I Really Want to Write a Story

I really want to write a story.

And I have this struggle because I'm afraid that other things I do get in the way of that desire which has been building in me. Because I just want to write a nice little fictional story. Don't know how long. Or almost quite literally anything else about it right now, haha. But I want to write it. And I want to share it.

On a side but definitely related note:

It's on my bucket list to publish a book someday. Or get something published in a book (ex. like a poem in a book of poems). Or something to that effect. Ever since putting that on my bucket list, I've always imagined publishing something fictional. I guess simply because that's what I want to do -- hence the whole, you know, bucket list idea. 

Although I recognize now that it may be more achievable/whatever to publish a non-fiction work about literally whatever. Maybe I'm off on that, but idk. And maybe I'll try to do that at some point; it does also excite me. But right now: Small little cute story excites me far more.

Explaining what I meant by "I'm afraid that other things I do get in the way of that desire":

1. I have the 2024 Campaign to construct. Its date grows ever nearer, which is exciting, but also daunting. I feel I have so so so much more to do for it. And part of what I have to do is story writing. But that's not the kind of story I want to write. 

2. Writing these posts. Writing these posts clearly takes time and the construction of thoughts etc. etc., just like writing a fictional story would.

Sometimes it feels like they use up my "allotted time of writing", if that makes sense. But I know fundamentally that's just not true. I can do both. 

It reminds me of the vague notion that some people feel like they can't find time to read fiction because they already read the scriptures (and/or other books written by modern-day prophets etc.) -- I don't know if anyone else has come across this, but I feel like I have. And it's just not true. You can just do both. Just because one activity involves reading doesn't mean that you can't simply have another activity that involves reading. And it's the same with writing.

Side note: I use the word 'just' a lot.

Regardless of all the various other thoughts, I do have a key takeaway I want to do:

If I feel I don't have time to or simply don't want to work on both a personal project and a blog post, I can write a blog post with some basic updates on how much progress I made on my personal project. I think it's a swell idea. I'll keep it in mind.

Potential Blogging New Years Resolution

I think it would be cool to post every week for an entire year. 52 posts in total. 

Granted, I've already had more than 52 posts in three separate years. Also, granted, Eric has already achieved well well over this feat as well: 8 out of the 12 years he's been posting on his blog have over 52 posts with 6/12 having around 300 posts or more and one year (2017) him even achieving the feat of 1 post per day for a total of 365 posts.

But there's something nice to just the flat number of 52. 48 is also a nice number since it's flat 4 per month, which is appealing to me. I also know I have a lot of things I want to write, and this is a good way of getting me to actually write them.

Couple problems with this idea:

1. Although I like the idea of consistency, I also enjoy the freedom I give myself. I write when I want to. I write when I feel it would be helpful in some way. If I don't think it would be, then why would I? I also want to be able to post on a random day if I want to. What if it's simply a special day of the year that doesn't land on a Sunday? Am I not allowed to post?

2. I, if I'm being honest, want my blog posts to be read (specifically by my family). And I'm afraid if I post that frequently many more will go unread.

So I don't know. What do I want to do?

I guess I'll figure it out as I go? I think I'll just start and if I want to switch it up, I'll do so. Not sure if that makes for a very good new years resolution, haha, but I think I'm just allowing myself the flexibility to recognize in the future if I actually think the new years resolution is improving me/my life at all or if it's not.

Regardless, I know I want to keep writing my thoughts and various other things and posting them here:) I hope you'll join me for them.

Goals & Plans for 2024

So I've already written a post that will post on the 7th of January about a specific new years resolution (dealing with blogging), but I've been working a lot on all my goals and plans going into the next year, so I wanted to highlight them here.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, btw:)

I have a basic bread and butter work-out goal of simply doing a few minutes of push-ups/sit-ups before showering every day. Not meant to be too crazy or hard, but to keep me healthy and in the habit of doing some amount of exercise. Got the idea of doing just a few minutes of both from this post by Mark Rober.

I have a goal that involves reaching out to various people I haven't seen or contacted in a long time. I did this at the beginning of this year and found it valuable to let people know I was thinking of them/catch up with people a little. Want to start it up again this year and be more consistent with it. Shooting a text or phone call once a week is my current gameplan.

I have a reevaluation goal. In order to continue to help me progress and do/accomplish things I want to do/accomplish, I'm going to have a regular check-in every two weeks. See what progress I made, reset expectations etc. This is lowkey the most important of my goals. It will help me consistently improve myself a lot, I think.

2024 Campaign related goals. As of right this moment, I don't have much flushed out in terms of pacing for what I need to do, but I know I'll need to work on this consistently throughout the next 6 months.

I have other smaller projects I want to work on, and I'll plan those during my two-week evaluations.

One thing I'm really excited about this upcoming year is reading. I have a lot of books that I'm excited to read, so I've planned out a pretty extensive reading chopping block out for myself.

Throughout the year I'm going to relistening to books 2-4 of the Stormlight Archive to prepare for Wind and Truth (the 5th and final book of this era), which is coming out next December. This is quite the endeavor. They are long books, haha. If I spent 30 minutes listening to Words of Radiance each day, it would take me 3 months to finish. And the books only get longer from there. I'll be spending a lot of time walking to and from classes, so I definitely plan on utilizing that time for this purpose.

I'm currently reading the novellas in the Cytoverse so I can read Defiant which I got for Christmas (thanks parents!). My family will be doing a book club over the year, 6 books for the year, which I'm excited for. I got several self-help books for Christmas that I want to read. Also want to read/reread some other things including Warbreaker, The Emperor's Soul, Long Chills & Case Dough, Senet magazine (thanks Andrew!), so I have a lot I want to consume. I'm excited. Obviously my progress in this department can be seen on my list on the far left.

It's going to be a great year:)

Struggles (on how to spend time) and my Motivations (to write blog posts)

So sometimes I struggle to know what to do. Or, I guess, what I want to do. I have free time right now, and I have tons of things that I theoretically want to do, but I just don't want to right now, I guess? I feel like I have some sort of mental block where because I put them on a to-do list, they suddenly become burdens even though they are genuinely things that I want to do. It's weird. So I'm here writing things instead. Hopefully this will give me a motivation-start and I'll have more energy/desire to do various other things.

I have a lot of thoughts, and I enjoy sharing them. It makes me want to write blog posts. This reminds me of a blog post that I started writing but didn't finish due to lack of time in the moment, so I'll just copy paste it here:

It's done! Finally finished with this semester. Spent a good chunk of Monday working on Finals due that night and Tuesday doing the same. Spent legit a majority of Monday packing and cleaning. And today we are driving home:) According to Google Maps that I pulled out two seconds ago, we're only 12 minutes away from Fallon.

So I had this thought the other day (with this post and last post being evidence: It appears I've been having a lot of thoughts recently) about why I write blog posts. Why I do it, why I enjoy it etc. I've definitely talked about this subject over the course of many years here on this blog, and if I remember correctly my response involved around things such as: Enjoying condensing and constructing my thoughts in a written format, having it as a creative outlet, using it as a method of journaling, and probably some other reasons I'm missing. 

I think all of those definitely still stand, but I had an additional one that I wanted to add (I also just thought of another one which I now will also write about).

Another reason I like writing on my blog because it makes me feel connected with my family. Specifically my brothers Andrew and Eric.

I love how we all have blogs, and in the past I believe I've referenced how I really enjoy it when our blog posts respond to each other in a way. 

[End of writings, now I'm adding onto it]

I just enjoy that even though I don't call them the most (something I wish and plan to remedy during this new year) we can still be connected through these posts. Obviously posts differ largely in a lot of different ways, but every time a small part of it is like a little email to my brothers and others. And it's great. 

It's just another wonderful thing that comes out of this wonderful little blog of mine which I've become quite fond of over the years.

I'm having other thoughts I want to write, but they would be best written in a separate post that I'm currently planning on posting on January 1st (edit: ¿Maybe January 7th?). Unsure if I'll post another post before then, so I guess: See you next year! Merry Christmas:) I love you all.

I Wanted to Post Today and a Thought about Filler Episodes

Today's important to me, so I wanted to post something. 

I suppose many days are important to me and I don't post on those, but I want to post today, so I am.

This is completely unrelated to why this day is important to me, but:

I had this thought the other day. It's spawned off a YouTube video I didn't actually watch. But the videos title, if I remember correctly, was "If Our Life had Filler Episodes".

This is, of course, in reference to filler episodes in anime. Filler episodes are episodes that just exist. They don't progress any plot lines. They don't really do much of anything. The characters do something random that doesn't matter in terms of the anime overall. You can easily watch the show without watching the filler episodes and be 100% okay.

And it just made me think: 

I don't want any filler episodes in my life. 

I want to do things every day that progress me or progress a storyline or progress whatever thing you want to connect from this analogy. I don't want there to be any days in my life where I could have just skipped over them and nothing would have changed.

And I thought it was a cool thought, so I thought I'd share.

Hope you enjoyed said thought.