Rediscovering the Writing Thing

So I've been trying to keep up with my New School Year Resolutions, namely the one about writing every day. And something I think I forgot - but that I'm remembering now - is that I really, really like writing. If I had the time, I'd write for 3 hours a day or more. In fact, I wish I could just write all day and rehearse all night and forget about everything else. Not true; I still love stage combat. So I guess if I could arrange my schedule the way I like, it'd be swordfight, write, act, all day long. Every day. If I could do those three things every day, plus bring my dog here to live with me, plus discover a way to eat only chocolate and popcorn without any adverse health effects, then I'm pretty sure life would actually be perfect.

I also love learning as long as no one's grading me on my learning. For some reason learning for credit makes my brain go into power-down mode. Maybe it's that I'm supposed to be learning boring stuff for credit (like what holds the universe together) whereas when it's on my own time I can learn about sweet stuff (like dead, supposedly crazy German kings). You know, things that really impact my life. Um. But this love of research makes the "pre-writing" stage its own particular kind of fun, because not only does it give me an excuse to pick up a whole lot of trivial information; it also gives my research a focus and a purpose. Which makes everything easier.

So right now for one project I'm researching:
- James Buchanan
- Comic Books (art, writing, and the industry in general)
- San Francisco
- Concept Art
- Graphic Artistry
- Storyboarding
- Army wives (the real people, not the show on Lifetime)
- Artifact/antique collectors

My other favorite part of starting (or restarting) a project is choosing the writing playlist. This one relies heavily on:
- Priscilla Ahn
- The Weepies
- Ingrid Michaelson
- The Eels
- Brett Dennen

I love that I can spend hours on the second floor of the HBLL reading James Buchanan's memoirs on microfiche and then sit at home reading Will Eisner comics and call both of them necessary research. All while I listen to some sweet, mildly quirky indie folk - you know, because it's important for establishing mood. Yeah, it's a good life I've got. Now if I can just find a way to incorporate video games into my new found writing life so I won't have to feel so bad about playing Twilight Princess during homework time...

I do think that it's going to take me some time to really get back into the swing of writing and researching again. It's definitely been a long time since I've done this with any regularity, and it shows. But it's a start, and for now I'm good with that. I've said a couple of times that I feel like someone who blew out her knee playing soccer, and now after several surgeries and months of recovery she's been given the OK to get back on the field only to find that she's back at square one. She wants to throw herself back into the game with all her old power and skill, but she has to go through some re-training first. That, more or less, is where I find myself. It'll come back, but right now it's not as easy as it was a couple of years ago. Not that it isn't an awful lot of fun.