The basis for advanced juggling patterns is the three-ball cascade. * Writing isn’t too much different than juggling. When writing stories, three things are also the basis for advanced techniques: a beginning, a middle, and an end. * (Okay, so it’s not the basis of everything, but to go on and on about odd-numbered patterns […]
Monday Motivation: Skip Writing
All week long, I looked forward to Saturday morning. The plan: wake up early and write! Cooler weather was predicted by the weather seers — what more could I ask for? Somewhere along the way, my wife said, “We should get up early and juggle Saturday morning! The weather’s supposed to be sunny, barely any […]
Speak Out With Your Geek Out – Juggling
Monica Valentinelli is the reason I started a 30-day social media break that became 50 days (and is now 100 days). She’s also one of the minds behind Speak Out With Your Geek Out, an online celebration of geeky hobbies. (There’s also a SOWYGO Tumblr page.) In an entry on the blog listing some ideas […]
Snow Juggling
I slacked off on the blog this week because we’ve been having ice and snow in north Texas and I’ve been having a blast enjoying the weather. This is what I did today instead of updating the blog (and yes, that’s a kilt):
The Learning Curve
Yesterday, I posted an entry about how writing well takes time. I’ve been very fortunate to be friends with writers, artists, and musicians. One of my musician friends is somebody I’ve known for over 25 years. In that time, I’ve seen him play bass, piano, and guitar. Yesterday on his Facebook page, he posted this […]
Monday Motivation: Learning as You Go
“Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.” – E.L. Doctorow * * * Writing well takes time to learn. One doesn’t sit down for a couple weeks and suddenly produce a bestseller. The time needed to produce 85,000 words of even bad writing takes longer than it takes most […]
The Big Writing Lesson I Learned from Juggling
I know it goes without saying, but to get good at something, you have to practice. A lot! I’ve been juggling since 1981 (and I have the picture to prove it!). I used to devote all my free time to juggling. Later, I devoted most of my free time to writing. (At times, I wrote […]
Dropping Things
There was a period of time, during an illness with a close relative and during an illness of my own, that I didn’t write or juggle as much as I once did. I felt bad that I wasn’t productive. Even though nobody would fault me for taking care of a sick sibling for two years […]
5 Writing Lessons Learned from Street Performing
Before I ever made money writing, I made money juggling. When I started writing, I realized many of the lessons learned from street performing applied to writing. The first time I juggled for money, I was given permission to juggle in the plaza in front of Dallas’ West End Marketplace. I went to Dallas by […]
Jugglebot
The juggling geek in me likes this. They need another robot and more balls. But just like writing a novel, you have to start somewhere…