A Certain July 15th

I used to keep a writers journal.

If I had my way, I would still keep a writers journal, but it is much harder to find time to jot down ideas than you might think.

I enjoy going back and reading old entries, though. They're full of
Snippets of things I've seen or imagined.
Thoughts about plots.
Thoughts about books that I've read than can be applied to books I want to write.

I can never seem
to convince myself to write each day. I'm too busy, too tired, too comfortable with everything I've seen that I don't feel like describing it.

But when I do, sometimes they turn out well.
Like this one:

Monday, July 15th


A dark orange fence, a stained-wood color, with lumps of healthy ivy toppling onto the street side, nearly to the grass. 
...
Older Brother Complex- protect, defend, control
Older Sister Complex- logic, sense, mothering, guide

Powdery snow looks like a flour coating. 
...
The villain makes promises and they are empty, merely bait. 

For a long time ,it seems as if evil will win. It seems as if good has no hope of survival and the world will be overtaken with blackness and despair. At this point, many desert to save themselves. The good who still stand against the evil may not have hope of winning. They fight and stand on the principle of the matter, accepting they may be silenced, imprisoned, killed. But they will not defect. 

When you see the size and strength of the approaching enemy and your eyes widen, your stomach sinks, but somehow your heart hardens and your resolve rises. 
...
Yellow: the color on the evergreen shrub in the sunlight. The color of the stripes in a Tiger Lilly flower. Of the slides at Northview Park, the stripe on the flag, the title of the book. 

I should have learned it by now: Hard work now pays off later. You might not want to do it, but you should. That's what I learned, looking back on that certain July 15th and my reflections.

Be diligent. It pays off.