& MANIFESTO
Jun. 17th, 2006 06:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sub_dividedSplitting this off from the previous post, because it was getting long. Apologies to anyone who'd already filled out the poll.
Classes ended yesterday. Sometime between now and next Wednesday I have to catch up on essays (this includes two re-writes today), and then I'll be driving home to New Jersey for my younger brother's high school graduation. (He's going to McGill, by the way. I swear I had nothing to do with this, except to argue against it.)
In New Jersey, I'll have nothing to do until July 10th, when Rutgers night classes start. I am therefore proposing the following SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT:
For two business weeks, starting Monday June 26th and continuing until Friday July 7th, I will write for at least six hours every day, starting no later than 10:00am every day. Ideally this will mean writing from 10:00am until 1:00pm, an hour break for lunch, and then picking up again from 2:00pm until 5:00pm, but realistically I know am usually most productive after lunch (between 2 and 7 pm) and late at night (between midnight and 4 am). If something isn't working, I can break from it and come back later -- but I must write for at least six hours a day. Writing means writing: during this time, I will not check my email or livejournal, turn on the television, or pick up a book.
Starting at 10:00am is important, because I often have more trouble getting myself to sit down to write than I do actually writing. Whatever I manage to finish during the week - chapters or oneshots - will be posted Saturday morning. Waiting until Saturday to post is important because I often have trouble starting work on a new project right after posting an old one, because I am too busy anxiously refreshing my inbox/basking in the glow of my genius to settle down with anything new. If I give myself the weekend to recover, I should be able to GET ON with it. In theory, at least.
...
I am, and always have been, a very flighty person. I don't do well with deadlines. I've never been able to keep a regular schedule. I've never been able to stay on task. I sometimes wonder whether I'm attention deficit. I have never tried anything like Nanowrimo or Tari and V's story-a-day challenges because I don't believe in my own ability stick with them. (This was also how I felt about dieting.) I do set personal goals, but I rarely declare them, because I don't have any confidence in my ability to carry them through -- and when I do declare them, for instance when I promise I'll finish a certain story within a certain time period, I almost always fail, and this reinforces my general self image, which is that I am an irresponsible ditz.
But I have actually been doing pretty well with my diet (30 pounds!) and this had caused me to wonder: is it that I can't keep a regular schedule, or is it just that I have never had to keep a regular schedule? Have I ever really, really tried? Or have I always known, somewhere in the back of my head, that I could get away with less? The purpose of this experiment is to test my own abilities. It's framed in terms of hours, not pagecount, because it isn't writing ability I'm testing, and this way I can remove any trace of performance anxiety and make it entirely a question of willpower.
Sometimes it's good to know what you can do. Right? Anyone who wants to is welcome to join me, on whatever terms you'd like. The dates are, once again, Monday June 26th to Friday July 7th, just two weeks (ten business days).
Enough of this seriousness. I need to be distracted from my essay-writinglike I need a bullet to the brain and I was thinking, you know that DVD commentary meme? The one where the author picks a story to disect in detail. If were to do one of those, theoretically I mean, which story would you like to see me to do?
[Poll #750258]
Classes ended yesterday. Sometime between now and next Wednesday I have to catch up on essays (this includes two re-writes today), and then I'll be driving home to New Jersey for my younger brother's high school graduation. (He's going to McGill, by the way. I swear I had nothing to do with this, except to argue against it.)
In New Jersey, I'll have nothing to do until July 10th, when Rutgers night classes start. I am therefore proposing the following SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT:
For two business weeks, starting Monday June 26th and continuing until Friday July 7th, I will write for at least six hours every day, starting no later than 10:00am every day. Ideally this will mean writing from 10:00am until 1:00pm, an hour break for lunch, and then picking up again from 2:00pm until 5:00pm, but realistically I know am usually most productive after lunch (between 2 and 7 pm) and late at night (between midnight and 4 am). If something isn't working, I can break from it and come back later -- but I must write for at least six hours a day. Writing means writing: during this time, I will not check my email or livejournal, turn on the television, or pick up a book.
Starting at 10:00am is important, because I often have more trouble getting myself to sit down to write than I do actually writing. Whatever I manage to finish during the week - chapters or oneshots - will be posted Saturday morning. Waiting until Saturday to post is important because I often have trouble starting work on a new project right after posting an old one, because I am too busy anxiously refreshing my inbox/basking in the glow of my genius to settle down with anything new. If I give myself the weekend to recover, I should be able to GET ON with it. In theory, at least.
...
I am, and always have been, a very flighty person. I don't do well with deadlines. I've never been able to keep a regular schedule. I've never been able to stay on task. I sometimes wonder whether I'm attention deficit. I have never tried anything like Nanowrimo or Tari and V's story-a-day challenges because I don't believe in my own ability stick with them. (This was also how I felt about dieting.) I do set personal goals, but I rarely declare them, because I don't have any confidence in my ability to carry them through -- and when I do declare them, for instance when I promise I'll finish a certain story within a certain time period, I almost always fail, and this reinforces my general self image, which is that I am an irresponsible ditz.
But I have actually been doing pretty well with my diet (30 pounds!) and this had caused me to wonder: is it that I can't keep a regular schedule, or is it just that I have never had to keep a regular schedule? Have I ever really, really tried? Or have I always known, somewhere in the back of my head, that I could get away with less? The purpose of this experiment is to test my own abilities. It's framed in terms of hours, not pagecount, because it isn't writing ability I'm testing, and this way I can remove any trace of performance anxiety and make it entirely a question of willpower.
Sometimes it's good to know what you can do. Right? Anyone who wants to is welcome to join me, on whatever terms you'd like. The dates are, once again, Monday June 26th to Friday July 7th, just two weeks (ten business days).
Enough of this seriousness. I need to be distracted from my essay-writing
[Poll #750258]