Noel C. Cilker

One of the lessons I'm trying to learn is how to write effectively. Having a schedule full of activities, as mentioned in my previous post, doesn't help. But more to the point, I'm trying to unlearn what I used to do in school as a writer and learn what I should  be doing instead. For example, in school, I used to sit in front of an empty computer screen with that damned cursor blinking . . . blinking . . . blinking . . . waiting for me to write something, anything,  that would break up that field of white. Every writer faces the daunting challenge of a blank page but my problem was how I went about filling it. Instead of spewing out ideas and getting them on the page, I crafted complete sentences in my mind, honing them and trying to get them perfect before setting my typing hands to work. I'm learning now that that's not sustainable. I lost too many good ideas because I couldn't get them into the right form. Getting everything perfect before  I write doesn...

Here's a quick update from the land of writing. You may have noticed that it's been two weeks since I last posted. If I can remember that far back, I believe I mentioned that I had wrapped up my research phase and was on to writing, which I've been doing with some regularity . . . "some" meaning a bunch of other stuff has popped up and demanded my attention. Most of it is due to the time of year. High school baseball has started up again and so has my umpiring. This is good for me because it gets me out of the house and into the sun, where my visage transforms from ghostly to merely pale. Plus calling kids out on a third strike is good for my arm muscles. I've been back and forth to San Jose recently to lead some meetings as our family business continues its restructuring. It's constructive, quality work with great people but it takes time. I'm excited because we've accomplished a lot and it feels important to me that I can involve mysel...