. So you spend time reading and curled up eating crackers and peanut butter (so you don’t open the fridge and instead keep the food as cold as possible) and you know you should go to a cafe somewhere that has electricity and internet and maybe heat and a toilet that actually flushes. But you don’t. It all falls behind. Again, you are failing to meet the plans you set and the promises you made. Are you still a writer, a productive and useful person, if you continuously keep trying to do the right thing? Yet you consistently do the wrong. Even when some circumstances are beyond your control. CYC Elsewhere…Other places we’ve popped up around the interwebs.
In Other Reading This Week …Need more insights and inspiration for your writing and mindset?
Weekly Writing Tip …A quick chance to learn from the masters. “Genres are a funny little concept, aren't they? In theory, they have a simple definition that's easy to understand. But in practice, well, some may feel confined.” - Linda Martell, “SPAGHETTI” (fr. Beyoncé’s COWBOY CARTER) Untranslatable …Exquisite words from other languages. Ailyak (Айляк) [ALE-yak] (n.) – From the Bulgarian language, Айляк is a special kind of laid-back ease. More specific to Europe’s oldest city, Plovdiv, it is more of a way of life we experience. You should not worry so much, but instead live at a relaxed pace and love your life. Sorta synonyms: hakuna matata, no worries, chill This Week’s Writing Resource …Why not use the tools at your disposal? Marinara Timer — While I don’t like writing on Pomodoros (25 mins writing then 5 min breaks doesn’t let me get into a flow) this site allows you to use those OR set your own custom or “kitchen” timers. Perfect if you need to sit your butt in a chair and just. write. For the Upcoming Week …Because we all need a good chuckle to start things off right! I don’t know if Clippy is gonna be able to fix this Word problem. 😔 ‘Til next time! ~ Elisa |