Holding Steady - ROW80 check in

 

A Round of Words in 80 Days
Round 3 2023

The writing challenge that
 knows you have a life

I think I broke my insight machine.  The last two weeks and thus for most of the check ins this round I  have featured one or more aha moments.  Some of which knocked me for a loop. 

Today I'm just feeling MEH. 

There is one insight. Maybe>  But it doesn't feel electrifying.  Probably because it is old hat.  Rehash.  Something I keep having to relearn.  Again.  Again.  Again.  Ugh. 

It has to do with clutter.

As I mentioned in the goals post where I posted pics of my workstation, almost everything in my 400 sq ft unit has to do double duty.  Or better.  My desk is no exception.  Various parts of it are used for many different tasks throughout the day and the related items if not regularly put away accumulate in layers.  When the layers get deep enough they are unstable.  Things get lost. 

When I approach my desk with a task in mind and see the mess I often turn around and find something else to do.  It is demoralizing to have to use the time allotted for a task in cleaning up after the last several tasks.

This probably sounds like, DUH.  And it is pretty much what it feels like too. 

I guess it is an insight but it has come back around so often it's worn holes in its knees.  But I know it is probably the most significant issue keeping me from fulfilling my daily 30 minutes on the storyworld bible as that project requires spreading out papers and notebooks and note cards and markers and tabs and sticky notes and book marks and.....  Well, you get the picture.

I can do the storydreaming with notebook anywhere and the blog posts just need a square foot of space for the laptop and another for the mousepad.  And since it is always set up it is always ready to go.  But the two components of my 8 foot desk--the rolling cart with board and the rolling table--comprising nearly 6 feet of it usually look like an archeology dig after one day of use for meals, paperwork, morning pages, reading notes, grocery lists, and todo lists, minor repairs and mail opening leaving behind ripped envelops and packaging misc. and pens and pencils and notebooks and papers needing tending to jewelry and devices and earbuds and water bottles and coffee thermos and spoons, and magnifying glasses and reference books and reading glasses, tape and glue and voter's pamphlet and dead batteries and fidget toys and and and and and ad infinitum. 

I don't have a solution right now I'm just wallowing in the dismay.  My only insight is that something has to change. 

And it is after midnight so technically I missed check in.  Sigh. 

ROW80 Round 3 Goals:

• Morning pages daily.  Average 40 minutes (ala Julia Cameron The Artist Way and Writing For Life) YES In fact I just passed a milestone by filling the first spiral notebook.  70 pages both sides.  Started May 20.  Probably would not have jumped into NaNo and ROW80 without having had a month of morning pages behind me.
• Storydreaming with notebook for noting ideas for characters or scenes. (ala Robert Owen Butler From Where You Dream)  30 minutes per day TWICE since Sunday (Until last Thursday afternoon, lots of storydreaming. No notebook.  I'd misplaced the one I used to use for this and was reluctant to start a new one but I think I need to be less fussy.  The notebook is the key to this goal as without it the storydreams go to the same place night dreams go an hour after waking.  I found the notebook. So.  No excuses left for Wednesday checkin)
• Working on the Fruits of the Spirit (aka FOS) Storyworld Bible at least 30 minutes per day at least 5 days per week.  I'm sure this will expand as I get involved but I need to set a minimum for that jumpstart. TWICE since Sunday (with pain level back to normal background hum and the Reverse Thon in the rearview I will make this and storydreaming the high priority for the rest of Camp NaNo.  They are the core after all.  The rest are support.)
• Weekly Artist Date (ala Julia Cameron)  This is about doing something to recharge your creative battery.  I'll go into more detail in one of the check-ins. Not yet.  Hoping Tomorrow 
• A minimum of 5 minutes of physical activity.  Either a walk outside with my caregiver or a session on my mini-tramp, or pacing the floor between front and back door. YES (may need to look at upping the expectation soon.  this is getting too easy)
• I want to reengage with my blog so: Two blog posts per week besides the two check-ins. One about encountering other people's stories via print, video or audio which can include formal reviews.  The other about a current fiber art WIP or about one of my personal challenges: widowhood, independent living with visual impairment and autism and issues related to health and aging among them.  Not yet this week.  Still time  (I've been in recovery mode from last weedend's Reverse Readathon but i've been contemplating taking my brief comments about the Romcom novel I read Friday night that I made in one of my thon updates and expanding them into a full review.)