I’m feeling better than I was yesterday. After two attempts, I’ve hit on something to use for a newspaper column. My goal was to have a piece written up by Thursday evening. Nothing gets your ass in gear like a deadline. Once I’m done, I can move on to the next step. Breaking a bigger goal down into smaller goals is very helpful.

Incidentally, I learned yesterday that Marc Acito, author of How I Paid For College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater, got his start as a writer due to reading The Artist’s Way after turning 30. (Yay! So I’m not too old.) The Artist’s Way is one of the best creativity-inducing books out there — I’ve used it several times, and the idea of “morning pages,” which I started up again a week and a half ago, comes from it. Writing in my notebook every morning has helped me remind myself of my deadline.

In other news, last night Matt upgraded my blog to WordPress 1.5. I (stubbornly, and to Matt’s consternation) insisted on keeping my visual design and layout exactly the same, so you shouldn’t notice anything different. But on the inside, things are much cooler now.