Welcome to the Mythical Type newsletter, where I share creative projects I’m working on. International news has been intense this week, so I hope you’re taking care of yourself however you need to.
Write brained
This month I took a course through the local arts college on building a daily creative writing practice. I’ve kept daily practices for journaling and drawing before, but I’ve never done it for creative writing. I tend to think of creative writing as tied to specific work—a project, a story. But creative writing can be a practice, much like you can draw in a sketchbook for daily practice.
I appreciated the course for introducing a practical approach: Make a plan for when you’ll write, for how long, where, and what kind of writing. We talked about how to scale the practice up and down. What if you have only 5 minutes to write? What if you have a half hour? How do you use that time differently?
The instructor also introduced a writer during each session and shared what their daily practice is. My favorite example was the Dream Delivery Service, where Mathias Svalina writes dreams every day and delivers them to subscribers by bike every night.
We spent a few minutes in class writing a dream. I liked the exercise, so I wrote another dream, which you can read on my blog.
Broken Galaxies - A new zine series
Vlasinda Productions, who makes awesome zines and poetry, is starting a new zine series called Broken Galaxies. They’re accepting writing and art submissions with sci-fi, horror, or fantasy themes until March 16. Check out their post on Instagram for submission guidelines.
I submitted a little sci-fi something. ;)
If you need me, don’t use Twitter
At the beginning of February, I deleted Twitter from my phone. That small change means Twitter is not so easily accessible, and so I’ve been spending wayyyy less time on Twitter. I realized I’m not missing much. My account is still there because I do think Twitter is useful sometimes. But now I have to be more deliberate when I log on, instead of checking Twitter out of habit.
Some background music
I stumbled on to Nothing New Under the Sun, an instrumental album by The Spy From Cairo. And wow, I love these tracks, especially to listen to while I’m working.
Communication tips
I’m low-key obsessed with how people communicate, especially at work. I re-read The Basecamp Guide to Internal Communication. It has so many good pointers for clear communication practices. Check it out if you want no-nonsense tips for better communication at work.
Thank you for reading!
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Thank you for writing this, Kali! For dream writing, are these daydreams or post-sleep dreams?
Also, I really enjoyed the Basecamp guide. That gave me a lot to stew over!