Drunken Owls and Other Delights

I've been on this big Zen kick lately. I think part of it might be due to the one-a-day calendar I get in my email that gives me daily Zen quotes. There's also the fact that I've been rethinking a LOT lately on my thought processes, habits, and goals.

You've probably noticed I haven't been online nearly as much as I have in the past. I'd like to post here more, and I'd like to interact with my friends on Twitter more, but on the other hand, I've decided to take some things private. I decided that I may still want to work out my thoughts and actions by writing, but instead of doing it online, I bought a moleskine notebook and have been using that as a diary of sorts. I've also taken my poetry offline as well, returning to the composition notebooks. It has nothing to do with fear of lack of privacy; it's more to do with making it more personal for myself. Once again using my latest mantra of "start at the beginning", I thought I'd return to the methods of personal writing that I had when I first started out.

I think it's worked out well so far. One of the benefits is that I'm not editing myself internally, something I've always done online. I can be more random, more stream-of-conscious. I think one of the problems with writing online is that I invariably end up editing myself, probably more than I should. I want to say something, but I end up taking a good hour or so to write a post because I want to think it through so it doesn't sound scattered. I end up holding back, not saying what I really want to say. I've noticed this in my prose and poetry as well. Taking it back to a more private and personal level has let me open up a little, be more spontaneous. I still feel a bit rusty at it, but it feels good to do this again.

I've also been thinking about the idea of balance in my writing, particularly in the Eden Cycle. Balance is a big part of the plot--the polar opposites must coexist in a balance, rather than good triumphing over evil--especially with this latest revision. I keep this in mind every time I've worked on it this round, and I've been able to strengthen a lot of the plot in the process, something I may not have been able to do in the past because I wasn't looking at the story on that level. I haven't utilized this mode of thinking in any of my other works as of yet, but I definitely think it's worth thinking about once I do pick them up.

So I think the first few weeks of January have been good so far, on a personal and also on a creative level. I can go much farther, and I still need to remind myself where I am now and again, but for the most part, I'm happy at how everything's working out at this point. It's an ongoing process, and I think it's one worth working on.