Tag: time management

2219: Picking at the Scab of Creativity

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That’s a horrible metaphor, I know, but the more I think about it, the more that it seems to make a certain amount of sense.

I’ve been picking at said scab for the last few days, as I said I was going to. I haven’t been spending all day on it or anything, but an hour here and an hour there has meant that a story I’ve been wanting to finish since my teenage years is finally making some progress further beyond the point where it typically stalls any time I attempt to form it into some sort of… well, format.

I’m taking a different approach to what I usually do, and it feels like it’s working. Those who have read my various month-long sort of NaNoWriMo projects and other creative pieces will know that I have something of a tendency to write in a fairly spontaneous manner — in other words, I don’t really plan anything out in advance, and this usually serves me well but occasionally sees me writing myself into a bit of a dead end I’m not sure how to escape from. In contrast, then, said scab-picking has involved not just continuing on with what I’ve already written — which is a substantial number of words that I’m actually quite pleased with so far — but instead planning out a synopsis, chapter by chapter, of what’s coming next.

Doing this has helped me get over the biggest creative block I’ve had with this work — a creative block that has lasted a good 15 years or so at last count. The trouble with this story is that I know how it begins and I know roughly how it ends, but I’ve never quite figured out what happens in the middle of it or the specifics of the ending. Now I’m planning each chapter out in general terms rather than trying to write meaningful scenes as I get to them, I feel like I’m developing a much stronger sense of the work’s complete structure, and those middle bits are starting to fall into place naturally. It’s that old thing where a huge job looks daunting if you look at the whole thing, but if you take it a single task at a time it suddenly seems a lot more manageable.

So picking a scab then — why? Well, because I’ve been picking at it for the last few days, and each time I do so, I feel my creativity loosen up a bit. It’s surely — hopefully — only a matter of time before that scab comes off completely and creativity comes gushing forth from a newly reopened wound, splattering the walls and desk with… you know what? Maybe I didn’t think this metaphor through as much as I thought I had.

Anyway. Disgusting mental imagery aside, I’m pleased with my progress, even though it’s relatively minor in the grand scheme of what I need to do to finish the damn thing. It is progress, though, and while I’m still not feeling great about bumming around at home all day rather than having a proper job, it is at least helping me to feel like I’m achieving something, however miniscule that something might be. And that’s pretty important.

Let’s hope I can keep that motivation going, a bit at a time.

1532: Get It Done

Oh, for the ability to extend days as long as necessary so you can fit everything in. Oh, for the ability to call up motivation on demand and just get things done with time to spare.

There are lots of things I want to get done at the moment. You may recall quite some time ago that I was working on a game project with RPG Maker and that I was very excited about it. I am still very excited about it, and yet I haven’t done a whole lot on it recently. Why? I can’t really explain that, other than the fact I just feel like there hasn’t been a whole lot of time to do so recently.

I’m not sure whether or not that is actually true or whether it is just the perception in my mind, but that’s certainly the way it’s been feeling recently. I get up, I do work, I flop down in the evening, I relax, I go to bed, I repeat the process throughout the week and then take the weekend to recover.

I could, of course, use my time more efficiently. I could get up earlier in the morning and do stuff, and in fact I had been intending to get into some good routines having rejoined the gym/swimming pool complex in town, but unfortunately getting horribly, revoltingly ill put paid to those plans almost as soon as I had put them into motion. As soon as I shake off the last remnants of whatever plagues have been filtering through my systems, I will get back on that.

In the meantime, though, there’s nothing stopping me getting up early and, instead of going to the swimming pool or the gym, working on my game instead. Tomorrow morning I will at least make an attempt to do that, though it will depend on how I feel when I wake up.

I also need to do the same with my Japanese studies, since I now have a month off from classes and don’t want all the things I’ve learned to fall out of my head.

I think I am probably going to have to make myself some sort of schedule to try and stick to, though the mistake I often make with this sort of thing is making it too strict and consequently not wanting to stick to it. I think if I can set myself aside a few hours in the morning before I start work — I start late — to do something productive, be it game development, Japanese revision or going to the gym/pool, then that will get me into good habits and good routines, and thereby get some things done. When the evening comes, then, I can settle down and relax without guilt and do what I want to do. Maybe.

This is all fine and good until I get a bunch of lengthy, time-consuming games to play through for review and as luck would have it, several of those are on the way now. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it; for now, let’s try and get into some good habits and get shit done!