There’s a lot of attention paid these days to personal metrics. I’m talking about the practice of recording the numbers of our daily lives and measuring progress towards our goals by examining those numbers. Diet and exercise are probably the most common metrics people measure: maybe we’re counting calories towards a desired weight loss. We […]
Author Archive > Andrew Romine
Three Things Make My Writing Life
There are really not a lot of absolute rules for writing, just a bunch of guidelines and advice from other writers — “this is what works for me.” It’s up to each of us to distill all of this collegial advice and our own experiences into something that “works for me.” So I’ve been blogging […]
(Not) Writing My Way Through Stressful Times
The last two months have not been easy. Long hours at the day job, unexpected travel, a major death in the family, stressful Christmas, several close friends in distress, and almost six full weeks of both of us being sick on top of that. Muscle aches and joint pain can be caused by tension, as well […]
The Reindeer Games of the Writer’s Brain
As I sit here and compose my last Inkpunks post for 2013, I find myself reflecting on the past year with an uncomfortable mix of contentment and frustration. It was a very rough year, full of personal and professional setbacks. In the wee, cold hours of these winter nights, my Writer’s Brain precipitates these frustrations […]
Summer Sabbatical
I know what you’re thinking. It’s mid-October, so why I am I talking about summer? Well, here in Los Angeles, the last of the summer heat has just broken, and proper fall is just now beginning. Everything is pumpkin-spiced and crisp, and the 60-degree overnight lows keep us indoors–so what better time to reflect on […]
After Finishing the Novel Draft
A happy side effect of my un- and under-employed summer is that I had plenty of time to finally wrap up the 0th draft of my novel. I’ve been steadily working on it since last October (longer, if you count a different version of the book I began in 2010), and as much as I […]
Too Much Time on Your Hands? Me Too.
photo (cc) Steve Groisbos A lot of writers dream of quitting their Day Job. Of unshackling themselves from corporate handcuffs of iron or gold and leap joyously into a Full Time Writing Life, where the words flow freely and the book advances are large. I am not that writer. Not really (not yet, at least). […]
Giving Yourself Permission to Take a Break
I don’t talk much about my day job on this blog. This is partly due to a desire to compartmentalize Andrew Penn Romine, the budding author from Andy Romine, the visual effects & animation artist – two careers that have, in my mind, always been separate and distinct. Two creative paths with their own trajectories […]
drInkpunks: Cheers to You All!
So for the last couple of years, I’ve been putting my amateur mixology skills to use for the good of the Inkpunks. For their birthdays, each Inkpunk got a custom-crafted cocktail from me, along with a card and a recipe. It was a way for me to practice my skills, of course, but more than […]
Failure: You’re Doing it Right
We’ve all heard the truism that the best way to learn is to make mistakes. I’d like to go one step further and suggest that our best teacher is often failure. There’s nothing quite so motivating as to fall flat on your face trying a new thing. If you’re like me, sometimes it takes a […]
