A Splintered Mind

Originally published at Absentminded Author, v1 .   Just before heading off to slumber I made a horrible mistake: I waded too glibly into a hotbed of political lava. I came across a thread in my Facebook timeline where a well-known tech writer had posted a scan of some handwritten "fan" mail he had received. The letter was written in all caps, which is how I handwrite. Unlike me, however, the author of the scrawled screed was a far right ideologist who had more passion than brains. He had unkind things to say to the tech writer, and the tech writer and his liberal followers filled a page with over a dozen comments about what an idiot this letter writer was, and, in due course, what idiots all right wing people are. They decided this foulmouthed gentleman was not only a Tea Party member, but also that all right wing people are hateful, violent people. Now, I identify with many conservative issues, but I also identify with many progressive issues. I'm all over the political...

Yesterday was a day filled with addiction. Ah, the sweet glow of the screen. The endless stream of information just a tap away in my iPad. Twitter. Facebook. Links, links, links! I woke up very under the weather. Perhaps it was because Mother Nature had a bad case of Psuedo ADHD this month—not sure which season it was. "Ooh! I want Spring! Ooh! Ooh! I want more snow! Ooh! I'll do both! Ooh! Ooh! A rainbow!" She's been like a newborn puppy frolicking about after butterflies, though truth be told, the butterflies have had the good sense to wait for Mother Nature to make her mind up this year before making an appearance. Yes, I realize that the caterpillars have to arrive first. Don't mess with my metaphor. At any rate, yesterday I was not as frolicsome as a puppy or as flittery as a butterfly. Instead, my head swum uncertainly in my skull, as if it were trying to get comfortable but needed to turn around a few times to find just the right spot. I just parked myself ...

As I wrote before in "Writing and Succeeding Despite My Brain" , I planned on writing about how ADHD & Distraction played a part in my writing goals over the year. Then I got distracted. 3. Distractions: Interesting things all around are as kryptonite to the ADHD mind. In hindsight, my focus on finishing a novel or three by my 44th birthday was a highly motivating factor that helped stave off most distractions. I didn't suddenly decide to become a lion tamer, or become convinced that I needed to create a network of blogs about SciFi TV with affiliate links to Amazon to roll in the scores of pennies that were bound to come my way. I said "no" to many new projects and stayed focused. However, my progress wasn't very impressive. I've covered here numerous times since August how I wrote myself into an endless revision loop. I learned to separate editing from writing, something I already did when I blogged but didn't think to do when writi...

Originally published at Absentminded Author, v1 .   Last Saturday, I arrived at the local Golden Corral an hour late, but not too late to witness a horrific event. The tension was thick―a chokingly thick miasma that was almost physically difficult to wade through. With near standing room only, I needed to force my way to a table then fend off a vicious Irish Dancer who refused to make room for me. Quickly, I snarfed my food down in painful gulps while keeping my eyes peeled for a wildly branded butter knife or errant fork. Then they began their blood letting rites, forcing each attendee to stand and humiliatingly try to introduce themselves while others sneered and threw very tiny pumpkin pies at each victim. Tempers flared as several bloggers warred over whose business card was cuter. As my turn neared, sweat beaded on my forehead, and I regretted wearing my stylish black and slimming, wool pull over sweater. Soon sweat beaded in unappetizing places, and my face glowed with a stop...

Perhaps the most unappreciated feature on my blog is the Distracted Writers Club . I can't imagine why. Who wouldn't find the blood pounding in their veins when reading about stupendous goals like writing 25 words in ONE SINGLE DAY‽ Ironically, this feeble goal was key to transforming my writing productivity. I’ve stated before that writing a lot wasn’t a problem for me. In fact, I can spout my opinion here so easily that I’ve given myself an artificial cap of 900 words per post just to spare you. The problem was sitting down and beginning. For some reason creative writing was difficult for me. I just couldn’t justify it. Perhaps because the reward was so far off in the future. With blogging, the rewards were more immediate. Google ranking. Subscribers. Page views. Comments (just kidding). All within a day of posting my blog. Creative writing was an investment that required faith. Consequently, there was always something “more important” distracting me from writing and e...