Living the Ray Bradbury Way

I'm a terrible writer.  I don't necessarily mean I'm bad at writing, but I'm a terrible writer in the way that someone who is a hockey fan is terrible if they don't know who Bobby Hull (though, this is my favorite pop culture reference) or Wayne Gretzky is.  Until about two years ago, I had never heard of Ray Bradbury.  Don't judge. . .I'm a late bloomer.

And then for the two years following, I heard things about him and his writing and his 2001 "Evening with Ray Bradbury" address. Then came the last straw. I was reading through some of my "trade" IT blog entries and one of my favorite ones, Rands in Repose, posted this.  Except, it wasn't really the last straw because even though I read the short post, I didn't actually I DO anything except click a flag on my to do list so I would eventually look at it.

Which I did. On December 31, 2013. New Year's Eve. I listened to the hourish talk and it put me on a TEAR. I wrote 6 pages in my journal and I had an idea.  I mean, it was NYE and I was reflecting and I was lamenting on my lack of meeting my goals from last year (I haven't written the final recap post on that because it is so depressing. .. but you can read the update in the middle of the year here). And I thought, shit, I have to do something because what I'm doing is not making me happy. When I write, I'm happy and I'm not writing.

I could write about all the reasons I'm not writing, but the more important thing to do is just write.  So, back to my idea.

I want to live 2014 the way of Ray Bradbury.

The goal? Well, the short version is here (thank you Collin Marshall @colinmarshall).  The complete version is here.



But for me, there is a slightly longer"ish" version.

The year of 2014 will consist of the following for me:

1. Reading 365 poems - I'm taking suggestions for good poets 
2. Reading 365 essays - anyone have good ones? I'm starting with George Bernard Shaw
3. Reading 365 short stories - so. . . also, some suggestions are encouraged
4. Reading 12 books (I usually can do more than this, but with all this other reading, I figure 12 is a good number)
5. Reading 6 plays - I love plays, but I don't read them and haven't read them unless I've had to work on one.  It is silly that I don't, so I plan on it. And 6 is a lot given all the other reading I said I would do, no?
6. Watching 52 "old" movies - old is a relative term for me and Ray - old to me is from before I was born. . . old to him was the 20's and 30's - but don't worry, I won't shut them all out.
7. Going to the library 12 times (monthly if you aren't into doing math)
8. Seeing 12 shows of the art variety - maybe they'll be plays, maybe they'll be art shows, maybe they'll be comedy shows.  But I have to go see something monthly. So, if you have something you want to go see, I'm game - just ask.
9. Writing about my experience doing these things here, on this blog.  I know if I put a number here, I'll fucking fail at it.  So, I won't.  But I do want to do it often enough to see if it works.
10. Being inspired to keep writing
11. Writing 52 short stories because I want to see if I can defy Mr. Ray. . . I'm hoping I cannot.
12. Asking myself if, when I'm writing, do I feel joy?
13. Keeping a journal next to my bed and writing in the mornings.  I loved doing that before and I stopped when I filled a journal.  I have four to fill this year. . .
14. Trying to love myself - this one is the hardest because I think it is the real thing that makes me unhappy. I don't know how to do it, and I think and hope that by doing these thing, I will love myself more.

Some of these are very easy - just - time consuming.  In fact, I have exactly 2 hours to do #1-3 today.  The others are harder. And scarier.

So. . . here's to trying.  Someone wise told me that (and I'm paraphrasing) trying can't be worse than not trying and if you decide later that trying isn't worth it, you can always go back.

Raising my glass to you and the year of 2014!