Back In the Saddle

Today marks Day One of Stanford's online continuing education class on writing poetry.

I feel like a little kid on the first day of school . . . nervous, full of wonder, excited by possibility. I've done a few of these classes over the past four years and loved them. I need the discipline of a class (with deadlines) to engage in a writing practice. Stanford's Writer's Workshop classes give me the framework and structure to write along with the freedom to do it on my own time.

Every time I undertake one of these classes I grow as a writer. Thus far, each step has been visible primarily to me. Maybe this session marks will mark taking that more public step and sharing with a broader audience.

Longer term goals aside, today is the beginning of a new journey. I'm excited to be back on the path.

Haiku on Fog

NaBloPoMo is certainly a demanding mistress. I find myself thinking "and what will I write about today?"

One always-good answer is haiku. Today, I was struck by the fog that enveloped Palo Alto, making everything a bit more damp and feeling of fall.

Without further ado, today's haiku:

Fog blankets the house
Water droplets everywhere
Walking through grey clouds

An Eater of Words

I have become an eater of words. They nourish and sustain me.

I've always been a bookworm, reading any chance I have. It's been that way since childhood. I have never been more than an arm's reach from a book. Magazines are part of the diet: food, home, culture, business, photography, art, and literature. Add to that nearly 350 RSS feeds of blogs. Audiobooks and podcasts emanate from my ever-present slender white square, filling drives, chores, and otherwise lost time with words.

The challenge for me is to balance the taking in with the putting out. I may consume words but I write less than I'd like. One of the compelling aspects of November is this drive to put words out, online, on paper, however. I'm taking in great material; the opportunity is to put out equally great stuff.

November (Already)

Statement of the obvious: today is November 1. Another SOO: It has been far too long since I've written here. The great news is that any day can represent a new beginning.

For some, today marks the firing of the virtual starter gun for NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month. One month. 50,000 words. One novel. For the past two years, I've been thinking about it. And that's as far as I've taken it. November 1 sneaks up and catches me unawares, finding me not having thought about plot, characters, or much beyond a core idea. Ah well, there's always 2008 for a dash-to-the-finish novel effort.

In the meantime, November 1 also heralds the launch of NaBloPoMo: National Blog Posting Month. One month. One blog post a day. Last year may have not seen profundity on a daily basis from me but my writing habit increased. Indeed, my technical sophistication did too, as I made my first moblog post in this month last year.

Here's to new beginnings, for this blog and for a more regular writing practice. Watch out world, there might be pictures too.