Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Update!

So, my Flickr account is all but dead and mostly because I'm killing it with my lack of posts. Whatever. Maybe my hipsterly camera kung-fu is finally over.

On the other hand, eleven days in and there are eleven little story bits over at 405 (click here!). Some are lazy, others less so...

...and today, writer Warren Ellis posts a link to this interview with writer William Gibson, and it's all the encouragement to continue.

354 to go, and it's all because of Henry Rollins and now William Gibson!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Thirty-Five Januaries

I have these little wrinkles around my eyes and I'm twenty pounds lighter. I hate this time of year.

Won't be until - say - February that the weird "new year feeling" will sink in. And mostly because, well, there isn't going back, is there?

So, I've done very little for the last six months. Nothing more than working and sleeping, maybe some reading. Nothing else. The gross over-exaggeration notwithstanding, I want to do something. I always want to do something. I never know what that is, and it's why I'm not past the "amateur" phase at life. There you are, and I'm going to give myself a couple of things to do because sometimes I think my brain is rotting from misuse. Whatever.

Once the site is back to working today, over at 405, I'm going to write one thing a day for all of 2012. I haven't written anything substantial in too long a time. And I think I work well this way. And I say "work" and mostly I think it's fun. It makes me laugh, these writing bits I set down. Sometimes they make me sad. But hearing it from Henry Rollins while in Book Soup a couple months ago with Golden and Brittany, I realized I don't write daily. Rollins' recommendation. Of course, this is the recommendation from any writer, whether I like their work or not, to anyone who wants to write. I can't go back to being 19-20 years old when I did. But there is no creative output I feel proud of recently because there has been nothing worth mentioning (although a microstory I posted made me laugh!).

Over at Flickr and Instagram (same username: jchavezloeza), I'm going to take a picture and write a little blurb a day about 365 people, places, things I like. Because there must be, right? The reason behind this too is that it'll get me writing a bit more. Kind of like a warm up (hopefully!). And seeing as how I like to thrown things at people I think are awesome already, I might as well put a little effort into it, at least. I'm terrible as this type of thing. But, as mentioned, I need to write everyday, even if it is a little blurb about why I love David Fincher's movies.

A couple of days ago, Golden and I had lunch and I told her the story of how I wound up meeting up with her wearing designer jeans. She was on her break so I couldn't really get into the story how I wanted. And I want to tell you too, but that's for later. And this story, once I get there, will bring me back to where I was in 2009 and a year ago and last month and will rant and rave. Because it's what I do. So I can write daily, of course.

I suppose I can write here more often, in the way that I used to so many years ago. Not as a journal, the way this reads. But then, I remember when I first started writing, I wasn't working, I was in a new city, I read more, I did more things. Now, I don't.

But back to the writing: sometimes I read something that isn't a story and it makes me think people are terribly arrogant and simple because it's about money. Everyone talking about what it is their writing is worth. And I asked the question (and received no response), if no one ever read what you wrote, never paid you for it, would you still do it? The answer has to be yes. Always yes. I remember Corey and I having a conversation about how when you write something - article, tweet, post, novel, whatever - the writer should never write for the audience, whether it exists, regardless of size, or not. He disagreed with me. But that's where, at the beginning of 2012, I've arrived. The even imagined-moneytization of creativity is horrible. This coming from an amateur.

I have meetings in my calendar for months into the future. I need to take suits to be tailored. maybe I ought to be more on top of things about my health. Lose another twenty-pounds. Reach back to people I miss. Ask this woman out. Be nicer. Take care of my family more. Be more patient. I don't really know. But I like my brain better and I am taking a shot at making it work a bit this year. That's what it's about. Setting things down on paper. Or on the computer. You know what I mean.

Here's to day one.