Sacha Groves

Here we are again

2018-12-02T04:14:00.000+11:00

The wisdom of the wider writing community is this: to be a writer, one has to write. It's true. You need to write something, anything every day. It's the only way to get into a routine, to make it a habit. It's the only way to practise your craft. You have to do it every day, and you'll get better at it every day.

But what of days like today? You have a couple of writing projects with a few hundred or a few thousand words written but you just can't face adding a chapter to any of them. The previous chapter you wrote on one of them took the story so far away from your outline that you're struggling to figure out how to continue the story. The tangent is good enough that you don't want to scrap it and take another pass at the chapter in the hope it plays nice and sticks to the plot, but perhaps that's what needs to happen. It might double the length of the story to try and get it back on track and it's supposed to be a fucking short novel to begin with!

Meanwhile, you're blocked on another project - a satire of motivational books - as the chapters for that tend to come fully blown into one's mind while out walking and you were too busy on your walk today pondering what you were going to write to actually formulate anything meaningful.

So, what does that leave? A blog post! Of course! Why not? So here we are, typing verbatim into a text entry box whatever nonsense comes to mind. It's writing, I tell you! I'm a fucking writer!

So, dear blog, how have you been? Oh? That's nice of you to say, but I can tell from your tone that you feel a bit neglected. I'm sorry.

Let me catch you up on my life. Earlier this year (2018), I quit my job and in July I moved to France to take care of my (then 94, now) 95 year old grandmother. She's in pretty good form for a 95 year old, but she had a bit of a turn and a fall down last year and since then her memory and concentration isn't what it was.

She was preyed upon by an unscrupulous scammer who was writing himself cheques from her cheque book to do "house improvements" that, of course, never eventuated. Fortunately, a nurse who visits her daily figured out what was going on and cancelled the cheques, but it was the catalyst for me to get off my arse and get over here to help her out.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that she lives in the south of France. In provence. On the riviera.

I've got enough squirrel away to take care of myself (frugally) for a couple of years and I now have the time to work on a side hustle or two and my writing in the hope that I can make some kind of income and not have to go back to full time being chained to a desk in an air conditioned office trading my time for money.

Frankly, I don't intend to go back to that life regardless of whether the writing or side hustles work out. What will I do if I run out of money? Walk into the sea, I guess. Who knows? All I know is that I'm much happier doing my own thing than being stuck working for others. Not happy. But happier.

So there we are. All caught up. What's more, I managed to get some writing done today!

Watch this space

2018-02-28T14:00:00.000+11:00

I took option 4.

Shit I just wrote down

2017-02-08T14:11:00.000+11:00

With a pen and paper. Like I'm rocking the goddamned middle ages.

So, I'm home sick. It happens a lot now. Hayfever gives me sinus problems. Sinus problems give me headaches. Headaches plus general depression mean I stay home and take sick leave (not that I should, I still get shit loads of work done. Plenty of my coworkers "work from home" rather than take sick leave, but I'm too ethical for that - sigh, that's a rant for another time).

But, really what happens is I start think about the future and what my goals are and yet another midlife crisis is formed. It's not an original first world problem, but I really hate the 9-5 grind. I would much rather work for myself or at least less.

Of course, I have a mortgage to pay, so it's never as easy as all the self help, "go do what you love" articles that show up daily on Medium seem to make out. (and to add to the "rant later" list, you only ever read the articles from the people who were sucessful changing their lives and careers. The vast iceberg of people who failed and had to go back to chaining themselves to a desk or decided to walk into the ocean is silent).

But a man can dream. The way I see it there's a continuum between where I am now and where I want to be.

Where I am now is full time work for a company. It's good work, I don't mind it, but it's boring and soul destroying. But it more than pays the bills.

Where I want to be is working for myself doing any and/or all of the following:

writing - including novels, screenplays, short stories, esoteric nonsense like http://lettersofpurpose.com
gaming - it's my primary hobby
twitch streaming/youtube - because why not? It might be the only way to make some cash from gaming and #writing is a thing on Twitch creative these days.
Podcasts and other creative endeavours.

So, how to get there? I'm aware that making rare blog posts with vague plans is basically peak Arnold Rimmer, but it worked in the past. No really. I wanted to travel, work for myself/work in France a decade ago and, while it didn't last, I did actually achieve it all.

So, ideas, in no particular order:

Keep the status quo, work full time and enact all these plans when my mortgage is paid off? Probably 10-15 years. ugh.
Slowly add in some daily writing/streaming while paying off mortgage. Probably the best idea, but hardest. It's working full time plus working an extra 2-3 hours a day.
Reduce my hours or go contract. Scary. I could probably wrangle working 3 days a week, which would still be enough to live off/pay some mortgage now and then, but long term the writing etc would need to bring in some money. I'm not keen on a future where I need to rely on income I don't know I'll ever get.

Gah, it all seems so impossible. But it's down in writing now, so at least that's something. Right?

Things I had forgotten

2017-01-13T13:03:00.002+11:00

1) This blog. No, really. sachagroves.com is up for renewal and I came here to see what, if anything, I was doing with it.
2) That I was using it as a progress diary. Doesn't even sound like me! But what a great idea!
3) The Cull. It's the first story idea on my list of story ideas, but I haven't even looked at that list for yonks. I had forgotten the idea and had forgotten I had started to write the fucking thing! I reinstalled Scrivener just to open the file back up to read it. Crap, complete crap. BUT, there's some promise there and, zarquon if I could just get back into writing. I enjoy it so.
4) I want to write. Be a writer. Do those thing. Do ALL the things.
5) No seriously, I had forgotten it all. I think there may be something wrong with my brain.

So, the question is: Do I use this newly (re)discovered progress blog to try and springboard into a writing habit again?

That really is a question. The question. Capital THE and all that.

It's worth some pondering. So pondering is the progress.

Until next time (will it be over two years? - stay tuned. No, don't do that. It could be never, let's face it).

Gah

2014-10-02T18:10:00.001+10:00

1) Other work got in the road of WHS. Might try to do an hour tomorrow, despite Friday being a day of rest from set goals.
2) Xbox fitnessed.
3) Wrote 400 words of The Cull before realising I was writing a giant hole for myself that was completely unnecessary. Will fix it next week.
4) See ya Monday.

Where does this shit come from?

2014-10-01T18:22:00.002+10:00

1) Did WHS work.
2) Worked out. Dance Centralled.
3) Wrote 700 words on The Cull. It's already going places I didn't intend. But that's the wonder and beauty of writing.

Huzzah

2014-09-30T17:58:00.002+10:00

1) Finished off one of the WHS courses. Sent for marking. Win.
2) Exercised. Xbox fitness working today. Win
3) Wrote 500 words of The Cull. Fucking massive win.

What goes here

2014-09-29T18:08:00.001+10:00

1) Didn't do WHS, stayed home due to hayfever (or whatever it is that has plagued me for 18 years)
2) Couldn't do Xbox Fitness due to an Azure error. Did Dance Central instead.
3) Monday night is cooking night, so having trouble finding the time to write. Or it could be procrastination. Might have to rejig things to get writing in on Saturday, maybe? It's hard to see myself doing that.
4) Nothing to report on any of the other blogs.

Progress

2014-09-25T18:13:00.001+10:00

1) Failed to do my WHS work
2) Worked out, 20 minutes of Dance Central. Actually broke a sweat, so it's an option when I tire of the Xbox fitness routines.
3) Did more work on The Cull. Need to come up with some character names.

What have I achieved today?

2014-09-24T18:11:00.000+10:00

1) I've decided to make this blog the dry chronicle of daily success and failure.
2) The ramblings will continue at Sleeping Not Thinking
3) Worked out
4) Bought Scrivener for PC.
5) Started project for short story: The Cull
6) Copied notes about The Cull into project.
7) Updated Sleeping Not Thinking
8) Updated this blog.
9) Allowed myself to feel smug.

Bump

2014-09-24T09:32:00.002+10:00

What will I use this for?

Carcassonne

2012-12-26T17:41:00.001+11:00

Toulouse

2012-12-26T16:17:00.001+11:00

Brive, Rocamadour, Cahors

2012-12-26T16:11:00.001+11:00

Bordeaux

2012-12-26T16:03:00.000+11:00

Nantes

2012-12-26T15:54:00.001+11:00

Pornic, Guérande, Le Croisic

2012-12-26T15:41:00.001+11:00

Versailles

2012-12-26T15:30:00.001+11:00

Paris.end

2012-12-26T15:01:00.001+11:00

Sanary.end

2012-12-26T14:45:00.001+11:00

That Salamander Guy

2012-12-26T14:07:00.001+11:00

Sanary.June

2012-12-26T13:58:00.001+11:00

Normandy

2012-12-09T20:02:00.001+11:00

Paris.dust

2012-12-09T16:46:00.001+11:00

Paris.kipple

2012-12-01T17:32:00.001+11:00