(Work-in-Progress) Home office illustration—not what my office actually looks like!
The illustration describes a more idealized (and less cluttered) version of my idealized office space. In my imagining of the space, the room is about twice this size, with another section continuing past the couch. That section not in the illustration holds built-in bookshelves filled with my library of books. Actually, one section is unlikely to include enough space!
My real office is bursting with books. Shelves filled beyond capacity, lacking space for new acquisitions. I've moved quite a few boxes of books to storage due to the space issue. No couch in the room. No treadmill. Both would be nice additions. My current desk is functional, but fixed in place, rather than being a sit-stand desk. I do have a tangerine tree that is around 35 years old—I haven’t finished creating it in the pic. I grew it from a seed as a teenager and somehow have kept it alive all these years.
Reality vs. Imagination: Negative Self-Talk
My imagination fuels my days. Whether creating stories of my own, enjoying those written by someone else, or watching movies and shows—I'm constantly picking the fruits of my imagination.
Sometimes my imagination goes down darker roads of self-reflection. I start to imagine myself fitter, wealthier, more productive, skilled, and achieving recognition for my creative work. I think it's healthy to imagine those things you want. To have dreams and turn those dreams into goals that you strive to reach. The problem comes when my self-talk compares what I imagined about myself to the reality, and turns negative. I feel bad because I haven't achieved the success I wanted.
I don't think I'm alone in that experience. As I talk to other artist, other writers, I see the same feelings reflected back. Even if someone outwardly has achieved things with their art that I'd like to achieve, that doesn't mean they're immune. They probably have their own ways to find fault in their achievements. It seems to be something that we all do. We're often kinder to others than we are to ourselves. We'll say things to ourselves, about ourselves, that we'd never say to someone else.
I'm working on being kinder to myself. One way that I'm approaching it is through gratitude. I have so much to be thankful about in my life. I'm fortunate that I have the time and resources to create things I enjoy. I have the security of a home, food, and a job I enjoy. Books enough to keep me reading for the next fifty years! I don't know what those years will bring, but I'm going to keep gratitude in my heart and be thankful for the gifts I enjoy every day.
Faceless Keys
A while back I picked up a Mac mini to use as my writing computer. Great little machine, add whatever screen, pointing device, and keyboard you want. I love keyboards with mechanical switches. They have that solid 'clicky' feel that makes typing a joy. I also wanted one that could be customized to my liking. And since I was using this primarily for my writing, I didn't need a big keyboard with an attached number pad.
I tried a couple different options and settled on the Keychron K2 without backlights. It hit the points I wanted except the key caps. I learned to touch type on actual typewriters as a kid. It was one of the classes I was excited about taking because even then I wanted to write. My teacher taped a sheet of paper to the front of the typewriter so it extended out over our hands and we couldn't look at the keyboard. She didn't keep it on there, though, so many of the students lapsed back into looking constantly at their fingers while they typed.
Later on, after college, I heard about the Dvorak keyboard layout and was intrigued. It sounded good to me. Vowels and common letters on the home row? That made sense. I learned that computer pretty universally came with the layout, you just had to enable it. I did and soon I was typing with the Dvorak layout on any of my devices, while still using Qwerty at work. And you know what? Even though I was a touch-typist already, I still had that bad habit of looking down at my fingers at times. Well, with the switch to Dvorak, that was pointless. Most of the labels didn't match the letters the keys actually produced. And my teacher was right—it broke me of that habit and made me a better typist. Not only in the Dvorak layout, but it carried over to using Qwerty at work. I didn't have to think about it, my fingers knew what layout to use each place I went.
Since then it has bugged me to have the keys labeled on my keyboards. It looks messy. It's distracting. My keyboards on my other devices use blank black keycaps. This week I received new keycaps for my Keychron keyboard and swapped them out. They feel great and I love how they look. One of those little things that has made me happy this week! Oh, and I left the original red ESCape key because I found it funny.
Book-of-the-Week
Along those lines, this week I'm reading EVERY TOOL'S A HAMMER: LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT by Adam Savage.
Now, I never watched Mythbusters. I've seen some of Adam Savage's YouTube content, and that is actually what got me into reading this book. He was answering viewer questions about dealing with emotions around creating and mentioned his book. I popped over to the library's e-book catalog, did a quick search, and the book came up. I had it on my e-reader seconds later. I'm really glad that I decided to read it!
Right away I read passages that resonated with me:
• "With eyes that have always been bigger than my stomach, my creative plate has been consistently full to overflowing with ideas. My battle is usually with time and resources more than worrying about what my next project will be."
• "But even if I hadn't been able to do that [making] for a living, if I could only chase those thrills in my free time, I would still be constantly making stuff."
There's so much more, those are just a couple of the first highlights I made in the book (love that feature on e-books). I love seeing people make things, create art, music, whatever it is, I find that inspirational. And I feel the urge often to try everything, but what I've come back to throughout my life has been telling stories. Writing stories and creating art that tells stories. I can get lost in that, and it is definitely something I'm grateful for in my life.
Works-In-Progress
I spent more time this week writing chapters for the new novel. I'd like to see it done in September and I think that there's a strong possibility of completing the first draft.
I started a new short story—not a short short—and had intended to finish it this week, but it might creep into next week.
Otherwise, busy with all of the other projects too. The new paperback edition of The Murders in the Reed Moore Library is available now through Amazon. It'll be out more widely soon.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this latest issue of READINARY.
Speaking of gratitude, as always, I'm grateful for the support from my subscribers and support as a reader, premium subscriber, or someone who has picked up my stories or books—you're my heroes!
Best wishes, always—Ryan