Friday Blog 52: Ready to Recharge

I'm feeling like something big is ready to happen

We’re coming up on six months of doing In a Nutshell, a live storytelling show at The Sofia, a state of the art, beautiful theatre here in Sacramento. It’s incredibly rewarding but its also stressful. We have to keep delivering a quality show, while also being the promoters and marketers of the show. We put it on, we make sure there are butts in seats, and on top of all that I host the show.

Luckily my partners are amazing, and do a lot of the heavy lifting, and the rewards are worth the stress. I’m not complaining mind you. What I’m really getting at is that I think in the last six months I haven’t been as focused on my writing as I had been, and now it feels like it’s coming back.

We’re getting our routine down, building some momentum, and I’m excited to be starting a new novel, but also to get back to writing short stories and sharing them on Mondays. I’ve been reading Raymond Carver (thanks Amy) and thinking a lot about the short story format, especially as I’ve been working on oral storytelling, poetry, and longer form stories. I love writing short stories, and I can’t wait to be regularly sharing with you on Mondays.

I did a couple of short story competitions (thanks again Amy) and it was. fun challenge. I found I really liked writing from a prompt and so I’ve been shopping around for prompts, but I’m not loving the ones I’m finding.

We had cards called “Story Starters” when I was a kid and there was one that asked you to imagine Abe Lincoln is suddenly in our time, about to experience the 20th century. Mind you this was several years before Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. This little story prompt forever altered the way I look at the world. I see just how amazing the giant ribbons of concrete that form our highway overpasses and our on and off ramps are. I appreciated the miracle of flying in an airplane, or even traveling 80 miles per hour in a car. I am aware of my age, and my life expectancy being what it is. I’m 10 years past the average life expectancy in 1860, and I’m considered Middle Aged! Maybe I’ll see if I can find those cards.

I’m feeling excited about the writing I’ll be doing in the next few months, and I hope you enjoy it too. Thanks for sticking with me.