Writing...

Apr. 13th, 2008 12:43 pm
fajrdrako: ([Torchwood] - Jack)
[personal profile] fajrdrako


Blogging. Ever since Robin Hobb wrote her piece on how writers should be getting on with the act of writing, not messing around on journaling, I've been struggling with a thread of guilt. Especially since certain people like [livejournal.com profile] maaseru have pointed to the article, and said, "It's absolutely right." And I think guiltily: "if I spend x number of minutes writing LJ instead of fic...."

But it isn't a simply syllogism. I can write a ten-minute LJ entry, easily, and do it often. I can't write fic in segments ten minutes. Usually it takes ten minutes to figure out what my scene is and where I'm going with it. Or sometimes I can, but it isn't the same sort of ten minutes. Fiction has its own parameters.

When there was no blogging in my life or anyone else's, I still kept journals. The difference is that no one but me saw them. (Well, except that time my husband started reading my pre-marriage journals to see what I'd said about him, and what a bad idea that was.) I spent daily time in writing letters to friends - I had dozens of pen-pals. I was in apazines. (Many apazines.) It was all the same blogging impulse.

I remind myself of this, when I find myself feeling guilt for writing in LJ and enjoying it. I see no reason to decide that one form of writing is better than another - any more than one kind of reading is better than another, or one kind of movie or TV show over another.

LJ is fun, and it's a stress reliever, and right now it's a much-needed lifeline to the world outside my apartment. Of course I love it.

[livejournal.com profile] sartorias's LJ got me thinking about this again. I'm trying to live without guilt about the things I love to do: it makes sense that some find LJ a pleasure in itself, and other people don't.

Date: 2008-04-14 06:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fl-zed.livejournal.com
Heh. I can toss a ton of getting-stuff-done links at you if you ever decide you feel like it.

Date: 2008-04-14 06:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
I can toss a ton of getting-stuff-done links at you if you ever decide you feel like it.

Oh, yes, please! I like "getting stuff done" ideas.

Date: 2008-04-14 06:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fl-zed.livejournal.com
...I didn't expect you to take me up on my offer.
This is going to take a little while...

Have a few site links as starters (as opposed to individual pages):

http://www.lifehack.org/
http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/personal-effectiveness/
http://www.43folders.com/2008/04/10/getting-unstuck

Do you have any particular interest areas of getting-stuff-done?
e.g. http://lunchinabox.net/ is a great site for tips on how to be quick and efficient when making lunchboxes, there's that spacejock software or whatsitsname site by that author who's put up the software tools he wrote for himself, and so on.

Date: 2008-04-14 06:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
I didn't expect you to take me up on my offer.

LOL - don't feel you have to! But I'm sure you've found good links that I don't know about.

I'll read these links over the next little while and comment again on what I'm looking for.

Date: 2008-04-14 07:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fl-zed.livejournal.com
Um, I hope you can forgive me, but I think I'll mostly stick to site links instead of page links. I'd sort of drown in links otherwise.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5784740380335567758 "Time Management" by Randy Pausch (you can skip the first few minutes, which is two guys introducing the speaker. This is a really good lecture on the topic, funny too.)

(except for lifehack.org, there's also lifehacker.com - a different site more focused on software solutions)

http://www.organizeit.co.uk/
http://gtdwannabe.com/2007/11/are-you-resisting-your-trusted-system/
http://ririanproject.com/2007/11/23/eight-dos-and-donts-of-effective-goal-setting/
http://ririanproject.com/category/productivity/
http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter4.html
http://ask.metafilter.com/33811/Finding-flow-in-everyday-life
http://www.stressbusting.co.uk/advice/50-ways-to-get-better-organised/
http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/how-multitask-without-losing-your-mind
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/ (use the Categories links - I haven't read the blog in years)

random similar or unrelated but possibly interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster_PDA#External_links
http://www.figarospeech.com/it-figures/
http://w2.eff.org/bloggers/lg/
http://www.copyblogger.com/magnetic-headlines/
http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/debradownsth/Trolls.html

"LOL - don't feel you have to!"
Well, I do. I more of mean that since I hadn't expected it, I hadn't planned anywhere to start etc. Which is why I've taken the lazy man's way out of this by mostly just posting random related site links instead of writing a coherent guide/list of good specific pages.

Date: 2008-04-16 07:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
Thank you so much for this interesting list of links. I've been reading them bit by bit, and they're great.

Date: 2008-04-16 08:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fl-zed.livejournal.com
Seen the lecture yet? :-D

Date: 2008-04-16 08:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
No, not yet!

Date: 2008-04-16 08:13 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
whoops, the anti-troll page isn't the page I thought it was (was thinking of another, longer and better page). Ah well, sorry about that.

Date: 2008-04-16 08:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
Well - I hadn't got there yet, either! So far they are all interesting and at least potentially useful.

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