Thoughts on Writing/Publishing
25.6 The Courage to Write
submitting our writing to the critical gaze of a heartless public takes fearlessness beyond courage. It takes drink.
2025-03-31
Travels with Myself
A Journal of Discovery and Transition
Doug Jordan, Author
Books by Doug Jordan
25.03 Humour in Writing, Writing Humour
Writing well is hard enough, but to write something funny is seriously difficult. Indeed, much of the humour we see on paper is mostly cartoon-assisted text. And even much of that will depend on the mind of the reader
2025-02-15
Travels With Myself, Vol. 5 (2024)
24.22 Everyday Life in Capitol Hills
Capitol Hills was a social housing project commissioned by Imelda Marcos in the 1970s for retired military personnel. It evolved into a model strategy to try to deal with the housing problem of millions of Filipinos living in squalid communities in ravines and woods and along roadways all across the country. Fifty years later The Philippines still have a massive housing problem.
2024-11-29
Thoughts on Writing/Publishing
23.22 Motivation and Passion 2
When it comes to motivation, my blood curdles every time I hear the word, incentivize.
Motivation comes from within. No-one is actually motivated (incentivized?!) by some external force – moved maybe, but not motivated.
2023-11-30
Life and Death
23.19 Legacy Files
Marshall McLuhan famously said ‘the medium is the message’ (by which was meant that the choice of means and transmission of the message was more impactful than the message itself) but this could also be restated as ‘the medium is the legacy’. If the creator hasn’t provided for the means to preserve their work, and retrieve it, it vanishes, and the longed-for legacy is lost. Hoping to be remembered is a mug’s game really, since in actuality the means to preserve and retrieve records is fragile and likely temporary.
2023-10-15
Thoughts on Writing/Publishing
23.17 The Manuscript – R0
When I start a new book project, I name the file with an appropriate title and mark it R0 – Revision Zero. I suppose the original file could be called Draft 1 and the revision would be Draft 2. Or it could be First Draft and then Revision 1 but that annoys me. So I call the first draft R0 and the 2nd draft R1. (I know, quirky.)
2023-09-15
Travels With Myself, Vol. 3 (2022)
22-20. Thirty Days in The Philippines
Even before we left Canada we knew the original model of living together six months in Canada and six months in The Philippines had to change. Our model now has to be the Filipino Balikbayan concept – working off-shore for ten months, home for a couple – Doug attending to his consulting business in Canada to earn extra funds to support his pamilya in the Philippines and join Carmen from time to time in Trece, or Kanata.
2022-10-31
Travels With Myself, Vol. 3 (2022)
22-18. Tag-ulan
Rainy days severely limit commerce and economic activity in The Philippines. With Super Typhoons, everything comes to a halt, government and schools suspended. This is a chronic problem for the Philippines economy but acute for the millions of Filipinos who operate micro-enterprises, called tindahans, out of their tiny houses.
2022-09-28
Thoughts on Writing/Publishing
22-2. ‘My Story’
I wish I had been paying more attention when I had the chance to plumb the depths of my own parents’ memories to learn more of their histories, and mine.
2022-01-29
Thoughts on Writing/Publishing
21-3. Writing for Excellence
Or how ‘bout this one, don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good. Absolutely. How many of us get mired in design detail seeking perfection (or even excellence) and never make deadlines, or even produce anything at all? But you know, the devil is in the details. And there’s that damn word ‘good’ again. What is good? Is it good enough. Good enough is hardly excellence.
2021-02-14
Thoughts on Writing/Publishing
21-2. Writing for Flow
My purpose in life is not necessarily to be happy so much as to be worry-free. Regardless, you can put yourself into that state by becoming absorbed whole heartedly in something. Some people can do this through ‘mindful’ meditation. I can’t. I have to do something. So I write.
2021-01-31
Travels with Myself, Vol. 2 (2021)
20-14. 2020 Year End Review
I wonder what 2020 would have been like if the world hadn’t panicked in response to a pseudo-calamity, covid. As I wrote my annual plan in my virtual Harvard Planner last January while I was in The Philippines, who would have guessed the events that turned my plan upside down.
2020-12-31
Books by Doug Jordan
20-9. Research
I’m not sure how other authors do it [research for their books]. Highly successful authors with large revenues, or publisher advances, can hire students and staff to do it for them. But if you’re an independent author (the modern vernacular is ‘Indie’, hmmmm) you do your own. Or if you are mildly schizophrenic, or merely eccentric, you could delegate, to yourself.
2020-10-15
20-1. My Story Isn’t Over Yet, June 15
Many of my readers, when they had read the last instalments of my blogs that they were in fact the last, were mildly alarmed at the news: I had said I would convert the two blogs to books: The Pilipiñas Packet ended because I had returned to Canada from Philippines, Travels with Myself ended because my journey from the abyss to recovery had largely been complete. But then my caring readers were relieved when I said I would continue the blog, I still have a life to live and stories yet to tell.
2020-06-15
TWM – 70. The Author’s Life
One goal is output – not the ambitious thousand words a day, more like five hundred. In any event, a thousand words a day is pointless if it’s mostly crap. I think of Hemingway at his typewriter, tearing pages out of his carriage and filling his wastepaper basket, so much more visceral than modern hard drives. I’ve learned to be content with merely a decent paragraph, and just walk away.
2020-04-28
Books by Doug Jordan
TMW – 64. Amitié, A Novel
My author friends said I would never be able to please all the readers all the time, especially family and closer friends. I needed to put their ego issues aside and consider who my ultimate audience was. But that was still not clear to me. What was the real reason for writing this book?
2020-03-21
TWM – 54. Returning to the Sun
I still have problems to solve and still need to find the courage to solve them. Chief among these are dealing with aging, living a more considered life (James Hollis), practicing virtue and dying (with dignity). Bundled with this is leaving a legacy to my children and grandchildren, memories they can be proud of.
2020-01-30
TWM – 48. The Writing Bug Returns
As I anticipated my trip to Manila to meet the Filipina Cupid, I fretted about being drawn away from my [renewed interest in writing and completing my ‘novel’]. Such is the mind of the writer when the writing bug is upon him, he doesn’t want to do anything else.
2019-12-21
TWM – 6. Between Hubris and Humility
Writing the Dynamics of Management, Mastering the Intangibles of Influencing Others, took ten years, or more – five to get started, two to actually produce
2019-06-19
TWM – 5. Getting Serious, Taking Risks
Writing, in the beginning, was merely an occupational necessity. I was an H.R. Professional. I wrote letters, memoranda, policy papers, employee handbooks. I suppose some
2019-06-01
TWM – 4. Developing my own Narrative Style 2
What makes for effective writing style? There may be a number of objective criteria for what satisfies the characteristic ‘effective’, but the answer must also
2019-05-27
TWM – 3. Developing my own Narrative Style
If you have the idea that I was/am an academic pedant, you would be wrong. At least I hope you are wrong. I am a
2019-05-16
TWM – 2. Master Class
I never took a writing course. There was a basic styles handbook in university, and I’m sure I had marginal feedback from various TAs who
2019-05-10
TWM – 1. The Journey Begins
How many of you have thought, ‘maybe I should write a book’? If you’re reading this blog, I suspect, most of you. Everyone has a
2019-05-10
TWM – Introduction
Travels with Myself (with apologies to John Steinbeck, or should it be Graham Greene?) is the story of my journey of discovery, to find myself
2019-05-08
