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jon_chaissonI've been rethinking this whiteboard schedule thing lately, and it occurred to me: I don't think I need to assign days for my creativity anymore...I think I need to assign a schedule for when to go online.
Let me explain this: after a good couple of weeks of ignoring the whiteboard due to work events, personal events and a vacation, I've come to the conclusion that my productivity issues aren't really based on the Don't Wanna's, but the Ooh Shiny's.
This is especially apparent since I've started a new Mendaihu Universe story a few weeks back by writing it completely longhand. I went over this on one of my other blogs a while back, but here's the thing: one of the reasons I'm writing longhand is that I wanted to try to return to the writing processes that I know truly worked for me. In this case, it's a mixture of the longhand writing of The Phoenix Effect in the late 90s (outcome: forces me to write without internal editing and trying to get it perfect first time out) and the lack of internet distractions in the early 00s during the trilogy writing (outcome: 'nuff said).
The end result of the longhand sessions so far has been extremely fruitful: I'm going by page count rather than word count and averaging about 1.5 to 2 pages a day, the story feels more organic, and I'm not feeling nearly as frustrated in general because I'm letting myself make the typical writing mistakes that I know can be fixed in rewrite/revision. And more to the point: I'm sitting all the way across the room on the loveseat here in Spare Oom, well away from the computer. My only distraction is deciding which music to play for that session's writing.
I like this new setup. A LOT. I could get used to this again. And considering nearly all of my creative works are offline (drawing, journaling, music, poetry), I see no reason not to expand it more. And as for the Daily 750: that too fell by the wayside due to personal and work issues, but I can just as easily pick it up again organically...I can just as easily hit those numbers longhand as well, and keep them in a single notebook for easier access.
Which brought me to the other elephant in the room: the social media and the two WordPress blogs.
To be honest, I have no problem with the blogs. I can keep up with those with minimal reminders. No, the big problem is my addiction to social media. There, I said it: addiction. It's not necessarily at detrimental level, but I'm catching myself refreshing the feeds more often than I'd like. Really, was I like this with LiveJournal? I don't believe I was, because that feed wasn't nearly as refreshable. But really--I know my weaknesses, I know how I react to certain subjects, and I've gone on about this for quite a while now. I keep saying I'm backing away, but I keep falling off that damn wagon. And that needs to stop.
So how about this:
How about using the whiteboard not as a writing schedule...but times I should pop online? Now, I'm not about to write "4pm - 6pm: check day's Twitter feed", which would be kind of silly. This is more like taking all the extraneous stuff off the whiteboard that I do anyway without reminders, and keep only the online stuff up: the blogs and the photo posts. Really, that's it. I'll still read my webcomics in the morning, check my emails and messages and whatnot. Keep a browser open if I'm streaming a station. Other than that, let's turn off the browsers we really don't need up. Bring one up if I need it for reference or any other valid reason? Sure. But otherwise, let's back away from distraction, for reals this time.
Here's to hoping it works.
Let me explain this: after a good couple of weeks of ignoring the whiteboard due to work events, personal events and a vacation, I've come to the conclusion that my productivity issues aren't really based on the Don't Wanna's, but the Ooh Shiny's.
This is especially apparent since I've started a new Mendaihu Universe story a few weeks back by writing it completely longhand. I went over this on one of my other blogs a while back, but here's the thing: one of the reasons I'm writing longhand is that I wanted to try to return to the writing processes that I know truly worked for me. In this case, it's a mixture of the longhand writing of The Phoenix Effect in the late 90s (outcome: forces me to write without internal editing and trying to get it perfect first time out) and the lack of internet distractions in the early 00s during the trilogy writing (outcome: 'nuff said).
The end result of the longhand sessions so far has been extremely fruitful: I'm going by page count rather than word count and averaging about 1.5 to 2 pages a day, the story feels more organic, and I'm not feeling nearly as frustrated in general because I'm letting myself make the typical writing mistakes that I know can be fixed in rewrite/revision. And more to the point: I'm sitting all the way across the room on the loveseat here in Spare Oom, well away from the computer. My only distraction is deciding which music to play for that session's writing.
I like this new setup. A LOT. I could get used to this again. And considering nearly all of my creative works are offline (drawing, journaling, music, poetry), I see no reason not to expand it more. And as for the Daily 750: that too fell by the wayside due to personal and work issues, but I can just as easily pick it up again organically...I can just as easily hit those numbers longhand as well, and keep them in a single notebook for easier access.
Which brought me to the other elephant in the room: the social media and the two WordPress blogs.
To be honest, I have no problem with the blogs. I can keep up with those with minimal reminders. No, the big problem is my addiction to social media. There, I said it: addiction. It's not necessarily at detrimental level, but I'm catching myself refreshing the feeds more often than I'd like. Really, was I like this with LiveJournal? I don't believe I was, because that feed wasn't nearly as refreshable. But really--I know my weaknesses, I know how I react to certain subjects, and I've gone on about this for quite a while now. I keep saying I'm backing away, but I keep falling off that damn wagon. And that needs to stop.
So how about this:
How about using the whiteboard not as a writing schedule...but times I should pop online? Now, I'm not about to write "4pm - 6pm: check day's Twitter feed", which would be kind of silly. This is more like taking all the extraneous stuff off the whiteboard that I do anyway without reminders, and keep only the online stuff up: the blogs and the photo posts. Really, that's it. I'll still read my webcomics in the morning, check my emails and messages and whatnot. Keep a browser open if I'm streaming a station. Other than that, let's turn off the browsers we really don't need up. Bring one up if I need it for reference or any other valid reason? Sure. But otherwise, let's back away from distraction, for reals this time.
Here's to hoping it works.
