My Rules: Part One

 I'm exhausted. I just got into Bozeman, Montana at about midnight. I was too tired to go directly to sleep. I was up at six AM because my body is still on Florida time. Jet lag is a real thing. I am in Montana this time because my eldest daughter will be starting at Montana State University in a week. We're moving her in. I'll be heading back alone to an empty house. Even the dogs are with a sitter so they won't be there to greet me. Careful what you wish for. I do enjoy my alone time, but I'm no different than anyone else in that I want everything on my own terms. My daughter finishing high school a year early and moving far from home is something to be proud of. I just wish I could rearrange the terms. I'd like her to stay home until shes ninety. Just kidding. There I go not being careful what I wish for.

I am sitting at the little desk in the room. My laptop is open. The familiarity ends there. The desk is cluttered with all kinds of stuff. An ice bucket, a small coffee pot, my backpack, a purse, a hat. I look up from my screen to see me staring back at me. If I was prettier, that may be a perk, but mirrors distract me as I am as conceited as anyone else. I wonder if I look good for my age. The light of the screen isn't flattering, and I don't. I look old. Maybe I'm tired. Maybe I'm a little sad. Maybe I should avert my eyes lest I depress myself further.

This has me thinking of my personal rules for writing. I've never articulated them. I do have them, I know I do, but they're ingrained in me. They don't require review. I don't need to check them before writing like a pilot reviews a checklist before takeoff. I just do. So, here goes:

1. Eliminate distractions. Seems pretty simple, right. I'm not just talking about barking dogs and screaming kids. If you're an insecure narcissist like me, don't have a mirror. If you're a news junkie, or a social media junkie, disable your internet and leave your phone in another room. It's not that it becomes impossible to focus, it's just that focusing in an environment littered with distractions takes energy. This energy is better applied to your writing, or painting or crocheting, or whatever. By the way, Cafes aren't the best place to write, but they are a good place to be seen, which can be a helluva distraction.

2. Make yourself comfortable. If you're chair is too low or too high or the light is too bright or too dim or the room is too cold, you're not going to be at your best. Set yourself up for success, not disappointment.

3. Schedule your workday. Writing, or any artistic or entrepreneurial endeavor that you're pursuing on spec, should have a time dedicated to it. I am a morning person. I usually wake up around five and start writing around six and go until just before nine. Sometimes I put in a little overtime. Sometimes I run out of steam early. Sometimes, I don't follow rule number one and I end up wasting two hours reading news or making sure my coffee is just right or telling my dogs how much I love them. If you don't devote time to your craft, or to any goal, it's just a wish, and a dream, and this is the real world. This ain't no fairy tale.

4. The work matters more than the title. I've met plenty of would-be writers who love saying they are writers. They love wearing turtlenecks and slurring their words a la Gore Vidal or acting uncomfortable in social situations like David Foster Wallace. They should all try to be a little more like J.D. Salinger. No one is impressed by you saying you're a writer. I could say I'm a doctor but I promise you don't want me removing your gall bladder. I wouldn't trust me to cut your fingernails. The doctor is the person who did the work. They went to med school, they did their residency and rotations and all that jazz. They've earned the title. Why would writing be any different?

I'm sure there will be more to this. Consider this essay, like its author, a work in progress. But this is just me. Write your own rules, and don't break them. Shatter them! But only if you find they are holding you back.

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published eight books, which you can find here.

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Counting Down

In five days, my daughter will be going away to college. I am dying. I knew this day would come. In fact, I always encouraged her to look for schools in other states. I told her being away from home is a legit part of the college - learning - growing up experience. The one time the kid listens to her father!

I am happy for her and I am proud. She applied to one school and was accepted. She is the only one of her graduating class that is going to be attending college away from home. She'll be nearly two thousand miles and two time zones away. I've never lived that far from her or even from my own parents. It's scary and it's exciting. And I'm sad that she won't be here every day. I'm sad that this place, which has been her home since before her first birthday, will seem  a little emptier without her. Okay, a lot emptier. She took her first steps here. She was potty trained here. She is an enormous part of what makes this a home.

So, I'm a little depressed and I am hating the march of time this week. I want my little girl to stay forever, but I know this simply cannot be. She will always be my little girl, even when she is far away. I have to accept it, but I sure as hell don't have to like it.

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published eight books, which you can find here.

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What's easy not to do

I've been thinking of creating a new website. I've also been looking to team up with an editor who could work closely with me. I've been looking for a web designer, too. 

In this day and age there is no reason for me to be thinking about these things and not getting them done so I put out a feeler on Facebook, asking for my creative peeps to reach out. They did.

Now begins a new chapter in my life.

Follow me to Apresterra!

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published eight books, which you can find here.

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Swimmin' Without Women

It's Tuesday morning. It's cold in my house. Not because of anything having to do with the climate or the environment. The A/C is blasting as it will all summer. It's actually pretty warm outside although it's not even 8:00 AM. 

I sit down at my computer to write as I do most mornings and I am a little more awake than I might otherwise be. It's not the coffee. It's the pool. I took a little swim this morning. I was letting out the dogs (I guess I've answered that Baja Men question - sorry, it had to be done!) and I decided to do something a little different. I stripped out of my boxers, stepped into my trunks, and went for a dip. I would have preferred to go in my birthday suit but I don't have that level of privacy in my yard, unfortunately. Time to build a taller fence.

I didn't go into the pool with any kind of agenda. I didn't tell myself I'd swim ten laps or do that aqua-aerobics stuff they do at the YMCA pool. I just floated around and listened to the world waking up. I heard the sounds of cars on the road. I heard road construction a couple of blocks away. It was just me and my ears. 

It's a good thing to go out once in a while and just be. You don't need music or even a companion. My dogs were living their own lives, not worrying about me. My family is inside asleep. There is nothing but me and the water and that is all I need. It's a nice transition from asleep to the hectic action that follows on any given day. 

I tried to guide my thoughts toward projects I'm currently working on but nothing doing. I let it go, It was too early and the water was too calm and too warm for anything structured. I let my thoughts go where the wind and the leaves and the noise of the world led them. And that was all right. I'll be out there again tomorrow. Maybe without my bathing suit... maybe not.

Find your quiet spot. Enjoy it. Soak it up a while. 

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published eight books, which you can find here.

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Day Drinking

I work at home. Most writers do. I traveled last week and my homes was a cabin in the mountains of West Yellowstone, Montana. The view from the window in front of my little writing desk was spectacular, if a bit distracting.

See, I live in South Florida. What's a mountain? We complain about speed bumps. We are at sea level. Standing on a box can make your ears pop. Need I go on? Good.

So now I'm home. It's a thousand degrees in the shade. I have to work and since I am home, the bar beckons. I look up recipes. I stare at the bar. The bar stares at me. I dream of a Long Island Iced Tea, or an old fashioned or even a beer.

But I hold back. I am no Don Draper. When the drinking starts, the working stops. So I don't drink until I am done with work. I'm not telling you what to do and I don't judge, but I'm going to stick to what works for me. You do you, baby!

I'm blessed not to have an addictive personality, by which I mean I don't have addictions. Many have been addicted to me... shut up. It's my blog and I'll lie if I want to. Still, I don't want to take the chance of making drinking or drugs a crutch. Not for writing, not for life, not for any reason at all. So... I drink after I work.

There's a quote attributed (wrongly) to Ernest Hemingway: Write Drunk, Edit Sober. I would rather do the whole process sober. There'll be time to drink when the writing's done.

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published eight books, which you can find here.

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Gathering Information

I just came back from a week in West Yellowstone, Montana. It is, without a doubt, one of my favorite places in the world. I stayed in a cabin on a ranch. I rode horses and went whitewater rafting. I went to Yellowstone National Park and to Mesa Falls in Idaho. It was a great, badly-needed vacation. As much as I love my home, my bed, my pillow and my dogs, I hated coming back.

This was my second visit to West Yellowstone. I came back from my first trip very inspired and immediately began writing a novel about the place. I hit the wall at about a hundred pages. So, I went up this year thinking I would find the spark and get the story written finally!

I skipped one of the horse rides we had scheduled so I could get to work on my story. I wrote about a thousand words. A whole new story about the same place. That was a week ago. I've given up... for now!

I think the problem is that I'm trying to force the book to happen. It never works that way. These things come when they want to come. It's not that I haven't been writing. I've been working every day and I've been editing. The story needs a little more time to percolate. Or maybe it needs to marinate. Whatever it is, it doesn't need to be forced. That's a great way to kill what could be a great story.

Gather the facts, breathe the air, feel the breeze, see the sights. Listen to the people talk and learn their stories. Their stories become yours. These people become the characters in your stories. You are not stealing from them, you are immortalizing them. Nobody wants to live forever, but nobody wants to die. And certainly no one wants to be forgotten.

So take notes and bide your time. The story will come when it's ready.

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published eight books, which you can find here.

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The Every Day

So... how's your quarantine going?

Ready to go outside?

Oh... riots.

So... how are you passing the time? I hope you're not binge-watching bad TV shows that you've already watched. I hope you're taking at least a little time to improve yourself. Maybe you're reading a book. Maybe you're fixing up your house. Maybe you've taken up watercolors. Are you writing that book you've been dreaming about writing? Get to it.

The pandemic has pushed us out of our comfort zone by locking us in the most comfortable of places: our homes. Home is great when you have the opportunity to leave at will. Otherwise, it's a prison. Some great stories were written about prisons. Stories like Papillon, Escape from Alcatraz, The Count of Monte Cristo, and others. Any of those stories would help you appreciate how comfy your "prison" is.

I realize this is coming late. I've been a little caught up with other things and I have been ignoring this blog. I've been doing a lot of work for The Liberty Drip, which is a political blog I contribute to, I've also completed a novella, the completion of the Man In The Gray Sky trilogy scheduled to be released in the summer; and a new novel, which I hope to release in the fall.

I also took care of some home improvement projects including an above-ground pool and a nice area to enjoy my backyard. Just in time for the rainy season! Hooray!

So, don't let the lockdown get you down. Don't become a victim of your circumstances. Instead, make the most of the time you have and create something beautiful.

Keep doing what you do!

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published eight books, which you can find here.

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