It has been a long time since I have been able to write something beyond a business requirement, an RFP response, or a contract. Hell, I didn't even have a lot of time to write blogs at Hook 42 and when I would get there, my mind and fingers were burnt out. When I did write something, my words sounded dry and business-like.
As I unpack the last eight years of work burnout from Hook 42, I am exercising the old brain muscle and tapping into the love of storytelling. I still am fighting the desire to write in bullet points as I write this page, but I will enjoy my choice of using the Oxford comma as it was intended.
But you can't just think about writing. You have to just DO writing. And in a focused way. Fuck writer's block. It is just burnout, procrastination, or lack of discipline. I'm just flapping my lips at this point because I've only just begun. And that is my gumption to get more creative.
I am going to take Stephen King's approach to the writing process as told in his book On Writing. I suggest the audiobook because Stephen narrates the book and it really adds to the experience and message. Plus I have read almost all of his books up to about the year 2012, then I was just working a lot. Hearing him speak and reading his words is like visiting with an old friend.
Basically, you have to write something every day.
I'm so out of the practice of thinking creatively outside the confines of the business, I've been working on the story creation process with my nearly four-year-old son. Toddlers say the darndest things and have a silly off-the-wall approach to imagination, so I'm hoping it is contagious.
I do have a dusty version of Drupal 8 Multilingual Websites that I wrote that needs to be one-upped for the Drupal 9 release. Hopefully, I can get back on the saddle and get that shizza DONE!
And a quick writing homage to my Great Uncle George de Carvalho, 1952 Pulitzer Prize winner for local reporting while working at the San Francisco Chronicle. And I found a Wikipedia page to my Great Great Grandfather Januario Antoni de Carvalho that I never knew existed! And info on Great Aunt Virginia, a photojournalist for the San Francisco Chronicle.