Eight Hundred Eleven Days. I don’t know why exactly that number strikes me as much as it does tonight, but it does. That’s a lot of days, man. A lot. When I started this bloggity blog, I had no idea I’d go this long. No idea.
I started my retrospective today. I think I’ll probably eek it out through the next few days, but we’ll see. I might find a westerly wind and just powe through tomorrow or the next day. I was reminded today of how much I really, really love doing those at the beginning of each year. They REALLY put my year into the proper perspective. So often I look back on the past with unease and/or negativity. Doing the retrospective really puts a different light on the year, reading through each daily entry and seeing how wonderful things actually were, how happy I was in my day-to-day.
Granted, I tend to write these entries in a fairly upbeat town…at least that’s how they read to me…but to be honest, that’s usually how I’m framing my life in my head as I’m going through it. I tend to try and find the upbeat spin on whatever’s happening…as dramatic as I can get sometimes. And negative. It’s like a logic vs. emotion kinda thing. The logical part of my brain is finding the upbeat path of thinking while the emotional part of my brain is like “death and destruction!”
No wonder I love the character of Spock so much.
Moving on and talking about “character”…I was just thinking about storytelling right before I sat down to write this blog. Thinking about characters while I was brushing my teeth and realizing that one of the biggest things that I’ve learned over these past two insane years of writing is what it actually means when all those teacher-types say that storytelling is all about character. It’s not about plot, it’s about character. I really, REALLY am starting to feel what they mean by that, and I do mean feel. It’s in the typing on the keyboard, if I’m in love with a character, they come alive and the story is suddenly worth writing about. They are the key.
So, yeah…fall in love with you characters, y’all. It’s the path to the promised land.
I was also thinking too the other day, which I’m remembering while I’m on the subject, that the real magic of storytelling for me and the reason why I’m looking forward to a lifetime of it…the real magic is that in writing these stories, I get to “meet” these wonderful characters/people that I would never know if I didn’t write their story. I’d never get to “meet” them if I didn’t put it all down on paper, and given how much I fall in love with them, that just seems like such a horrible loss to contemplate. So…I write. I write to bring them to life so that I might get to know them and cherish my time together with them.
Right…
So, we got all sappy tonight with the “writing” writing. It happens. Fucking sue me.
Tomorrow is a work day. I’d really been considering NOT making it a work day…but that’s poppycock. I want my work week done early this week so I can take some TIME OFF MOTHERFUCKERS. That shit is HAPPENING. Papa needs it. Needs it to do things like finish his new office overhaul and write his retrospective and the reviews for his 100 movies of 2015 list. And to plan out the first half of the year and set some goals. That kinda shit.
So, with that in mind, I’m off to bed. See y’all in the tomorrow land 😉