Month: February 2021
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Oh…I’m creating…just not at the keyboard…
Not writing this weekend (though I have, so far, done a fairish bit of reading). So… How am I spending my Saturday and Sunday? Catching up on the basement finishing project. Wiring in the new lights and got a satisfactory op test. Next step? Hang ceiling.
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Not a Real Update
As the title says… This isn’t a real update. Took a pause this week to work on my thesis for Johns Hopkins University. Just shy of 95 days til graduation. So…while I work on finishing my MA in Writing…enjoy this photo I took of the trees behind the house.
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Update…Manuscript number….3?
There’s a post on this website titled John Doe which began as a quick prompt in one of my classes. We had a silent guest in class (on Zoom) and we had maybe ten minutes to write down whatever we noticed about the guy. That led to the aforementioned post and the post kinda tumbled…
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Update on manuscript #2
Didn’t get much in the way of new writing done on this project over the weekend. Chose to go through what’s there already and walk through the scenes and dialogue in my head (okay…and out loud with me doing all of the voices…). Generated nearly 30 pages of notes: What would he be doing…? What…
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John Doe
Background on this piece: During class, we had a guest. We had five minutes to write down as many details as possible and then had to write a 500-ish word tale (or start of one) about the guest. Here is my story… John Doe “Who’s asking?” The man posing that question was, as you…
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It’s not personal…
As human beings, we have a tendency (some of us, anyway) to take disasters and inconveniences personally. We see them as evidence that the world is out to get us. We see X as some sort of punishment for doing Y or not doing Z. Part of that mentality is our inability to step outside…
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Manuscript 2 Update
Alright…back at it again today and I now have 14 of 20 planned chapters for the new book finished (by which I mean that the shitty first drafts are done…visions of revisions dancing in my head). Total word count is right around 50,000 for now…estimated to be around 77,000 when I’m done with this draft.…
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Noticing: Parental Fails
I noticed that I have completely failed to teach my kids the difference between the following announcements: “Dad, there’s a puddle of water in the basement and a drip from one of the valves near the water treatment tanks.” And… “Dad! Flooding in the basement!” I’m a former submariner. I’m sure that you can appreciate…
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Noticing
In addition to the thesis course, I’m currently taking a course at Johns Hopkins called “Noticing as a Writer” and I have to admit that the practice of writing down random noticing notes is highly addictive…and amusing. That said…I’ll kick off my first such entry on this website. I noticed, during a doctor’s office visit…
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Update: Where did i leave off?
Alright…back at it today…So where am I? First up…My first manuscript. I’m still in the revising and editing stage (or rather…back in the revising and editing stage). The working title for this WIP is Interdiction and the premise is pretty simple: There’s a new president in the White House who is intent on ending American…
Matt Hardman 