{"id":43874,"date":"2026-06-18T11:12:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T23:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=43874"},"modified":"2026-06-18T11:12:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T23:12:04","slug":"wrangling-the-writing-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2026\/06\/18\/wrangling-the-writing-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Wrangling The Writing Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are times, dear readers, when wrangling the writing life takes way more energy that one feels it rightly should.<\/p>\n

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When it ‘could’ be like this…<\/p><\/div>\n

For example, when one’s internet “service” (ha-ha) provider decides to improve one’s customer experience — and without forewarning or explanation one’s website vanishes for the best part of three days, and one’s blog for over four.<\/p>\n

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Or this…<\/p><\/div>\n

So if you were wondering why no Monday post, there is the explanation right there. Needless to say, it’s at times like these that the writing life feels as much mangle as wrangle. I can say, too, hand on heart, that wrangling words is infinitely easier and more satisfying than attempting the same with one’s ISP.<\/p>\n

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And definitely this…<\/p><\/div>\n

However, I reminded myself of Ursula Le Guin’s observation that we live in a time “when we fuss if our computer can\u2019t bring us everything we want instantly.” <\/span><\/em>So strove, accordingly, not to give in to my animus but focus on the problem solving part.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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I like the beach part of the quote below…<\/p><\/div>\n

In another telling observation on modern life, she noted that:<\/p>\n

“…we talk on a cell phone to people in [somewhere far away] while jogging on the beach without seeing the beach, and gather on social media into huge separation-denying disembodied groups while ignoring the people around us.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

True dat, innit?<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
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… & the being *with* peeps (& books!) part \ud83d\ude42<\/p><\/div>\n

As for my ISP, you’re undoubtedly right — I do need a better one! I fear, though, that this may be a mythical beast in the world we’ve created for ourselves.\u00a0 [Cue wry emoji.]<\/p>\n

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Here, definitely, be dragons!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are times, dear readers, when wrangling the writing life takes way more energy that one feels it rightly should. For example, when one’s internet “service” (ha-ha) provider decides to improve one’s customer experience — and without forewarning or explanation one’s website vanishes for the best part of three days, and one’s blog for over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-what-im-doing","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43874"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43879,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43874\/revisions\/43879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}