Heart of the Sunrise (Day 3)

Things didn't quite go as planned last night, but I did get to spend some time with my good friend Scott, who I haven't seen in several months. I'm an introvert, but I still definitely enjoy hanging out with friends occasionally. It's really just a different experience for me than for some other folks. I can't remember where I heard it, but I remember reading someone detailing the difference between introverts and extroverts when it comes to social interaction. They claimed that everyone unwinds or "recharges" in different ways. Extroverts tend to seek the company of others to relax and feel comfortable, whereas introverts need some time alone to achieve that same level of comfort. I find that's pretty true for me. When I hang out with someone, even if I completely enjoy the time spent with that person, I still feel the need for some time alone afterward, or I feel really uncomfortable.

I hung out with Scott until really late last night, which resulted in me staying up even later for some alone time, so here I am at 6 PM writing this entry when I only awoke an hour ago. I'm sabotaging my sleep schedule, I know, but I've long since given up on trying to wrest any real control over it. After all, I seem to perform best on low levels of sleep, even though that defies logic.

You know what? This writing exercise (as unambitious as it is) is helping me to realize something about my style. It's a little stiff and maybe a little pretentious too. This is something I've realized about my writing for a long time but never worked too hard on fixing. As weird as it sounds, I feel like I have to put forth more effort for my writing to come off as casual and light. If I'm tired of having a hard time concentrating, the effect is worse. Sentences are long, I overuse dashes and parentheticals, and I use a lot of adverbs. It's like I'm overcompensating for something. My good Twitter-buddy Dara mentioned the other day that he enjoys writing that isn't wasteful. Every word should be important and carefully considered. My language is often flowery and not very "to the point." I'm not sure I want my writing to resemble Cormac McCarthy's (his prose is a tad simple for me) but I'm sure there's a happy middleground.

Another thing I could work on is unification of theme and segues. I sometimes have difficulty figuring out where a paragraph should end and how to cycle between topics in a seamless way. In this entry, I go from talking about my personal life and rapidly shift gears to discuss my writing. That's not a big deal because this is basically an exercise, but it's something to think about for the future.