Daydreaming
Tag: work
Breathe. Then Write
I suppose the idea is to get over the fear of writing. An empty screen is a terrifying thing to face. But, all you can do for it is to fill it up. Don’t have any ideas? Don’t think any of your story arcs or characters are worth committing to zeroes and ones? Too many donts can keep you from doing anything. Keep you from writing, keep you from going out of your house, keep you from ever getting out of bed. It’s okay, you do those things (I hope you do) and you can do this thing too.
Breathe.
Set aside the words in your head that are crushing you. Set aside the words in your head that keep harping that you don’t have anything worth saying. You have stories, you have tales, you have characters, you’re practically overflowing with them. What you don’t have is confidence. You won’t get it just sitting there.
Distracted.
The internet isn’t going to get your work done. I know it’s hard to believe after spending hours on it, how could nothing have been accomplished? You feel so tired, as if work has been done. And you have so much to show for it! Data, information, news, trivia,the fact that echidnas have a four-headed penis, the theory that this universe is just one of many trapped in an intricate ten dimensional multi-universe that all might be nothing more than a simulation on a computer somewhere (the computer may also be a simulation?!) What you don’t have is any writing. You haven’t worked.
So, write.
You just need to write. Slowly, ever so slowly the white on the screen diminishes. Words appear one after the other. After another. You’re going to need sentences to keep them all together. Write more. Soon the sentences piling on top of each other. Keep going. Then, there are paragraphs holding your sentences together. Don’t stop. You’ll soon find yourself needing pages to hold your paragraphs and chapters to hold your pages, a book for all your pages. And, you’re done. Like that. Until, you have to do it again.
Time later for making sense of what you wrote. Time later for editing. Time later for plot, protagonists, antagonists, meaning, moral, movement, conflict, pace, etc., etc…
It all starts with the same blank screen. And, the terror of filling it with something. Breathe. Breathe and write.
For more thoughts on writing:
The Fear of Writing or Holding onto Dreams
Why Today’s Post Isn’t
The last two days I’ve typed just over 16,000 words… None of which my own, in the sense that I wasn’t writing my own thoughts or works, but rather for work. The two days before that I probably wrote another 10,000 plus. If this was NaNoWriMo I’d be half way done?! For my office, this is one of the two busy times of the year, after the Appropriations committee has held their suspense hearing and lots of bills get moved to the floor. All those bills need to have an analysis done for them and that is my office’s job. This was compounded this year by the fact that I was given new policy committees, so I’ve had to learn a lot in the past six months.
So, no post today. Just these pictures of my work area covered in Fact sheets, bills, checklists, drafts, and letters of support or opposition from interested parties. Enjoy…?
From Idea to Law: Making Legislation in California Part 2
Part two of a multi-part project explaining how laws are made in California.
part 1 of this series can be found here.
Part 2. The Policy Committee Process
In Part 1 I described how legislators introduce bills into their respective houses and the first few steps of the legislative process. We left off with bills being assigned by the Rules Committee to a policy committee that. The policy committee is where the public has an opportunity to address the legislature concerning each bill and legislators have the opportunity to question the bill’s author and those who support or oppose the bill. Policy committees each cover a specific policy field and are staffed by legislators interested in that field. The Assembly has 26 policy committees (and two fiscal): Aging and Long-Term Care; Agriculture; Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media; Banking and Finance; Business and Professions; Education; Elections and Redistricting; Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials; Governmental Organization; Health; Higher Education; Housing and Community Development; Human Services; Insurance; Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy; Judiciary; Labor and Employment; Local Government; Natural Resources; Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security; Public Safety; Revenue and Taxation; Transportation; Utilities and Commerce; Veterans Affairs; and, Water, Parks and Wildlife. The Senate has 19 policy committees (and 2 fiscal as well): Banking, Finance and Insurance; Business, Professions and Economic Development; Education; Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments; Energy, Utilities and Communications; Environmental Quality; Food and Agriculture; Governmental Organization; Health; Human Services; Judiciary; Labor and Industrial Relations; Local Government; Natural Resources and Water; Public Employment and Retirement; Public Safety; Revenue and Taxation; Transportation and Housing; and, Veterans Affairs.
Once a bill has been assigned to a policy committee it is put on the committees agenda (State law requires that 4 days notice be given for bill hearings) and the committee accepts letters from the public and private sectors regarding it. At a committee hearing the author presents their bill and then those who are in support of the bill are allowed to make a presentation, and the public is allowed to comment. Questions can and are often asked by committee members to the author and supporters of the bill, debate often ensues. After the supporters have finished presenting those who oppose the bill, if any, are given time to address the committee with their concerns, and proposals to remove their opposition to the bill. After arguments for and against the bill have been heard the author gives a closing statement to the committee. During the presentation of the bill amendments to the bill can be offered by committee members to the author, who can either reject or accept them, though bills can, and are, amended without the consent of the author. Once discussion of the bill has ceased the Committee will vote on the bill. If the bill receives a majority vote to pass it on, then it continues through the legislative process, if it fails passage the bill is dead. Authors are generally granted reconsideration after a bill fails passage in committee, giving them time to talk to committee members and convince them to vote the bill out of committee. Once a bill fails on reconsideration it is dead.
After a bill leaves a policy committee on a vote a number of things can happen. If the bill has costs associated with it (over $250,000) it must go to the Appropriations committee before being heard on the floor (I’ll talk about this fiscal committee in a future post). If the bill covers more than one policy area (say a bill about about college funding for Veterans that would be heard by both the Higher Education and the Veteran Affairs committees) it will go to the second committee it was referred to. If the bill is going to be amended, it has to go to the Assembly desk to be amended, read a 2nd time, and then it goes to 3rd reading or referred back to committee.
If you remember from the first post every bill has to be read three times before moving out of its house of origin. Next time I’ll explain 2nd and 3rd reading and talk about the two fiscal committees.