I need a good laugh. Cold weather, and gray days, do nothing to lift my dour mood. It seeps into my writing. Dark brooding tales emerge from the black squiggles appearing on the screen. Photos of clouds with silver linings provide no inspiration, no stories with happy endings. Instead, the stories hold images of strife and struggle, intrigue and mystery, fear and death.

I make a conscious decision. I write. Every day. I write the stories I am given. And I realized today is not the day to write about puppies.

Do you want to write in a way you cannot?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

It is Friday, and I am tired. There’s a difference between being lazy and being tired. We declare we are lazy when we are dead-dog tired. But are we tired from the right business? Are we filling our days with insignificant activity or are we making strides towards reaching our goals?

It is a balancing act. We push too hard to move towards attaining our goals, become a workaholic and find yourselves in peril of burnout. They say we increase productivity when we rest and recharge our batteries. Rest can lead to inertia, a break in our routine can derail our previous efforts. It’s difficult deciding what we need to do. I think I will write two hundred words and take a nap.

How do you decide when to push and when to rest?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The planets have aligned, my muse has been clear, and my reading is encompassing a lot of Shakespeare’s works. This is the season for the bard. I have been re-reading sonnets. Conversations with friends revolve around who likes which play the best. One is partial to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” which The Chicago Shakespeare Theater is performing later this month. I prefer either “Macbeth” or “Hamlet”, while others like “Othello” or “Taming of the Shrew”.

Next up is “Venus and Adonis”, which is Shakespeare’s first published work. They say Shakespeare based it on a story found in Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”.  I am looking forward to this as I have not read it.

Does your reading run in phases? What are you reading?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer