GOAT CURSE

Hey! Here’s a picture of a piping plover I took in Northern Michigan a couple of years ago.

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Currently closing in (sort of) on the end of the winter 2026 semester at my university. I had a writing workshop where I was required to start a notebook (see “Writer’s Notebook” page!) and write four entries per week in addition to class writing prompts. Prior to this class I’d been pretty lousy at keeping up with any sort of journal, so it was a bit of a challenge to get into. Ultimately, though, I think it’s fun to have a dedicated notebook for tidbits of research and other writing-related endeavors, so I’m going to try and stay consistent with the entries after the semester ends.

I recommend starting something like this if you don’t yet have a place to gather all your creative thoughts and interests, or are just trying to write more frequently.

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I think the most difficult part of the notebook-keeping process for me was knowing that, due to the goal of the workshop being based on generating a lot of content and potential creative material, I was pretty much meant to generate a lot of writing that probably wasn’t technically good. I struggled with feeling like it was a “quantity over quality” thing; that I may not even be writing things that I would want to use or expand upon in the future. However, I started to get more comfortable writing about whatever came to mind by reflecting on interesting things I’d read or learned about outside of class. Then that turned into me being more okay with just keeping my pen moving during class writing prompts, and not worrying too much about whether what I was writing was perfect. I think there’s a wisdom to not worrying about if you’re writing well (at least for freewrites and first drafts), because then you can focus on your bare ideas and let your brain/creativity guide you rather than thinking too hard about writing something “perfect”.

I’m planning to edit and post some notebook entries that I enjoyed writing, so you might see some posts about topics like taxidermy, cloudbusting, sin-eating, and more in the future.

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Thanks for checking out my website! GOAT CURSE was created as a blog for movie reviews and other miscellaneous interests, as well as a place to talk about writing & other creative projects.

– Charlie ✴️