My reblog this weeks comes from Jessica Abel over at the Observer, and it deals with the concept of Idea Debt – this is something I’m often guilty of myself:
http://observer.com/2016/02/imagining-your-future-projects-is-holding-you-back/
Work
Time Passes By
Time can be an elusive thing.
My life is in quite a bit of chaos at the moment, but for the most part it is the food kind of chaos.
That’s why I haven’t been posting much here.
I have been writing, though. As of this post I am just over 10,000 words into my new project and though I’ve encountered some resistance now it had been going well.
I should be working on my project rnow, but I thought I’d give you a quick update instead.
There’s still a lot to be done before I’ll have the chance to get back into a healthier routine, but at least I’m consciously working on it.
My creativity has to be on the back burner for a bit, but I won’t give up on it completely.
Despite everything else going on, my goal is to keep up a schedule of three posts a week, just to keep the habit and make it part of my new routine to be checking in.
I’m off to do some work now.
Starting Over Again
“Every single decision you make turns you a little bit into the person you are going to be tomorrow.”
—Chris Hadfield
A week of the new year has gone by and things are slowly moving forward.
I’m on my eighth day in the Word Mines and about 5,000 words into my new project. Scrivener is serving me well, though I have barely even begun to explore its features, and it has allowed me to both pants and plot my way through the first leg of the story. Writing in isolated scenes is a new experience for me – one I am growing quite fond of. Most of the writing so far has been done on my smart phone – also a first. Previously I have only written blog posts that way, but with the overview Scrivener gives me I always know what I need to write next, and my daily target of 350-700 words is a perfect length for writing on the bus or on a break. Once home I can easily copy-paste the text into the right place in the story, do some quick edits, look ahead at the next few scenes and see if I made my target. Then I may or may not write more as dictated by time, discipline and inclination.
So far so good.
Rearranging my living space has been more challenging, but that is finally starting to come together. Next week should see all the important changes finalized, then there will just be details and two or three unnecessary projects left. I’ve set up a corner of my living room for painting and made drawer-space there for my art materials. With a bit of luck and some compromise I should also be able to find space on my desk for writing related resources. If everything works out, by month’s end I should have a home environment more conductive to creative pursuits than it has been for a long time.
How’s your year shaping up, Dear Reader?
I hope you have had a good start, with not too many resolutions broken, and that you have all be sort of plan or goal or dream for the coming year. If not, well…the Chinese new year is coming up. You can have a second chance at your first week after that!
Take a moment, get things started and begin the year working toward your dreams!
Reblog: Pay the Writer Part 2—Blood Diamonds & Fair Trade Fiction
This week’s reblog is about paying the writer and comes from Kristen Lamb – it is long, but worth the read:
Reblog: Blogging For Authors: What It Really Is
My reblog for the week comes from author Veronica Bale and talks about blogging as a marketing strategy for authors:
The Enemy Inside
”Normal people think I’m insane.”
—Karl Lagerfeld
Have you ever waged a war against yourself?
Ten days remain of NaNoWriMo and the daily word count I need to make my goal has doubled. Since I’ve averaged about 600 words an hour so far this means I’d need six hours a day of pure writing.
I can do that. But I won’t.
There’s too much else I need to do, for one. Also, my brain is fighting me.
The project I’m working on is a three-part coming-of-age story inspired by events in my own life – a fictionalized auto-biography of sorts. It is the first part of a much larger project and it has been building up inside of me for a long time. It’s a story I’m quite passionate about. But now that it is finally coming together my brain refuses to co-operate.
As soon as I try to shape my writing, my brain suggests other projects.
There’s a list of things I want to write which can be grouped into three larger projects; three themes. It seems no matter which of these I pick, another demands my attention.
The harder I try to focus, the more my brain rebels against me.
Instead of fighting back, I’m trying to trick it. I give my mind a taste of what it wants: an idea to run with, a piece of information to research, an image to describe. Then, as that starts taking form I dive in and put pen to paper on the current project. Part of my brain keeps working on the problem I gave it, and another part starts trying to figure out how my current action ties into that other project.
In letting my mind veer of course I twist it to work for me as well as against me.
Having two different things at the forefront of my mind at the same time can get confusing sometimes, but luckily I’ve had a lot of practice. I’m not sure what diagnosis I should have, if any, but my mind has always done this. I’ve always had several trains of thought running parallel, on separate tracks. Sometimes it’s been a boon, sometimes a curse.
I’m finally learning how to make that into a creative advantage rather than a hindrance.
Stuck in the Middle
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
―Winston Churchill
Sunday marks the half-way point of NaNoWriMo!
Dear Reader, this is where I wish I could tell you I am at least in sight of the 25,000 words half the month should have netted me. Alas, I can’t. I am closer to a tenth of that number. I expected to be behind – I only had one day so far earmarked for writing only, and I had other projects to finish which would take time out of the remaining days. Also, I knew that writing by hand would hamper productivity.
Still, I hoped to be further along by now.
As fate would have it I lost November 1st (my full day of writing) due to the notebook with my research and outline going missing. It reappeared on the morning of November 2nd, but the lost 12 or so hours I was going to use to get ahead stayed lost. After that, life has seen fit to steal away a great deal of those few hours I had planned to dedicate to writing. Thanks to kicking this old school with pen and paper I have managed to sneak in a few sentences here and there, though – and hopefully life will be kinder during the two remaining weeks.
Will I make it to 50,000? Probably not…
…but I will give it an honest try.
I knew from the start that the goal was unrealistic for me this year.
That doesn’t matter, though. I’m not challenging myself to get a digital badge or a pat on the back. I’m challenging myself because I need the push, and because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter if there are 50,000 or 5,000 or a mere 50 words that weren’t there when I started.
What matters is that I am further along than I would otherwise have been.
Reblog: Writing Discipline
My reblog this week comes from last week,was written by Michael Jecks, and is about something very important:
Reblog: 10 Ingenious Ways to Increase Your Word Count and Win NaNoWriMo!
My reblog for this week comes from Kylie Betzner and summarizes my personal struggle with NaNoWriMo – after a non-existant start on the 1st due to a missing notebook (the day I had set aside to get ahead) I fell severely behind and have only had a few hours to play catch up. This means I’m at about 1/10th of the word count I ‘should’ have by now.
So…if you are in a similar position, read these tips and get inspired!