Bitch-space, shit is happening in bitch-space. I don’t know what shit, but it’s happening.
This is the second time I started this tonight. But then a friend called and I got to gas-bagging. So, here I am, doing this an hour after I’d planned. Seems to the thing for today, plans not going to plan. First this morning, when other commitments postponed Bitch-space, and now tonight.
Such is the way.
It sucks. Just sayin’.
On the thought from yesterday, the addendum.
The creative type type type was okay, but I felt the lack/inability to pause a moment and revisit the paragraphs as I wrote them. The felt… unfinished, lacking. I wanted to go back and add detail but didn’t let myself because I was doing type type type. I think the cycling back is important though, so I propose a compromise.
Type type type for 5 (or 10) minutes and then spend the same amount of time cycling back over the words, fleshing them out. NOT EDITING! Do the cycling back without the Write or Die timer, because that flashing red is fucking stressful (my watch actually popped a stress reminder during the second 5 mins). A separate timer will count the cycling back time, so that I don’t overrun and get caught up in “making this pretty”.
There should be some caveats to this though. If I’m on a roll, either with WoD time or Cycle time, then I’ll ignore the timer. I think this is reasonable.
WoD is still valuable to push me past the blocks, so we’ll keep that. Only thing will be the Cycle time and then the between sessions times, after I’ve done WoD and Cycle and am gearing up to do the next pair/lot/session? (What are we calling that? I need a lexicon to keep shit straight or it’s going to get confusing real fucking quick. Something to consider for the next thought.)
(Also, another thought, an “aside” thought. I’ve made it to 7.5 minutes without hitting the saggy middle. Is this practice? Am I getting better at the type type type or do I just have more to say tonight? I think it’s the former, I felt the first stirrings of saggy middle at the 4-minute-mark. Watch this space.)
Anyway, back to what to do between sessions, how to keep the ball rolling and not get lost in the endless “I’ll just do this quick” chores and tasks and Facebook scrolling. Some chores are reasonable, the washing and the vacuuming, the tea-making. Acceptable, useful. A productive break from the typing. The Facebook scrolling… not so much.
Useful or not though, they all seem to hit at the time when I’m feeling fatigued/not motivated, the moments when the creative juices appear to run dry. This is another thing to think about, and perhaps, like the saggy middle, working through and shortening them is a product of practice? Building stronger writing muscles.
We’ll see.
Now, on to the lexicon… This journalling (yuck, I hate that term) is definitely called bitch-space. Perfect. The creative stuff… type type type (or TTT) works for me, and if we split it up into Write or Die (WoD) time, for the initial rush, and Cycle time, for when I flesh the WoD shit out, then that’s good too. Lastly, we’ll call the WoD and Cycle time a “session”. There, lexicon established. Go me.
And now, I’m hitting the saggy middle, with just 1.5 minutes left on the clock.
Don’t feel that I have a lot to write about, except, perhaps, that 700-800 words in 15 minutes seems to be my average, and I hit ~900 words at 20 minutes. That’s still a fuck-load of words and if I can get my creative TTT up to that, I’ll be damned pleased. That’s a book a month with just 1 hour of writing time. That’s NaNo Fucking WriMo in under an hour a day. That is freaking fantastic.
Stuff to look forward to and work toward.