Three Interesting Things

1. We just had a tornado warning here last week, so disaster prep is on my mind.  While tornadoes and hurricanes are different, some of the things it can be useful to consider ahead of time are similar.  So, I appreciated this story about hurricane prep.  It's pretty US focused as far as the links, but the steps are similar for everyone.

2. For the olympics and paralympics, Paris has - for now - become easier to traverse for the disabled. 

3. And I've been enjoying the reveals around Banksy's latest series. 

Goals

The olympics wrapped and one of the things I loved about the track portion of things, was that they listed things like who had a season best time, a personal record, a national record, and so on. There was one race where almost everyone on the track hit a season's best. 

There are so many goals you can set for yourself, and it can be useful. I tend to be a lost in the trees person who forgets about the big picture forest, so setting goals can give me something to aim for.

But goals are helpful if they are maybe a bit of a reach and also achievable. There is one gold medal, but there are season's bests possible for everyone. 

And then, let's hope these athletes also have both celebration and rest in their plans.

It can be so easy to hit a goal and then go set a new one and forget to pause an celebrate that goal. 

To borrow from an old ad campaign, when people ask what's next after you hit a big goal, you should say you're going to an amusement park. Or the beach. Or the library. Whatever cool amazing thing that you do to celebrate that step. 

Because after all that work, you deserve a treat.  

Three Interesting Things

1. If you noticed that US women gymnasts seem to be lasting longer as gymnasts, this article talks about some of the reasons for that. 

2. I was intrigued at this idea of a national tenant's union.

3. And with the caveat that I am friendly with the author of this piece, an abbreviated look a dragons and romances, and some dragon romances.  Note: title, while starred, alludes to an NSFW word. 

Your Pace is Yours

I talk a lot in writing about figuring out your best pace. That writing communally can be fun, because having people around you doing the thing is fun, not because matching their pace is always the best idea for you. 

The sports coverage may be better where you are, but USian Olympic coverage always refers to being a silver medalist like it is a massive disappointment. And when it comes to writing, done is done. First draft, edited draft, polished draft, they mostly just need to get done. Sure, sometimes there are deadlines. But no one who reads a book they picked up in a bookstore thinks, hmm, I hope this was written more speedily than the book over there. 

Are there limits? Sure. I've met people who have been changing the commas in their draft for about two years, and that doesn't feel productive to me. Sometimes you have to quit a story, or say your going to quit a story. And sometimes a story has a fundamental flaw and you have to decide to rewrite it from the ground up or just write something else. 

But that first draft, that first attempt to tell the story, it just needs to get done. And done can honestly be in the eye often beholder. Done can mean having "insert fight scene here" in part. 

Speed to the end of the draft is only one measure of it, and I enjoy watching my little graph line go up as I draft.

And if it bums you out to see other's finishing faster, perhaps it helps to think of yourself as one of the other gymnasts. Imagine being the gymnast who is not Simone Biles or sub in your fave athlete here. All these other gymnasts showed up to compete. And they still did their routines after Biles did hers, already knowing that no matter how perfect they were, they could not beat a person who has actual moves named after her. But they still did it. And some of them had their best days ever. 

You don't have to be the Simone Biles of writing. There is only one of those. But there are so many books. And have you met readers? They love books. They are waiting for your story too. Because even the fastest writer doesn't write enough to keep a reader happy for a whole year. 

Three Interesting Things

1. NPR's Code Switch talked about how book bans can mean kids never see some types of characters. 

2. A new book looks at the early twentieth century Olympics, and how one swimming race brought together three very different swimmers, including a Hawaiian swimmer more known for another Olympic sport.  

3. Speaking of other Olympic sports, the story behind this surfing picture is amazing.