Inside the Mind of a Nathan

Plenty of things happened recently, but I mostly feel tired. I still haven't written a poem in a long while, but I've started writing again (more or less). Some day, I'll follow my own advice: a little bit every day. My current status is a moderate bit most days. The world is still too big, and I am still too small, but I do a pretty good job of worrying about one day at a time. Too many things. So many things. I need q-tips and probably some candy. I need to stop biting my fingernails. I need a new poem. I need a new short story. I need a new chapter for Werbel. I know where to find q-tips, but I'm not sure where to find candy. My fingernails are just gonna have to be ugly for now. I think my inner poet is slowly reviving; I imagine he'll soon enough be sufficiently healthy to write. I might try my hand at a tiny, little story after I get q-tips. Werbel has been waiting patiently. He will not be forgotten, but he has to wait a little longer. So th...

Once again, I don't feel like writing. I'd rather eat chocolate and play video games, but there's this sad thing where I always tell my students to write every day. And I've long hated "Do as I say, not as I do." Soooooo, um, stuff and things. Fascinatingly enough, actually, one of my students seems intent on taking my advice – what a novel concept! Usually, the way it goes is that I tell them to do something basic like write or read. I see them the following week. I ask, "Did you write or read?" They respond, "Well, uh, I kinda had to do this one thing where I couldn't spare two minutes since I was so busy with all the things I had to do." I recently met with a student and asked her if we were meeting at the same time next week. Long story short, she said that she thought the input I gave her was useful, and she wanted to go try to implement it on her own. That's the whole bloody goal: I teach you a thing, and then you go...

I really don't feel like writing. Or, rather, I really do feel like eating and watching Netflix. However, I am constantly belaboring my students about how they must write every day, so I feel convicted by my own words. I was chatting with a friend yesterday about how to write good writing. (Yes yes, redundant and all that. I know.) The conversation lighted specifically on describing well or having good word choice. I initially hypothesized it has to do with loving one's characters: believing in them, hoping for them, understanding them, empathizing with them. My friend asked how one can empathize with thoroughly evil characters: serial killers, child rapers, torturers.

I haven't written in forever. You don't mention it. I won't mention it. Moving on. I've been thinking a bit about Jacob Jacobsson, my time knight. I got the idea from a guy on Odesk (now called "Up"something). The bloke who intended on hiring me via the writing site recently wrote me to thank me for my assistance. I reminded him that, upon beginning the story, I had grown to love my characters too much so that I was loath to abandon them. He remembered and instead thanked me for encouraging him to indicate his intention with the rights to the work.