Monday Motivation: 44 Short Stories in 2016

I've accepted the challenge to write 44 short stories in 2016. This means I have to write a 4 short stories a month between February and December. If I decide to do NaNoWriMo this year it could be more; however, I don't think I'll participate in National Novel Writing Month. I could change my mind as November approaches, but right now my plan is to write the 44 short stories plus several poem.

Forty-four stories
Each of five hundred plus words
I'm pushing myself

I didn't find out about the challenge until January was half over. When I discovered it on writing.com, I had to think about whether I would accept it. After some meditation and contemplation, I decided to accept the challenge. In addition to the challenge I have a novel I want to finish and one I want to edit. If I change my mind about NaNoWriMo then I will finish the one of the unfinished novels I have started rather then beginning a new novel.

I'm pushing myself
beyond my perceived limits
into the unknown.

 

Monday's Motivation is Writing Through the Depression

It's Monday, August 31, and I am depressed. I was slightly depressed before I ate breakfast, but now I'm falling deeper into the darkness. I know when I'm depress because I always feel guilty, even when I have nothing to feel guilty about. The only ways I know to overcome this miserable emotions is to write and pray (not necessarily in that order).

I'm praying and I'm writing. The feeling keeps hanging on, so I think I may have to get out of the house and walk in the sunshine to overcome it entirely. Normally the feeling isn't this deep so it may be something I ate for breakfast. My breakfast today consisted of bacon sandwiches. Those shouldn't have caused an issue, unless the problem was the bread which is a carbohydrate. I suppose it could be part of the problem, but I can't figure out why it affected me so soon after breakfast.

Writing through the depression
means keeping the fingers moving
across the keyboard.

I don't know what else to do. I don't like to take to my doctor because she will just prescribe another medication. I'm taking enough medication as it is. Maybe the problem is vitamin D. I have to check my supply, I don't think I took my vitamin D tablet yesterday. I'll take one today and I have to check to see if I need any more vitamin D tablets.

Monday Motivation: Looking for Motivation

I am looking for motivation. I am seeking motivation to write and to do housework. I into this apartment on June 9, so there is not much housework to do. I have a lot of unpacking and rearranging the kitchen. I have furniture in the living room, but one in eithr bedroom. My sister is supposed to move in with me sometime between now and July 1.

I suspect I am depressed because depression always kicks my motivation out the window. I am not sure why I am depressed. Am I depressed because of the move? Am I depressed because I need to get thing organized, but have no place to put anything? Why am I depressed?

I could be depressed because I am not eating a well balanced diet. It is possible I am not getting enough sleep. I am still sleeping on the loveseat. I am tired of sleeping on it. Laying down causes lower back pain, which I have medication for. The medication dulls the pain, but it makes me groggy the next day. I think my biggest problem is that I am just tired of living alone. I will be happy when my sister moves in so that I do not have to talk to myself or my pet rocks.

Moving depressing
the half empty apartment
waits for furniture.

 

Monday Motivation: Triple Digit Temperatures and Motivation

Today the temperature in Las Vegas reach 107^oF, which is about 8 or 9 degrees above average. Tomorrow the temperature will rise to 109, after that it get higher and higher. By Sunday, June 21, the first day of summer the temperature is supposed to be 111. These temperature motivate me to remain indoors with the cool air turned on.

Right now I have the indoor temperature sit at 78 degrees and the air conditioner on ECONO mode, which is supposed to turn the unit off when it reaches the proper indoor temperature. I doubt that it will reach that temperature before midnight. Fortunately, the only time I have to have the unite on is when I am working at the computer. Normally I do not turn the cool air one when I am doing housework, all thought this summer I may reconsider that. I will have to see once I get into the real work of sweeping and mopping floors.

I just moved into this apartment so I am not planning on doing any "real" housework until I get the boxes unpacked and the sheet put away. The only problem I foresee right now are the trips to the laundromat, drugstore, and supermarket. I have enough food to eat for a while, even thought do no look forward to cooking in hot weather. I may have to have the air on while I fix me something to eat.

Triple digit temperatures
unmotivating
after they reach 102.

 

Monday Motivation: Coffee and Writing Motivation

A strong cup of joe
Unadorned with anything
Sipped from a white cup.

The best motivation for writing on Monday, or any other day of the week, is coffee. Strong, hot, black, and smooth coffee. It does not matter if you call it joe or java. It does not matter if you drink out of the same cup everyday or have a different cup for each day of the week. It does not matter if you wash your cup everyday or just once a month. These things do not affect the taste or enjoyment of the coffee itself.

On Sunday I washed
My favorite white cup
For the first time this month

I confess! I wash my cup either once every nineteen days or every thirty days. It is my coffee cup and I am the only person using it. It does not matter how often I wash the cup. Washing my coffee cup everyday is not a priority. Washing the other dirty dishes is a daily priority because it is sort of like taking medication.

As I sip coffee
I listen to the birds
Writing motivation.

I do not drink decaf! I attempt to avoid instant coffee. I have a small jar of instant coffee in the freezer. I keep the instant coffee as my second emergency backup. I also have a package of whole bean coffee in the freezer. The whole bean coffee is my first emergency backup. I keep two emergency coffee backup because I do not intend to wake up some Monday morning and find I have inadvertently ran out of coffee.

Monday Motivation: Motivation and Meditation

I've heard rumors that meditation helps motivation. I'm about to find out if it does because after the stressful day I've had I'm ready to change something. Normally I meditate in the afternoon, but that is becoming impossible because of the music that reverberates through the walls of my apartment. When I first moved in the music didn't bother me, but lately it's become irritating. It could be that the guy next door plays the same damn songs over and over and over.


The music not only interferes with meditation, but it interferes with writing as well. I can't th ink while the that music is playing. I have missed three weeks of submitting a story to a challenge on writing.com. I have a chance to make up the three stories I've missed; however, in order to do that I must write a 2,500 to 5,000 word story this week, a 5,000 to 10,000 word story next week, and a 8,000 to 40,000 word story the following week. Since the music plays in the afternoon between 3:00 pm to 7:00 or 8:00 pm I will be doing most of my writing and meditating in the mornings or late evenings. The advantage to this is that I will have my afternoons free to do housework or go grocery shopping unless I go to a food bank (I have to go to those before noon.

Beginning on Tuesday I will do my meditation in the morning and pray I don't go to sleep while meditating. Perhaps I should change my bedtime from 9:30 to 10:30 pm, that way if I go to sleep while meditating it won't matter. Look for an update to this sometime later this week.

Monday Motivation: Sunny Wind

Is there anything more motivating then a sunny spring afternoon? The wind is blowing and the neighborhood children are waling home form school. At least, I think their walking home from school because they are making happy noises and conversation as they walk past my open door. The wind is blowing making life miserable for people with allergies. Today I have encountered two people wearing dust mask, which is something I do not often see here in Las Vegas.

The wind speed is 21 mph with gust up to 28 mph. It is scattering litter up and down Sunrise Avenue. The boughs on the pine tree are waving at the palm frowns which are waving back at the pine trees. The neighborhood children do no seem to notice the wind, but then kids have a way of ignoring things that do not enhance their play experience. The birds are not ignoring the wind. I have watch a couple of them have problems flying because the wind is disrupting their flight path. The cause of that may be the apartment buildings along the street. There are several two story apartment complexes along Sunrise which may be cause the issue with the birds taking off and landing.

I have not seen any pigeons this afternoon. Usually their are pigeons scavenging along the curb. They could be in the alley or they could be in their nests. I heard bird noises coming from the pine tree across the street. I think they sounded like baby birds, but I could not say for sure. I know the bird sounds resembled those of song birds and not pigeons. The wind does not seem to be bothering the humans much, but it is bothering the birds.

Monday Motivation: Motivation and Catching Up

On Sunday, March 29, I left the house at 8:15 am and returned home about 6:30 pm PDT. Needless to say I did not get much writing or anything else accomplished around the house. I went to the Baha'i Center on East Oakey Avenue to listen to a presentation by Alex Gottdank the author of Preparing for Christ's New Name. After returning home I responded to a blog prompt from one of the writing.com blogging groups I participate in, then I created a survey for another group and posted a blogging prompt for today. When I fished those things I went to bed.

My motivation for Monday and Tuesday is to catch up on as much as I can before I have to go to the eye doctor on Wednesday morning. I want to go to the laundromat of Friday or Saturday, at the latest. So I have to get enough writing and other chores caught up before then. When I go to the laundromat it takes me three or four hours to do laundry. If I go to the store after doing laundry then it takes longer which means I have to have everything written that has deadlines on Friday or Saturday..

I am sure I can get the writing accomplished. It is the housework that might cause an issue. I live in a studio apartment and I am still attempting to find storage for items I do not intend to give away. I am also packing a box of stuff to give away or put into storage. I do not think I want to put stuff in storage so I have to decide what I want to keep, throwaway, or give away. This is a difficult process which is only aggravated with my tendency to procrastinate when confronted with stress.

Monday Motivation: Motivation for the week of March 22 to March 28, 2015

I was away from home most of Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, I went to a Naw-Ruz party at the Las Vegas Baha'i Center here in Las Vegas. Then on Sunday I went to a spiritual service at the center. While I was home, I wrote a poem, a 1,000 plus word short story, finished my edition of the writing.com fantasy newsletter, and did a few short story or poem reviews. I also discovered that the best motivation I had was being behind on my writing with a deadline closing in.

This week I have a form poem and a short story to write. The short story has to be between 1,250 and 2,500 words to write. The form poem is a Rispetto, an Italian rhyming poem containing two quatrain stanzas. I am writing a heroic Rispetto, which uses iambic pentameter rather then iambic tetrameter. I started the poem this morning before I took the trash out to the alley. I have to get back to it after I post this entry because I cannot put off writing either the poem or the story.

The story, which is a romance, is due on Saturday, March 28. The deadline for the poem is Sunday, March 29. Since I will be out of the house all evening Saturday and all day Sunday, I have to get those items finished before 4:00 pm on Saturday. On those days I am going to the Baha'i Center for a Free Seminar titled "Exploring the Meaning of Revelation 3:12".

Monday Motivation: March is for Motivation

The wind blew all day trimming the palm trees. Dead palm fronds lay in the street and make some very weird sounds when cars run over them. The first time I heard a car drive over a dead palm frond it startled me because it sounded like a hallow cough, but now that I am used to the sound it does not bather me.

A palm trimming wind
blows through the streets of Las Vegas
shivering tourist.

The late winter wind of early March is cold. Today it feels as if it were blowing off an iceberg sending chills down my arms. I took the trash out before noon today. I had to throw away a dead mouse, so I thought I would go to the alley before it started raining again, so about 11:00 am I put on a sweater, a sweatshirt, and a hoodie. They kept me warm while I walked to the alley and back to my apartment.

The arctic express
blows down Sunrise Avenue
freezing exposed skin.

March is for motivation. It is a fickle and inconsistent month that some years comes in like a lion and other like a lamb. This year March changed its mind and came in like a Siberian tiger stalking its prey across the frozen tundra. That is how the wind chill factor makes me feel. I am thankful for the motivation that the fickle month of March brings into Las Vegas.

March motivation
early springtime's fickle winds
sometimes cold and sometimes warm.

Monday Motivation: Monday Story Ideas

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.

Orson Scott Card

This morning began really slow, but I did find some story ideas in my slow beginning and the slow pace of the web this morning. I don't know why my browser was so slow. It could have been the weather or it could have been the creatures in cyberspace. I like the creature in cyberspace idea because it leaves a lot of room for any genre of story. A story about the weather effecting the speed of the internet works as well, but that suggest a science fiction story while the creatures in cyberspace suggest a horror story.

This afternoon my browser is running at its normal speed. The wind has also picked up here in Las Vegas. No, I don't think one has to do with the other. That is a good story idea though. I'm sitting at my desk looking out my front door (my studio apartment has only one door leading to the outside) at the pine tree across the street. The variable wind is blowing through the branches and sounds like the waves washing onto a beach. The birds are singing while litter and leaves are blowing down or up the street depending on the direction of the wind.

My neighbors are home, but then my neighbors are at home most of the time. Right now they are talking and playing music both, of which, I can hear through the walls of my apartment. I have to say that apartment living encourages understanding and forgiveness. I think I could write a story about those two attributes as well. I could also write about the people walking by my apartment who stop in front of my door and talk to each other. I love apartment living because it encourages my muse to come up with story ideas.

Monday Motivation: Valentine's Day

Valentine's day is twelve days away, but it is already motivating me to write bitter love poems. The poem I wrote today is called "Valentine's Day Lament" and it is about lost love. I am alone on Valentine's Day. I have no love interest. I am not interested in finding a love interest (pun intended). I like being alone most of the time. I enjoy writing bitter love poems, which are based on past experiences.

If I was to find a love interest then he would have to have... I am not sure what I am looking for in a man. I know I would want one who is creative and spiritual. I want a man who believes in the equality of men and women. I want one who is willing to look at my religion with an open mind. I guess I do know what I want in a man after all. Sometimes I have to write my thoughts down in order to figure out what I want.

On Valentine's Day
I want someone to send me
a single red rose.

Monday Motivation: Ways to Get Motivated

Today I discovered two things that motivate me. First, is catching up on a writing project and finishing it before the high noon deadline. Second, is a FEDEX driver delivering an expected package to my door. I was thrilled when I saw the dark brown delivery truck park in front of my apartment. The deliver person brought the mini food chopper I have been expecting since November 1, 2014.

All right, I know better then to order something for myself that close to the holidays because it will take longer then expected. The food chopper came so now I can go to the grocery store and purchase some fresh vegetables instead of fresh frozen vegetables. I used the fresh frozen because I had to cut them up, which meant I never got them sliced the same size twice. The food chopper will allow me to chop the vegetables for soup or omelets evenly and this will help when cooking them.

The writing project I finished was the January 28 issue of the writing.com fantasy newsletter. I finished it last night between 9:00 and 11:00 pm Pacific Standard Time. My problem with the newsletter was a theme. Sometimes I have no difficulties thinking of a subject, but for some reason I could not come up with a subject until last night. The newsletter was not the only writing project I had difficulty with this past week. I also had problems when it came to a Naani poem.

The Naani form is one of India's Telugu poems. Naani, which is composed of four lines containing between 20 to 25 syllables, means "an expression of one and all". It was due last night at 9:00 pm Pacific Standard Time (Midnight EST), I thought about it all week, but could not come up with anything. Finally yesterday, after making a blog entry in my writing.com blog about the Doomsday Clock, I came up with the title (Three Minutes to Midnight) and the rest of the poem was easy.

Monday Motivation: I Am Not a Failure

"Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he’ll eventually make some kind of career for himself as writer."

Ray Bradbury

I am not a failure!
I write something everyday.
Everyday I say a prayer
and I read a store or poem.

Each day is a struggle
against the darkness
that threatens to overtake,
against the voices of self-doubt,
and against the fear
that attempts to steal
my sense of security.

I am not a failure
because each day
I march forward toward the light
that hides beyond the fog
of today.

I am not a failure
because I continue to proclaim
the name of the Lord.

I am not a failure
because I continue to write
upon the tablet of my spirit
both words and deeds.

I am not a failure! I may not always make my word count goal, but I continue to try. I continue to write poetry and stories. Sometimes I have to look closely at the grammar and the word use because I think faster then I type, but that is the reason I edit and rewrite. As long as I move forward I cannot fail because movement is progress and progress is success.

I am not a failure! Sometimes the darkness of depression overcomes and pushes me down. I will not remain depressed or down because I will rise above the depression simply by writing about the darkness. I write dark letters on a white page; I am working with the negative of light letters on a dark page.

Monday Motivation: Rain

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

John Ruskin 

It is raining in Las Vegas, but we are not having bad weather. The rain is refreshing, it falls gently onto cement sidewalks, asphalt streets, rock covered yards, and dry desert. The rain is beautiful. The temperature is a refreshing 76 degrees, so I opened my front door to watch the raindrops strike the ground on Sunrise Avenue.

The cloud covered sky is a patchwork of charcoal gray and gray white. It reminds me of a cotton quilt my grandmother made. I don't know what happened to the quilt because it got lost in the various moves from city to city, from state to state, from apartment to house and back to an apartment. It doesn't matter what happened to the  quilt because I remember it. I remember it and I smile.