Sunday 14 August 2011

Round 2 — What I'll (not) do

Well, my intention was "I'm going to do one new thing every day for the next 30 days."

Then I started thinking, while it might be an amazing task, I'm not sure how feasible it is, especially since I've already got a lot on my plate. So I'm going with Plan B (and I'll try to incorporate something new into my days, which will help out with said Plan B).

There's an exercise that I've done before from a book called Page by Page by Heather Sellers. In the book, she says if you do it ten days in a row, "your life will change." I've always* wanted to follow through with it. So here's what I'm gonna do for 30 days.

Page by Page, Exercise 13 (page 60)
  • Number a page from 1-10
  • Set a timer for 3 minutes
  • Make a list of ten things you saw two days ago, starting from the morning and ending with the night. Keep your hand moving. If you get stuck, draw slow circles. You want to end up at exactly number ten at the end of three minutes. Don't write a novel at each item, just a few anchoring words to capture the image.
  • Three minutes, one list.
  • Look over your list. Let one item pick you, or if nothing leaps out, do number three. Number three is magic and it always works.
  • Set the timer for ten minutes. 
  • Write the item number and the words at the top of a fresh sheet.
  • Some rules: You must keep your pencil moving. You must write slowly, all caps, skipping lines. Write in simple clear sentences. Don't try to be too fancy. Avoid adjectives and adverbs. Just write in nouns and verbs, very simply, very slowly. 
  • For ten minutes. Write what you see. Write what you hear.

Apparently it's all about creating ritual. And forcing yourself to just write what you remember (and I reckon that after a few days I'll subconsciously be looking for new images/details to try to remember for two days later).   And, as busy as I know I'm going to be, if I can't find make 15 minutes a day to just sit down and do something for myself, then things be needing to change.

I'll type them up and share them, maybe not every day, but there will be thirty lists and thirty sets of observations.

What are you doing?

* Okay, you caught me. "Always" is a bit of an overstatement. I bought the book 4 or 5 years ago, and I've wanted to do it since then.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This sounds wonderful - and the 15 minutes/day nature of it makes it small enough to be sustainable.

Me? Attacking my arm flaps! Upper body workouts (push ups, dips, etc. for 3 days/week) with photo accountability and measurements!

Alternate days? lower body/core exercises. And sundays will be when i journal it all, with photos!

Ready, set, GO!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like my kind of book! Thanks for the heads up, I'm going to check it out.

I look forward to your posts; seems like a great daily challenge.

dinahmow said...

Ah, yes! The "just do it" approach.
I should apply this to my sketching. Perhaps I could start by sketching the bike?

bob said...

It's a good little kick-in-the butt book / get your butt in the chair writing book. She also has "Chapter by Chapter", which is her 'how to' on sticking with longer projects.

She pulls a lot from Lynda Barry, whose "What It Is is" ... just simply amazing. http://www.amazon.com/What-Lynda-Barry/dp/1897299354/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

Mitzi G Burger said...

Intruiguing!

Gnu Kid said...

this sounds brilliant! a good way to exercise the brain cells as well as work on writing skillz.

(and thanks again for continuing this fun stuff)