Category: Musings

Short reviews and sundry

A good part of today is that this post was published. It means I am consistent. Something will be posted here, every Wednesday and alternate Mondays.

This is supposed to be a review post. I am going to try to give brief thoughts on a few things I have watched.

I saw the Hulu original series, Only Murders in the Building, starring Selena Gomez, Martin Short, and Steve Martin. It was a fun cozy mystery, with a clever cliffhanger. It ensured that we audiences would want a second season.

The next series I watched till the end was Titans on HBOMax. I have never done a deep dive on the show, like read articles about what the showrunner, directors, or writers have to say about the show. I will say they take a lot of potential and do things I didn’t expect. The paths they are taking with the characters and their story arcs are interesting. I used to be more upset because I have since changed my mind on the subject. DC corporate gives the okay to everything the Titans creators put in the stream. The actors do what is in the script. Why am I cringing about someone else’s intellectual property, when I have IP and characters of my own?

The books I’ve read are Vows in Name Only and Secrets of a One Night Stand: A pregnant by the billionaire romance both books are by Naima Simone. The books are from Harlequin and part of the Billionaires of Boston Series. Book 3 is titled the Perfect Fake Date, it will be released at the end of December. When I started to have trouble with the romance story that I am writing. I watched some YT videos on writing. I took a few classes on writing romance offered on Skillshare. Then I started to read or listen to contemporary romances. They have helped me put my work in perspective. There are some things in the manuscript I need to clarify and some things will have to be changed in the revisions. Overall it was a good thing that I took time to read these books and listen to others.

Those are some of the things I have been watching or reading. In the future, I will write about some brief thoughts on some anime and K-dramas. I hope the week has been good so far and continued to get better.

End.

Steps for Improvement

This is a place holder for Wednesdays. In the past, I have written that either a review or an essay would be posted today. I failed to incorporate this plan into a writing schedule and then found myself scrambling on Tuesday night. That became exhausting and I quit. Self-sabotage at its best. I haven’t written much about the plans because I find ways to mess myself up. The end results are supposed to be an improved JC Henry Universe for 2022.

Several years ago, I tried to customize a system to help me be achieve the goals, I set for myself. I called it the most original title, the 100-days project. It had a reasonable time limit but lacked accountability and consistent motivation. I treated the projects like a New Year’s resolution. I tried many times to fix the 100days projects. Making a blog for it and inviting people I knew to join me, no one did. I tried to keep up with the projects for about two years. But then it fizzled.

In August out of curiosity, I looked up how many days until the end of the year. It was a little over 100 days. I thought of the failed lifestyle system. I also realized that I haven’t written a book review in several months. I was irritated that I didn’t do the things I wrote in many posts. I know I wrote about productivity, creativity, inspiration etc. I did research on time management and still fell short of managing my time effectively. This is the point where I would type this great new method or idea. Full disclosure I don’t have one. I heard about and read good things about author Sarra Canon’s HB90 method. It is a course to help writers or any other creative make time to do the things they need to do for success. Ms. Canon is not the first author, who recommended chopping up the year into quarters, similar to what businesses do. She only one I heard of that has it specifically for writers. However I don’t have the money in my budget for the course, which is a shame because I believe it is reasonable, so I have to customize something for myself and it feels like the 100-days project in spirit. Those are the steps, the picture is a pun, for me to keep writing and improve the website. I apologize if this entry is confusing. The method is new and not a habit yet. The places holders are for me as well as you all. I will be working on my creative non-fiction and general fiction.

The takeaway from this rambling is that persistence can get you what you want. As long as it does not hurt anyone I encourage us all to be determined. Remember the ancient proverb, fall nine times, get up ten.

End