Ah, a nice clean look. No annoying side bar. The page width is how I like it, but, as most blogs and online publications keep a slimmer page length, it may not actually be ideal.
Also, I realize that the thing above this post, the archive, appears to be fucked and I have no idea how to fix it.
I like the layout though. Simple. clean, easy to read (except the previously mentioned fucked header). I've always liked the black page with white letters to reduce eye strain.
I could be wrong about all of this of course. So let me know if I'm wrong, in some way. I will make my comments open after I post this, so feel free to anonymously share your thoughts.
I'm excited about this though. And I'm excited about my first story to be posted on April 1st. It's pretty silly, but I like it. And it is exciting to have written my first story that wasn't assigned.
I like the idea of publishing stories in this format. And I hope as I do so often, more and more ideas to push the medium will occur to me. One already has, but it is far too ambitious to start now.
Unrelated stuff after the break (metawriting ahead, beware)
I listen to several podcasts, on of which is WNYC's radiolab. It's excellent. Check it out, it is free as almost all podcasts are (I'm not going to pay to listen to you talk to me!).
Anyway, today's subject was how to help yourself do something you don't want to do. Or have trouble doing. Basically internal struggle.
One of the segments, I was happy to hear, was about writing and the block that often comes with the writing. The first guy they had on talked about how he was having terrible difficulties finishing his book. So he made a deal with himself that he would finish the book in ten days. And that if he failed to finish the book, he would kill himself.
Yes, he decided he would kill himself. I sat in my car stunned, thinking, well, this isn't exactly the most useful advice. Is this what I would have to do to get my ten stories out by the deadline? I thought of the box cutter in my apron and if I'd be able to use it to, as David Foster Wallace might say, eliminate my map for keeps. No, I don't think I could take my self seriously in that threat.
But he did take himself seriously. So seriously in fact, he finished the book in nine days, and enjoyed the process. Evidently, as you might imagine, this deal caused enough psychic damage that he did not advise anyone to do the same.
Then they had Julia Roberts the woman who wrote Eat, Pray, Love (one of the most popular books ever! they declared to my dismay) about her channeling of the creative wave that sweeps the globe. She found out about this wave from Tom Waits. Well, that makes sense.
Evidently he talks to his ideas, or his creative impulses, or his frontal lobe, I don't know, but he would pace around in his studio and yell at a song he was having trouble with like
"Come on you bastard! I've finished all the other songs and now you just won't come along, I'm going to leave your sorry ass behind if you don't get your shit together!"
And, smartly, the song would behave. If Tom Waits yelled at me I wouldn't fuck around anymore either.
This advice was even less useful. First of all, I can't kill myself, no matter how many deadlines I miss.
Second of all, I don't have Tom Wait's voice so I can't expect to command the creative wave.
Third of all I don't want to write Eat, Pray, Love.
Maybe the last point wasn't fair, but I think this writing all the time, forcing myself to do it no matter what through sure grit and determination is the only way. That and alcohol I suppose.
So the episode was, over all, pretty useless. But whatever. There are no easy answers. Except to this question:
Should I follow Mark K Writes on blogger/twitter/just bookmark this site and check it on occasion?
The answer, of course, is no.
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