Hello, friends.
I don’t think I slept well any night this week. This affected a lot of my writing and even work. I had to leave work early one day because I was so tired. I came home and slept for three hours.
I’m happy this is a three-day weekend. It’s very much needed. The next two weeks will be busy for a variety of reasons.
Welcome to the 143rd installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and trying to stay creative when things aren’t ideal. If you’re a reader who subscribes via Substack, my website, or Patreon, your encouragement helps motivate me. I’m not breaking any records but I’m thankful to have any audience.
Thank you.
Supporting creators is so important right now. As such, I would love if you became a paid-Patron on my Patreon.
Paid-Patrons get exclusive daily check-ins about works-in-progress including the actual names of my works-in-progress and not just codenames. I also show art that I do.
You can also buy me a coffee through Ko-Fi.
Grab my novel Echoes on the Pond, my collection Catalysts, or my novellas Alice on the Shelf and Shadowed if you haven’t already. And if you’ve read them, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads, and wherever else books are sold and reviewed.
***
Some of this week was spent going back-and-forth with one of the publishers for The Monster in the Closet. I don’t know that I can’t announce it formally but I don’t know that I can, so I’m just playing it safe. The cover has needed some work but it’s coming together. I love working with the cover designer. I get to be an art director a little bit, which suits me.
I worked on Project: Moons most of this week, adding about 1,400 words to the book, which is now 163 pages and around 39,000 words long. There were lots of starts and stops and finishing early due to being so tired or becoming distracted, but something surprised me in the book and that made me happy.
I also heard from a writer friend and we began talking about collaborating on an essay. The back-and-forth has been fun. I wish I could write full-time so that I could really get into all the ideas for essays, stories, books, and other things I have.
***
During the work week, I wake up around five. The coffee is already brewing on the Cuisinart and Pamela is either getting up or already up. She’s a treasure, putting together lunches for me and our daughter, putting together breakfasts (almonds and fruit for me), etc. I eventually dress and leave for work sometime after 6:30. I’m at school from just before seven until three or after. Lately, it’s usually after. I get home, have coffee, and sometimes fall asleep. After dinner, I call my father. Then I sit down to write.
Most days.
Lately, not as often as I’d like.
I’ve been so tired because the school year is kicking my ass and because I’ve been having trouble sleeping, and because….
Have you seen the world? The U.S. is basically a dictatorship right now. People are losing their jobs over pointing out that someone was basically a ____ but because they were murdered you can’t point that out or the crazies will come for you. There’s a government shutdown. The 🍊💩🤡 sleeps during meetings, antagonizes good people, kisses the asses of bad people, and generally makes the world a worse place, and he’s not even the worst of them! Peewee German would be.
But the writing persists. The creativity persists. It has to.
I’ve been creative my whole life. I truly cannot remember a time when I haven’t used my imagination or done something in a creative capacity. From using my imagination to play to drawing from the time I could lift a pencil, make-believe and creativity have been a part of me. A part of my soul? If that’s your thing, then yes. But not all creativity is the same.
What I mean is, there are times when daydreaming is all I have energy for. I tell myself a story over the course of days/weeks behind closed eyelids or even behind open eyes. A movie runs through my head. Sometimes those mind movies may become a writing project. Most times that’s not the case. At least until I become better known enough as a writer to land some IP jobs. Then maybe I can tell my Batman/Star Wars/Masters of the Universe/Superman/Freddy Krueger/Etc. stories to others. For now, living in my mind and allowing myself to be entertained is enough for me.
Other times it’s doodling. Not even drawing so much but doodling, allowing the mind muscles and hand muscles to exercise. Or learning how to ink using other people’s pencils. I just finished inking a Marcio Abreau drawing of Peaky Blinders. I’m going to give it to my 27-year-old daughter as a gift since she’s a fan of the show. Or maybe I work on a comic book for fun.
But it’s most often writing. That’s my real thing. And it can be really difficult to do any of those things, but especially writing, these days. Not only are creators not valued, many are being disrespected and stolen from with the same speed as the clock ticks. Or they’re being punished because they have said or done something stupid but essentially human, or stupid and terrible, or any combination of any of those things. I’ve probably upset people with this essay! Good thing not a lot of people read these musings.
Finding the ability, the energy, the strength, and the courage to create can be really difficult but so can waking up and going about life in this current world. How do I do it?
I’m not really sure but I think it’s a combination of things. I’m constantly reading. Whether it’s a novel, short story, comic book, nonfiction, audiobook, I’ve always got stories to imagine that are written/created by other people. I watch videos on creative processes and have set up my social media in such a way that most of what I see are posts by creators of various stripes.
I also always allow my mind to wander. Letting my imagination run loose while doing mundane tasks or just sitting and staring at the wall allows for the creative process to happen when I’m not pushing it do anything. It’s just there.
I also take a certain amount of glee in the idea that being creative is an act of defiance. My stories are ways for me see things in my own way, skew the world through my eyes, and report back on it.
Finally, the act of creating is escape. Like reading, watching movies, listening to music, and playing video games, creating allows me to leave the ridiculously difficult world behind. Yeah, I may be going to a world even worse, but there’s still a chance that the good guys will win in those escapes. And it’s also proof that being creative is worth something because my worst moments creating are usually better than my best moments not creating.
As long as I can do it, I will.
***
That’s this week’s newsletter. Thank you so much for subscribing, reading, and for your support.
If you’d like to be a part of making my dream of creating full-time a reality, become a Patron on my Patreon, which has a lot more information about my works-in-progress and the books I’ll be querying, including titles and some simple, non-spoiler details.
Don’t forget to share this newsletter with others and consider a paid subscription.
You can also tip/donate on Ko-Fi.
Get my collection Catalysts, my novellas Alice on the Shelf and Shadowed, and my novel Echoes on the Pond!
If you haven’t left a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or anyplace else for the books, particularly Echoes on the Pond, please consider doing so. This greatly helps.
Thank you for subscribing!
Gautham: Bill Gauthier.com 
Leave a comment