Blog Post No. 530
I’ve written about music a lot on this website. Some of the earliest posts are about music. After ten years of posts, some ideas come around again (hopefully with a new perspective or at least expressed in a better way).
Music is a big part of my life and of my writing. Not only is my brother a musician (and a good one at that) but I grew up in a house (and car, and etc.) filled with music. My father played guitar and my mother played records. With two older brothers, I was constantly introduced to cool, new music, usually on CD with a little booklet with liner notes, pictures, and sometimes lyrics. Over the last few years, I’ve really gotten back into collecting physical media. Partly because I want to be able to reliably listen to (or watch) the things I like, but also because it’s neat to have those cases with liner notes and images.
This week’s post will be a little about music and writing in my life and a little about a few new albums I’ve physically purchased last year. In reverse order, the latest CD I’ve purchased is Expert in a Dying Field by The Beths. Continue reading “At the Risk of Repeating Myself – Music and Writing”
Before I sat down to write this week’s post, I wasn’t 100% sure what I was going to write about. I had a few half-thought-out ideas, but nothing that felt strong enough for a post. Then, I went through some old posts to determine exactly when I started the Invasion Novel (because I’m not done talking about that thing, yet and won’t be for some time). Turns out, the first post where I talk about actually starting the novel was in 
I’m not going to lie. The title of this post is a bit of a bait-and-switch. To be completely upfront, there is only one book planned for this year and even it’s only in the planning stages. I’ve started writing my part of it, though, so I want to talk a little about it. I briefly mentioned a potential 
Since 
I’m sure everyone has heard or read about how extensively people can acclimate to just about anything. There are people out there living with pain, stress, or other burdens that (while I’m sure it beats them down) they have just gotten used to all the things they do to mitigate their situation and move forward. Sometimes there’s no other choice and sometimes it seems easier to just put up with things the way they are than go through whatever it may take to change them. That’s an extreme example, but I’m sure we’ve all had a temporary burden hardship like a broken down car or 
Welcome to the end of 2022. As is tradition, I’ll write a nice long post looking back on the year when I get to the year-end of the blog in mid January. This post is all about looking to the future. The distant future of 2023, to be exact. Will there finally be flying cars and food in pill form? I have no idea, but I kind of hope not. I’ll settle for better healthcare and cheaper groceries. I’d also really like to finally get out of the house more and specifically start attending events again. I’ve been writing 
It’s holiday season and my family’s Christmas celebration is happening this weekend, so that’s what this post is going to be all about. But, before I dive into that, I do want to point out that I did manage to get the sixth draft of the Invasion Novel done last Friday. I even sent it out to a couple of folks who were eager do do a beta read for me. I have no idea when they’ll get back to me, but the current word count is under 120 000 words, so I suspect it’ll be some time. While I wait for that, I’ve started on another short story. I’m still shaking off the short story cobwebs, but I’m excited to be back to the format that I first fell in love with.
I sure hope I’m not going to be shooting myself in the foot (since I write my posts before their Thursday release) but if things go according to my current schedule, I should be done this draft of the Invasion Novel by tomorrow. I’m calling it the sixth draft even though I’ve been through the book more than six times. I feel like this is the sixth version of the book, though, so I’m sticking with it. While I’m optimistic that I’ll be finished, there is one potential issue that could make me a liar.
I’m closing in on the current draft of the Invasion Novel—which sounds good except for the fact that I had hoped to be done by now. There are all kinds of reasons why I’m behind, but that’s not what this post is about. This week, I’m looking into the methods I come up with to try and keep my productivity up. I’ve been coming up with different methods since high school (when I first got it into my head to be a writer). Clearly, what I came up with back then didn’t work or I wouldn’t be trying to finish my first novel many (many) years later. Oddly enough, though, the basic ideas I had back then aren’t all that dissimilar with the methods that have made the most impact over the years. 
It’s no secret that people are angry and have been for years. The culture in North America (and seemingly in other places as well) has been leaning towards an atmosphere of meanness, selfishness, pettiness, greed, and spite. This current decade has no monopoly on those feelings, but in the last few weeks I’ve been watching some television shows from my youth and I’ve noticed that, while television now is generally great, there isn’t the same emphasis on the moral message as there used to be. Plus, with so many ways to watch shows from so many services, there’s no general audience like there was in the days of network dominance.
Ben Van Dongen 