There are times it feels as if so much is stretched out in front of you. You want to arrive but there is so much to cover before you get to that place you are trying to see in the distance. It can be as simple as moving toward a weekend. The hurdles of the everyday, mundane are stacked and arranged to block you from that Friday afternoon quitting time bell. It's all you think about as you trudge your way through all the obstacles and wait counting down the hours.
Stop counting. Stop looking so far ahead. Where are you now and what else can you do to make that mundane more than it's been in the past. If you are feeling that everything is so far out of reach it's time to start making time work of us now. Not that distance future we keep imagining because there is no proof it will be as we imagined when we get there. It's especially true if you can't think about what you are doing now. Give it more thought. Stay with the now and when those overwhelming feelings of wanting to live in the future start to creep in, think of how to be grateful and make the moments of now work.
It's about right now and making what you have and do count. It's not about counting the hours away for an unforeseen imaginary future. It may seem to be better but the time to live is now.
TT
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Monday, July 11, 2016
Rise and Shine
Monday morning.
I can't say it's bright and shining because it's still dark outside. But there is no doubt the sun will come out and set everything aglow. The routine is in place and I will battle out the day. I'll make an effort to move away from my desk and take a turn around our campus which is our workplace. It will go on fast or slow but it will still turn over into a new day and then another.
This moment is the only thing real and then it moves on as you find yourself in that new moment again. Stay with it. Go with that flow and not get bogged down in the worry of what already happened or what you might come up against in the future. It's right now you get to experience so do it. This event that is right now is what you have so use it the best way you can. Watch the day as you are given the opportunity to be as bright and shiny as the day itself. Choose your actions with gratitude and the routine can turn into a better place to be. It's those moments that you choose which makes a Monday morning better than a Monday morning.
TT
Friday, July 8, 2016
Plotter or Pantser
Where do you start?
It's usually with a blank page. It might be an open word document or a clean sheet of paper. You can do this electronically or grab a pencil or pen and use those fingers and hands to grip or type. The method doesn't matter. It's all a matter of what resources you have at the moment. I've tried both, all, and variations.
I think the key is to start and don't worry about the methods. It should be about the idea of filling the blank clean page with ideas. Can you do that? Can you get down some type of idea that formed from nothing. Can you take those few words that were scribbled or typed down into a first sentence and make them into something more.
That's the easy part because from then on it only gets more difficult. Are you a pantser or plotter? Believe it or not these are real and true writing methods. How you proceed puts you into one of these categories. If you take the time to outline, and plot and fill in all the blanks of where a story might go you are a Plotter. It should not be confused with someone who writes a story by the seat of their pants. That would be a Pantser. A writer that just dives right in and tries to see where it will go. A good many successful writers do it one or the other way.
I'm not that good to land on either side of this fence. I've started out both ways. I've planned and wrote and also did some pantsering on others. So far I only have some pretty rough drafts no matter which method I used. But I have them and that is the way it starts. It could be worse. I could still have a blank page.
TT
I'm not that good to land on either side of this fence. I've started out both ways. I've planned and wrote and also did some pantsering on others. So far I only have some pretty rough drafts no matter which method I used. But I have them and that is the way it starts. It could be worse. I could still have a blank page.
TT
Monday, July 4, 2016
'Just Write' Isn't Always Right
Write it all down.
Keep writing.
Just write.
I was told to do all of the above. It was drilled into me over and over. Keep it up. Get the words down. Keep at it. Write it and don't worry about it now but keep stringing words together. Put a timer on and go until the alarm goes off. Just words and more words and then more words.
I tried and I did. I had a hard time because I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I didn't understand the concept of writing words to only have words. I was trying to do more than fill up a page and I didn't see how 'just write' was right. I fought it the entire way but I kept doing it because it was the way to do it. Everyone said so.
What I found out was that they were holding back on other things I should have known. Maybe they didn't know. Maybe they couldn't figure it out so gave the only advise they ever heard. I wrote an entire 70,000 first draft completed piece of fiction that is only good for pages and pages of word after word. That was when I realized how much longer I was going to have to keep writing. This was only a first draft and everyone will tell you it's not the stopping point. There are many more drafts to come.
Wait, wait, wait. Can I get ALL the instructions at the beginning, please? Just write is a good way to start but it was being taken as the instructions for completion. Sorry. It isn't. There is so much more. I should have known that was too simple. Just write? Sure. Look at me go. I was envisioning the brilliance and how each word should be engraved on a page. It was fun. It made me feel like rock star but it wasn't real.
What this did for me was give me the experience. It takes work and more words to fix all the words already written. That is the process. It's the part no one mentioned. Maybe they didn't know but I know now. I understand that after you write the words upon words, you can get down to the business of getting rid of a lot of those words so you can write the correct ones. All that writing, no matter how good or bad, gives the foundation to pull it all into what it should be. I know what to change since it exists on the page. All those words already created can be shaped into what they should become. Will it take work? Yes. Lots. It will need to be broken down to be built back up. It will take major deleting of words to be replaced by more words that will do it all better. So I've come full circle with the advice as I start again.
Write it all down.
Keep writing.
Just write.
I can see where this advice can seem to be a little deceitful in its representation. I am figuring out the process and will be more planned and a little more calculated when I begin again. It will still have elements of the 'just write' theory in order to let those creative ideas flow but will have a firmer hand on the overall progression of the plot and characters. Maybe the advice was good and I had to experience it to learn the process. Maybe. But is doesn't seem just right.
TT
Keep writing.
Just write.
I was told to do all of the above. It was drilled into me over and over. Keep it up. Get the words down. Keep at it. Write it and don't worry about it now but keep stringing words together. Put a timer on and go until the alarm goes off. Just words and more words and then more words.
I tried and I did. I had a hard time because I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I didn't understand the concept of writing words to only have words. I was trying to do more than fill up a page and I didn't see how 'just write' was right. I fought it the entire way but I kept doing it because it was the way to do it. Everyone said so.
What I found out was that they were holding back on other things I should have known. Maybe they didn't know. Maybe they couldn't figure it out so gave the only advise they ever heard. I wrote an entire 70,000 first draft completed piece of fiction that is only good for pages and pages of word after word. That was when I realized how much longer I was going to have to keep writing. This was only a first draft and everyone will tell you it's not the stopping point. There are many more drafts to come.
Wait, wait, wait. Can I get ALL the instructions at the beginning, please? Just write is a good way to start but it was being taken as the instructions for completion. Sorry. It isn't. There is so much more. I should have known that was too simple. Just write? Sure. Look at me go. I was envisioning the brilliance and how each word should be engraved on a page. It was fun. It made me feel like rock star but it wasn't real.
What this did for me was give me the experience. It takes work and more words to fix all the words already written. That is the process. It's the part no one mentioned. Maybe they didn't know but I know now. I understand that after you write the words upon words, you can get down to the business of getting rid of a lot of those words so you can write the correct ones. All that writing, no matter how good or bad, gives the foundation to pull it all into what it should be. I know what to change since it exists on the page. All those words already created can be shaped into what they should become. Will it take work? Yes. Lots. It will need to be broken down to be built back up. It will take major deleting of words to be replaced by more words that will do it all better. So I've come full circle with the advice as I start again.
Write it all down.
Keep writing.
Just write.
I can see where this advice can seem to be a little deceitful in its representation. I am figuring out the process and will be more planned and a little more calculated when I begin again. It will still have elements of the 'just write' theory in order to let those creative ideas flow but will have a firmer hand on the overall progression of the plot and characters. Maybe the advice was good and I had to experience it to learn the process. Maybe. But is doesn't seem just right.
TT
Friday, July 1, 2016
Making it new again
Here is what you do with most new, exciting projects.
You start to a build up and store a bundle of energy . You can't wait to get started and think about all the exciting ways it will make you better, more confident, stronger, give you more expertise and a feeling of accomplishment. It makes you feel energized. You also have a certain amount of anxiety about the unknown and that trepidation can pull you forward and fuel you on to what you are about to embark on doing. It's a natural course of feelings and actions when we are looking forward to that new, exciting project.
You prepare mentally before you start even if it's in different degrees and times. Eventually, you get started or sometimes, if you are like many, you only keep thinking about that new exciting project you want to get started on doing. It becomes a circle of thought. It is sometimes fits and starts and bits and pieces of that one thing you keep wanting to do but never quite have the time. It's that trepidation that was supposed to pull you forward and fuel you and it's only creating fear in your mind that you somehow can't achieve that project you've been spending so much time and effort trying to do.
So now, all you have to show are fragments of things that was supposed to be a started project. It seems a lot of effort for a poor amount of work. You start judging yourself through the fragments. All the energy that started out so positive has given way to a mind set that crossed the line and pulled you the wrong way. It would be an easy fix to quit. It would be easy to give in and say it didn't work out which would be a true statement at that given time and in your judgmental state. You could also try to stir up those original ideas of being better, confident, stronger. You already have more expertise because you have actually worked on those bits and pieces, those fits and starts and fragments. They didn't come out of nowhere. It's only time to regroup and refocus. It time to use what you have already created and get excited about that again.
Everything starts if you make the move. It always starts at different points whether you have done them before or not. Don't spend the time thinking about where you are too long. Each time you work on it, get started again with the same bundle of energy you had that first time and don't bother with the rest. Use that anxiety the way it should be used as a fuel to power you forward and see how much better it works. Everything can be a new project no matter how many times you have done it before. Just remember, it's the first time you are doing it right now.
TT
You start to a build up and store a bundle of energy . You can't wait to get started and think about all the exciting ways it will make you better, more confident, stronger, give you more expertise and a feeling of accomplishment. It makes you feel energized. You also have a certain amount of anxiety about the unknown and that trepidation can pull you forward and fuel you on to what you are about to embark on doing. It's a natural course of feelings and actions when we are looking forward to that new, exciting project.
You prepare mentally before you start even if it's in different degrees and times. Eventually, you get started or sometimes, if you are like many, you only keep thinking about that new exciting project you want to get started on doing. It becomes a circle of thought. It is sometimes fits and starts and bits and pieces of that one thing you keep wanting to do but never quite have the time. It's that trepidation that was supposed to pull you forward and fuel you and it's only creating fear in your mind that you somehow can't achieve that project you've been spending so much time and effort trying to do.
So now, all you have to show are fragments of things that was supposed to be a started project. It seems a lot of effort for a poor amount of work. You start judging yourself through the fragments. All the energy that started out so positive has given way to a mind set that crossed the line and pulled you the wrong way. It would be an easy fix to quit. It would be easy to give in and say it didn't work out which would be a true statement at that given time and in your judgmental state. You could also try to stir up those original ideas of being better, confident, stronger. You already have more expertise because you have actually worked on those bits and pieces, those fits and starts and fragments. They didn't come out of nowhere. It's only time to regroup and refocus. It time to use what you have already created and get excited about that again.
Everything starts if you make the move. It always starts at different points whether you have done them before or not. Don't spend the time thinking about where you are too long. Each time you work on it, get started again with the same bundle of energy you had that first time and don't bother with the rest. Use that anxiety the way it should be used as a fuel to power you forward and see how much better it works. Everything can be a new project no matter how many times you have done it before. Just remember, it's the first time you are doing it right now.
TT
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)