The White Lily (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thewhitelily) wrote2007-01-01 02:33 pm
thewhitelily) wrote2007-01-01 02:33 pm
The Star System
(Or: Lily’s New Year’s Resolution)
NaNoWriMo was an enormous boost for me – it forced me to take time for myself to write, to really write, and that’s something I haven’t managed to give myself for some time.
But during November, I became the most selfish being on the planet: demanded dinner served at my laptop on time and without any input from me, kicked my sister out from our weekly movie-fest at 11pm because I still had a thousand words to write, declared all but one room of the house a “no singing zone”, completely neglected my beautiful, gorgeous piano, ran both Hubby’s and my lives by my writing sprint timer, and almost died of withdrawal from reading.
I couldn’t possibly do November every month, but all through December I’ve hardly written a thing; I’ve plopped on the couch in front of the TV every night, I’ve spent an hour or so every day making lunch/dinner/etc, I’ve got sucked into reading and reading and reading fics for hours … and I’ve crawled into bed at two or three in the morning every night feeling like I’ve done absolutely nothing.
The problem – and of course the beauty – of NaNo is that it crams everything into such a short space of time that you can’t “not feel like it today”, or have something else that makes it inconvenient and not get around to starting. Otherwise, the shiny gold star doesn’t go up on the calender, and you have a day that isn’t like all the others. For me, that’s a rather big thing. It becomes your top priority, and it consumes your life rather than letting your life consume you.
It’s coming up for judging season at the Orions, and I know that will consume the majority of my time over the coming months, but I don’t want to get to April (or June if the schedule goes south like it did last year) and realise that I haven’t written anything since November. I can’t let it suck me dry and spit out my bones again.
And I want to finish Return to Sender, my original NaNovel - but I don't want to forget about fanfiction, becasue I'm still a fan and I need that feedback I get from fandom to keep developing as a writer and keep my spirits up.
Surely there has to be a way to find a balance? Surely, an obsessive like myself can find some way to harness all the energy I obviously have to devote to these activities, and to apply it in a way that will get me progress across multiple areas simultaneously?
Of course, I have, and that’s what this is all about. Shiny gold stars seem to have worked for me before, so I’ve bought a brand new calendar to go in my study today. There’s other colours in my packet of stars, too, and I’m looking forward to trying them out. I’ve assigned each colour a meaning, and some – like picking up and reading an actual book for a little while – should be easier than others to put up than others. I was considering naming Wednesday "fanfic day" and Saturday "original day" etc, but that just doesn't work in a real life with real commitments and any kind of enjoyment of just living. So the plan now is to simply aim for is seven stars in a week across a range of colours. None of the tasks are nearly as big as a single NaNo day, so I'll be able to get several done on one day, and a couple on another. All in all, it’s totally doable.
Like all New Year’s Resolutions, we’ll have to see how it goes. If I find I’m being ambitious, I’m happy to adjust my goals at the end of the month – or the end of the week – but I think this is going to work. I’m aiming low; I just need something to make sure that I do the things I want to do and want to have done rather than just doing the things that are urgent or I happen to be doing right at the moment. It’s worked for me before, so…
May it live long into the New Year!
NaNoWriMo was an enormous boost for me – it forced me to take time for myself to write, to really write, and that’s something I haven’t managed to give myself for some time.
But during November, I became the most selfish being on the planet: demanded dinner served at my laptop on time and without any input from me, kicked my sister out from our weekly movie-fest at 11pm because I still had a thousand words to write, declared all but one room of the house a “no singing zone”, completely neglected my beautiful, gorgeous piano, ran both Hubby’s and my lives by my writing sprint timer, and almost died of withdrawal from reading.
I couldn’t possibly do November every month, but all through December I’ve hardly written a thing; I’ve plopped on the couch in front of the TV every night, I’ve spent an hour or so every day making lunch/dinner/etc, I’ve got sucked into reading and reading and reading fics for hours … and I’ve crawled into bed at two or three in the morning every night feeling like I’ve done absolutely nothing.
The problem – and of course the beauty – of NaNo is that it crams everything into such a short space of time that you can’t “not feel like it today”, or have something else that makes it inconvenient and not get around to starting. Otherwise, the shiny gold star doesn’t go up on the calender, and you have a day that isn’t like all the others. For me, that’s a rather big thing. It becomes your top priority, and it consumes your life rather than letting your life consume you.
It’s coming up for judging season at the Orions, and I know that will consume the majority of my time over the coming months, but I don’t want to get to April (or June if the schedule goes south like it did last year) and realise that I haven’t written anything since November. I can’t let it suck me dry and spit out my bones again.
And I want to finish Return to Sender, my original NaNovel - but I don't want to forget about fanfiction, becasue I'm still a fan and I need that feedback I get from fandom to keep developing as a writer and keep my spirits up.
Surely there has to be a way to find a balance? Surely, an obsessive like myself can find some way to harness all the energy I obviously have to devote to these activities, and to apply it in a way that will get me progress across multiple areas simultaneously?
Of course, I have, and that’s what this is all about. Shiny gold stars seem to have worked for me before, so I’ve bought a brand new calendar to go in my study today. There’s other colours in my packet of stars, too, and I’m looking forward to trying them out. I’ve assigned each colour a meaning, and some – like picking up and reading an actual book for a little while – should be easier than others to put up than others. I was considering naming Wednesday "fanfic day" and Saturday "original day" etc, but that just doesn't work in a real life with real commitments and any kind of enjoyment of just living. So the plan now is to simply aim for is seven stars in a week across a range of colours. None of the tasks are nearly as big as a single NaNo day, so I'll be able to get several done on one day, and a couple on another. All in all, it’s totally doable.
Like all New Year’s Resolutions, we’ll have to see how it goes. If I find I’m being ambitious, I’m happy to adjust my goals at the end of the month – or the end of the week – but I think this is going to work. I’m aiming low; I just need something to make sure that I do the things I want to do and want to have done rather than just doing the things that are urgent or I happen to be doing right at the moment. It’s worked for me before, so…
May it live long into the New Year!
no subject
*wonders what black holes and magnetars and pulsars and t tauris and rayets mean given this context*
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no subject