What is Figments & Fragments? Why can’t I finish anything? Ten ideas for articles for Write of Passage. Playing catch with my son.

Trying something new. Since I’ve signed up for Cohort 9 of Write of Passage I’ve been introduced to a ton of cool ideas for writing online.

Michael Dean is the Editor-in-Chief at Write of Passage and he has this interesting section on his website called Logs. Logs are daily bits of ideas and thoughts that Michael captures - I think offline - and then lists them once a month.

What I like about the idea is that it makes your website a live notebook, something people can check out and see what ideas you have. It also provides you with a place to archive your ideas for later use or reuse.

David Perell has a similar concept with his weekly newsletter Monday Musings and the Short Form section on his website.

Each example provides a great opportunity to put your ideas out into the world. I’d like to change the title of my Blog section to Short Form and then release a Long Form page that features series and long form articles.

Lastly, Matthew Dicks has a section in his book, Storyworthy, called “Homework for Life.” The gist of “Homework for Life” is to record at least one sentence from an event, or scene, from the day that could be used to tell a story later, or a part of a story.

So, I Frankenstein’d each idea and came up with my own short form post:

Dean’s Logs + Perell’s Monday Musings + Dicks’ Homework for Life =

Frank’s Figments & Fragments

This might be a daily thing or it may not be. Either way, I’ll categorize the posts as Figments & Fragments and see what happens.

Here’s Figments & Fragments #1!

• Yesterday at the beach my wife expressed her frustration with my seeming inability to complete a project. I have TONS of ideas. Many of them I’ve started; few are not complete. That’s part of the reason why I joined Write of Passage. Regardless, I did what any curious-minded individual would do: I watched YouTube videos trying to figure out why I can’t finish shit. Here are a few videos I watched:

  • The Art of Improvement - 5 Things to Do When You Have Too Many Ideas and Never Finish Anything

  • Thomas Frank - How to Finish What You Start

  • Better Ideas - Why it’s so hard to get anything done

• My son and I have been playing catch with a football a lot lately. I had a brief talked with him because any time I gave him a few pointers, he’d get upset. “I know dad. I’lll do what I want. I’m different than other kids.” I could chalk it up to typical father-son bonding, but I wanted to make sure he didn’t feel like his self-confidence was fading. Fast forward to his soccer practice and he lit up the field. He was all over the place - running, passing, shooting, laughing. Needless to say, the lesson learned was about me as a father and not him as a son. The takeaway is simple: don’t place my anxiety and worries on my son.

• In preparation for Write of Passage kicking off this Wednesday, I brainstormed a list of ten topics or ideas I may want to write about. I have no idea which ones I’ll write about, or how any of this works.

  • Why every high school student should build a website, start a newsletter, and learn to write online.

  • What Richard Yates’ short story collection Eleven Kinds of Loneliness shows us what it means to be lonely.

  • The Future of the Afterlife.

  • If I started a theatre company, this is what I’d do.

  • Why can’t I finish anything and at what cost (seeing a trend?)

  • Why every creative writer should take on Bradbury’s challenge to write one short story a week, and why I suggest your short story be flash fiction.

  • Why writers should collect great sentences (and what to do with them).

  • The philosophy of Giambetest Vico

  • Want a better life? Read philosophy books.

  • In defense of the literary canon and the Great Books debate.

  • What makes Richard Yates’ “Doctor Jack-o’-Latern” Great?