Sunday, January 15, 2006
good grief and Hooray!
As I said, I'm a writer. I belong to a wonderful, brutally honest critique group. We meet a couple of times a month and are all on our way to being published--really, as in prominent agents interested in manuscripts, publishers asking for work, editors with open doors. They are wonderful wonderful people, my comrades.
One of our methods is to make yearly goals, re-evaluating them mid-year. We pay dues into a piggy bank for the year, too. Those who reach their goals get to split the pot at the end of the year party. It's one of the best methods I've seen, because you pay yourself to accomplish what you want. And, for example, if only four of our eight make our goals, then they double their money. I really really want to be one of those who make it this year!
So one part of my goal was a certain page count. I didn't specify on what project because I just wanted to write, to open up some closed parts of my mind and life onto the page without the burden of "discipline." Though our goals must be met by this coming Wednesday, until last night, I had not yet calculated how many pages I'd written this year.
I am a true procrastinator, but one who has learned how to use it, for the most part, constructively. For example, I try to do things that need immediate attention right at that moment, not worrying any more about how I have time for it, just doing it. I don't always succeed, but I try.
Other endeavors, though, benefit from procrastination, from prolonged mulling. The best explanation I've ever read on this is from a book by Anastasia Suen called Picture Writing: A New Approach to Writing for Kids and Teens. Though the book is geared for children's writers, this method, her way of looking at the creative process, applies across the gamut of creative pursuit. I've placed the pith of what she says below.
This time, though, good grief!, I sooooo should have seen how much I'd written weeks ago! I'm over my page count! When I thought I had at least half left to do in three days! Ugh! What wasted mental energy. So now getting all of my goals done is--though still at the last minute--definitely doable and not going to result in my possible death. (I'm pregnant, nine months even, so writing the fifty pages I thought I had left in three days while preparing for the birth and taking care of my five and two year-olds just might have resulted in a temporary death, definitely a psychological one....)
So, good grief and Hooray! Money from the pot, here I come.
"The Five Steps in the Creative Process
Step 1 Preparation—You get a new idea and gather information about it.
Step 2 Frustration—Your project gets stuck.
Step 3 Incubation—Your subconscious works on the project.
Step 4 Illumination—The A-Ha! moment of insight.
Step 5 Translation Into Action—You take your insight and put it to work."
From Picture Writing: A New Approach to Writing for Kids and Teens, by Anastasia Suen, page 7
One of our methods is to make yearly goals, re-evaluating them mid-year. We pay dues into a piggy bank for the year, too. Those who reach their goals get to split the pot at the end of the year party. It's one of the best methods I've seen, because you pay yourself to accomplish what you want. And, for example, if only four of our eight make our goals, then they double their money. I really really want to be one of those who make it this year!
So one part of my goal was a certain page count. I didn't specify on what project because I just wanted to write, to open up some closed parts of my mind and life onto the page without the burden of "discipline." Though our goals must be met by this coming Wednesday, until last night, I had not yet calculated how many pages I'd written this year.
I am a true procrastinator, but one who has learned how to use it, for the most part, constructively. For example, I try to do things that need immediate attention right at that moment, not worrying any more about how I have time for it, just doing it. I don't always succeed, but I try.
Other endeavors, though, benefit from procrastination, from prolonged mulling. The best explanation I've ever read on this is from a book by Anastasia Suen called Picture Writing: A New Approach to Writing for Kids and Teens. Though the book is geared for children's writers, this method, her way of looking at the creative process, applies across the gamut of creative pursuit. I've placed the pith of what she says below.
This time, though, good grief!, I sooooo should have seen how much I'd written weeks ago! I'm over my page count! When I thought I had at least half left to do in three days! Ugh! What wasted mental energy. So now getting all of my goals done is--though still at the last minute--definitely doable and not going to result in my possible death. (I'm pregnant, nine months even, so writing the fifty pages I thought I had left in three days while preparing for the birth and taking care of my five and two year-olds just might have resulted in a temporary death, definitely a psychological one....)
So, good grief and Hooray! Money from the pot, here I come.
"The Five Steps in the Creative Process
Step 1 Preparation—You get a new idea and gather information about it.
Step 2 Frustration—Your project gets stuck.
Step 3 Incubation—Your subconscious works on the project.
Step 4 Illumination—The A-Ha! moment of insight.
Step 5 Translation Into Action—You take your insight and put it to work."
From Picture Writing: A New Approach to Writing for Kids and Teens, by Anastasia Suen, page 7
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