Rebooting the writing brain

On learning to write again, and the writing projects I've got going on.

Hi friend,

How are you doing in the apocalyptic summer weather? We had one really bad heatwave here, which thankfully only lasted two days. Otherwise, we've been blessed with a reasonable climate. I feel immensely lucky to live where I do.

Since we last spoke, I've mostly been reading and writing. Trying to stay away from YouTube watching, podcast binge-listening, and news reading. Trying to "dopamine detox" myself a bit, to reclaim my attention span and reboot my brain.

And I think it's working. Reading mostly fiction, and writing long essays feels deeply healing.

I find it interesting that the same activity that filled me with stress and dread just a year ago, now has the complete opposite effect. Burn-out is weird. It feels so damn good to be writing again. I feel like my old self.

I've been going through some of my old stuff: blog posts, essays, and short stories. And I've made the inevitable discovery that my old writing SUCKS. Of course it does. It's filled with embarrassing cliché…