Planning for Later

After finishing his 365 Project Jack is eager to see what comes next for him.

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Been restless for days. Fastened safe behind the door of the bunker. Clicking and ticking the word keys. Idea stacking. Format building. Adding shape and structure. Fleshing out the details of the future for the future. Doing it all drained from the won race.

Constructing new tools to face unmet targets. Swords for battle and sticks for stability.

Victory battles don’t predict ended wars. Ended wars still have the aftermath. Recovery is gradual behind the worn inkless pen. Winners decide the history.

A war of infinite battles has no finish. Each finale is but a stepping stone to the next risk.
It was all just chapter 1.

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4 Tips

Instead of finishing the project with a clever bang, Jack takes the occasion to briefly list the four most helpful things he learned to not give up during the course of the project.

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Writers Block. On the last day. What’s the point? I already know what I want to write about. I’m done with a large portion of it already. All nice and typed up. But what I was originally writing about felt fake. Instead I will share 4 lessons I’ve learned in the last 365 days of daily writing. They’ve helped me immensely and will continue to be used in all my other work.

 

1. There is no such thing as writers block. If you don’t know what to write about, write about that feeling. Or write an explanation of what you’d like to write about but can’t find the words for. Every time I used this trick, writers block literally became the subject of the work. It gave me a weird opportunity to psychoanalyse myself. Reflect.

2. Scheduling writing into every day way crucial. It only became easy to write daily once I’d planned it ahead of time. It’s like an imaginary deadline that has to be met. A level of imaginary stress builds up as the deadline arrives. Before I know it my brain jump starts the engine and begins to pump ideas in desperation. And poof. It happens. Ideas long before I reach the keyboard..

3. Ignore the audience. Write what you find interesting first. Then edit it to be understood by the audience. If you love what you’re writing it’ll write itself. If it feels like work it’ll be stressful and take a toll on you. In my experience this took the form of experimentation. I would try out various writing tricks or test my skills with entirely different forms or writing. Other times it would just be a reach into a topic others feel uncomfortable discussing. If readers don’t like it they don’t have to read it. Once editing I decide how to word it to best convey it to a reader.

4. Don’t worry about how it sounds on the first go. The existing text can be edited, but it must first be written. This is basically a take on “Write Bad.” In allowing myself to write poorly first, to exploit the general idea, I discovered much more time existed on the tail end of the session to make the work read the way I want. I could edit for as long as I wanted knowing if time runs out I’m always finished.

 

That’s it. No epic boom. No party. Nothing more. Just for tips that helped ease 365 days of original content.

Don’t know what’s next. Probably more of this.

At a pace I feel more comfortable with.

 

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Faded Patterns

It’s hard to deal with change. But it’s hard to deal with change only because we believe it’s hard to deal with change. Change is impossible..

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Troubled by freedom. The thought of it.

The cage opens and the creature, too scared to leave, quivers at the door.

Long within the bar box. The concept of walking the grass is nauseating.

Overwhelming to not know the other side of the hill.

Perhaps a storm lives there.

Although no phobia for water, there is fear of getting wet.

Never once does it occur to raise the half empty glass to the crying sky.

One of the paintings is crooked and I can’t stop looking.

Jekyll in the lab, but hide when there’s no distraction.

Rhythm was the meditation.

Songs no longer play with open eyes.

Abandoning systems to rise above.

The realization, that which was left was but a fraction of the picture.

Safe outside the cage. Just a bigger box out there.

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