There are times when I am made acutely aware of the limitations of my way of life. I live close to the bone, trading income for the opportunity to focus on what I love first and foremost. Of course, I aspire to a state where the pursuit of what I love provides for me on its own--that is what this blog is detailing the process of--but in the interim, my life is like a string under great tension: it holds steady as is, but is always on the verge of snapping.
Most of the time, these limitations are manageable, minor things. Little money, a need for far greater caloric intake than most people, and the desire to make healthy ingredient choices means there's a fair bit of figuring that goes into making groceries work week to week, and the math works out that I typically fall ~500kcal/day of my desired intake levels. Or I don't have the money to invest in a membership to a proper gym or the space to build my own setup on the cheap, so I limit myself to bodyweight exercises as my sole method, when I'm getting to the point where I'd rather use them as the centerpiece of an approach that also employs powerlifting and olympic lifting.
Sometimes, the limitations make for deeper frustrations. This is the first post I've made from my desktop computer in quite some time, because nearly 3 months ago, the motherboard shorted out. Of course, in the process of diagnosing the issue, I ended up purchasing a replacement power supply (not necessary!), had to mooch a spare graphics card off my best friend (this was also not the problem part), a replacement motherboard (this was the problem initially), and a replacement CPU because mine broke in the process of removing it from the old motherboard.
Now, I have the desktop functioning, but it's only allowing me to use half of my installed RAM, and the Solid State Drive that had been relatively cooperative in the month leading up to the motherboard short-out, is now freezing more frequently than it ever did. This would be taxing enough if I'd been able to address the situation immediately, but my tight finances mean that the whole process became wildly drawn out, and roughly $300 later, the computer works as well as one $300 cheaper. Replacing the SSD will be anywhere from another $100 to another $180. The RAM issue is something I'm still hoping I can resolve without needing to purchase anything new.
Then, there are the times the limitations are legitimately troubling. I injured my right hand severely doing parkour eight weeks ago, and while it no longer hurts or impedes me in day-to-day function, it is bad enough that the wrist will not support significant weight, leaving me unable to do upper body exercises. I've tried to make the best of it by focusing on lower-body and core development (which needed to catch up anyway), but I can't pretend it's not a worry. If I had more money, I'd readily be able to consult a doctor, get it examined and get a surgery if necessary. As it stands, I can't afford any of those things, and have been hoping it would heal on its own. Its condition hasn't really changed noticeably in the last few weeks.
That being said, I am committed to trying to make the best of things. I lost a great deal of time I should have spent writing on trying to fix my computer, but I the time I did spend writing went very well--things flowed quickly and easily, and I had a great deal of fun. I also have access to all my language-learning resources again, so I can start my studies. I can't do upper-body exercises, so I'll continue using this time to build my core and legs up more. I'm also going to ramp up the aggression with which I pursue freelance work; even one extra contract would dramatically improve my position at this point.
Here's a look at the sort of Tuesday-Sunday schedule I have in mind for the immediate future:
06:30 - 08:00 : Exercise
08:00 - 08:30 : Hygiene
08:30 - 10:30 : Writing
10:30 - 11:30 : Drawing
11:30 - 13:30 : Writing
13:30 - 15:00 : Nap
15:00 - 15:30 : Lunch
15:30 - 17:00 : Japanese
17:00 - 18:30 : Freelance
18:30 - 19:00 : Dinner
19:00 - 21:30 : Freelance
21:30 - 22:30 : Free Time
22:30 - 00:00 : Khmer
00:00 - 01:00 : Coding
01:00 - 02:00 : Free Time
It's a tight schedule, no doubt about that. As always, the intention is to drive down the size of those 'Freelance' blocks with increased revenue from writing. The other area that potentially has some give is, surprisingly, the writing blocks themselves. Presently, I have four hours devoted to it, but if I'm pushing for an output goal of 3,500 words/day, then churning out and editing that much is something that could become a 3-hour process as I get back into it. Of course, I have plenty of non-prose writing I'd love to have more time for, and that might be where I'd take it from, as I want to convert freelance time to music time first and foremost.
I'm also not sure how things will work out with the language study process. I may find that 90 consecutive minutes would be better spent broken up into two 45-minute blocks for each language. Maybe I'll find that one hour each for three languages at a time is a better fit; I honestly can't say, since I'll be approaching it from an entirely new angle.
Still, exciting stuff.
Still learning,
~L
Monday, November 4, 2013
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Environmental Studies
Three cheers for misleading titles! Huzzah! Huzz--no? Fine.
This post has nothing to do with the study of the natural terrestrial environment. Instead, it's based on the first project in my grand web-design/programming self-education scheme: configuring the development and production environments for the workflow ahead. My intention is to keep the process as simple as possible from step to step and limit configurations and installations to what I will be using immediately. With that in mind, these are the objectives for Project 0.
The next project, I've already decided, will be a single-page directory that points to all of my assorted projects. Eventually, this will be replaced with a proper portfolio, but for now it should be sufficient.
In other news, today's writing went really well, despite my frustrations throughout last week. I crushed the target word count in one hour, and that was with the occasional interruption. Yay!
Still learning,
~L
This post has nothing to do with the study of the natural terrestrial environment. Instead, it's based on the first project in my grand web-design/programming self-education scheme: configuring the development and production environments for the workflow ahead. My intention is to keep the process as simple as possible from step to step and limit configurations and installations to what I will be using immediately. With that in mind, these are the objectives for Project 0.
- Set up a Debian VirtualBox
- Install and configure Git for version control
- Install and configure vim for coding
- Install and configure Apache, nginx and Lighttpd server softwares
- Install and configure PostgreSQL database software
- Configure a Debian VPS (I'll be using Digital Ocean)
The next project, I've already decided, will be a single-page directory that points to all of my assorted projects. Eventually, this will be replaced with a proper portfolio, but for now it should be sufficient.
In other news, today's writing went really well, despite my frustrations throughout last week. I crushed the target word count in one hour, and that was with the occasional interruption. Yay!
Still learning,
~L
Monday, October 28, 2013
A Better Outlook on Missed Marks
This week, I didn't meet my word-count goals for my update to the mutable. And I'm fine with that!
. . . well, okay. I'm certainly less than thrilled that I fell as short of the mark as I did. It's also a bit of a kick in the head that I struggled so much to turn out what I did without much of an understanding as to why. My concentration was utterly lacking this past week, meaning I struggled to achieve over several hours of dithering about what I can typically crank out in one hour without strain.
All that being said, I stuck it out, and I wrote something every single day, no matter how hard it was. In recent years, if faced with such stumbling, I'd just give up on the effort until the next cycle of that activity began and tell myself 'Okay, this time for real!' as if I was under some sort of obligation to get things perfect every time or just hold back until I could. That is, of course, a character flaw that needs to be purged from me before I can achieve my full potential in any endeavor, so to stick with the writing even when I was so scattered I could barely speak a coherent sentence tells me what I'm doing is working.
This upcoming week, I'll be repeating my attempt at last week's progression (1100 words on Tuesday up to 1400 words on Sunday) and sticking to my schedule. The important thing isn't to rush towards the output level I'd like, but to keep focused on reinforcing the habit of writing every day.
My intention is to take my first foray into the web design/programming self-education sphere this week and document the process. For the time being, that will end up on this blog, ideally as part of my daily updates. Wish me luck.
Still learning,
~L
. . . well, okay. I'm certainly less than thrilled that I fell as short of the mark as I did. It's also a bit of a kick in the head that I struggled so much to turn out what I did without much of an understanding as to why. My concentration was utterly lacking this past week, meaning I struggled to achieve over several hours of dithering about what I can typically crank out in one hour without strain.
All that being said, I stuck it out, and I wrote something every single day, no matter how hard it was. In recent years, if faced with such stumbling, I'd just give up on the effort until the next cycle of that activity began and tell myself 'Okay, this time for real!' as if I was under some sort of obligation to get things perfect every time or just hold back until I could. That is, of course, a character flaw that needs to be purged from me before I can achieve my full potential in any endeavor, so to stick with the writing even when I was so scattered I could barely speak a coherent sentence tells me what I'm doing is working.
This upcoming week, I'll be repeating my attempt at last week's progression (1100 words on Tuesday up to 1400 words on Sunday) and sticking to my schedule. The important thing isn't to rush towards the output level I'd like, but to keep focused on reinforcing the habit of writing every day.
My intention is to take my first foray into the web design/programming self-education sphere this week and document the process. For the time being, that will end up on this blog, ideally as part of my daily updates. Wish me luck.
Still learning,
~L
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Getting There From Here
In my last post, I promised I would talk a bit about how I intend to proceed with my endeavors in the immediate future. My long-term goals and concerns have remained largely unchanged. Meanwhile, here's the current run-down of projects
Fitness
I did a real number on my right hand practicing parkour a few weeks ago. While it's healed enough that it no longer impedes daily function, the portion of the palm that runs from the wrist up to the little finger still feels tender to the touch, and putting weight on it is rather painful. I'm hoping to get my hand X-ray scanned soon to see what the nature of the damage is. My fear is that it could be an occult fracture, but I'm hoping it's a bruise of the periosteum.
While I'm frustrated by this, I've taken advantage of the time to start building my core and lower body up to my upper body's level. I've been doing hill sprints every other day, allowing my legs to gradually acclimate to the new stress. When I've reached the point of steadily doing ten hill sprints per session, three sessions per week, I'll throw two isometric stretching sessions into my week as well and work towards the front split, side split, pike and back bridge.
Writing
This one has been going well! As I've already detailed, my output has consistently increased each week, and I'm currently on track to hit my goal of 3,500 words/day before the end of the year. I want to pick up the pace on poetry as well, but getting inspired to write a poem is a rarer occurrence lately. I think two poems a week would be a good target, and I'd consider a three-poem week exceptional.
What needs work in the process of making writing my sole income source is my marketing. It has been three weeks since I started putting myself out there, but my Facebook page has only three followers, my Twitter has thirty-one--but God knows how many of them actually pay any attention to it--and my Tumblr has four. Part of it is being a relatively new regular content producer. Part of it is that writing doesn't often attract large audiences as quickly as music or visual art. Most of it, however, is that I've yet to make my web-presence cohesive. So, given that, let's move on to . . .
Building Web Presence
In the case of my two blogger pages, replacing them with a proper the mutable website is the answer, but Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr remain separate. Learning more about properly customizing those will help me make an impression, but beyond that, I need a content strategy that links them all together with a 'voice.' Presently, I post snippets of the day's work on Tumblr and Facebook, link to the Tumblr entry on Twitter, and make occasional commentary on literary culture. I intend to continue doing these, albeit striving for greater regularity. The following ideas are under consideration:
Web Design and Programming
I have a clear idea of how I'm going to go about this. While there is a true programming component to most dynamic web design, I'm going to separate these into two parallel tracks. I'll approach both with a mixture of reference material and hands-on experimentation, setting myself specific, well-defined projects on both the web and non-web tracks, and I'll allow things to develop naturally from there.
I haven't picked my first projects for each, yet, but I know that on the web side, I'll be looking to start with refreshing my HTML/CSS experience and gradually start implementing more and more Javascript functionality--eventually learning to draw on various techniques like AJAX or JSON and libraries/extensions like Backbone, jQuery and Node. I can create a portfolio page to show the results off and possibly solicit more lucrative freelance work along the way.
On the non-web side, after some consideration and pulling in advice from various sources, I'm thinking of starting with C, then learning an assembly lanaguage (MIPS or ARM), then C++. Where I'll go from there, I'm still considering. Learning Assembly, C and C++ before anything else somewhat undermines the idea of an 'increasing complexity' approach, but would build a strong foundation of following stricter standards of clean code. I would probably take a look at Python, Ruby or Java next. We'll see.
Visual Art and Graphic Design
Starting with very fundamental drawing exercises here: exercises for drawing straight lines, for judging the lengths and angles of lines. These will be more bread-and-butter for a while, until I'm satisfied with the improvement enough to move on to 2d shape and 3d form drawing exercises. I'll also start doing simple drawings of actual subject matters in parallel to these, and study on the results to determine where I need to focus more. My intention is to create a gallery for this journey, which can hopefully inspire some people who want to draw but think they "don't have talent" and therefore can't do it, to try anyway.
These efforts with visual art will innately improve my graphic design skills, but I also need to develop greater acuity for layouts, color composition and typography. I'll be rolling these efforts into my web design practice.
----- ----- ----- ----- -----
That's the current state of affairs. I have a lot learn and just as much to refine, but I'm eager to do so.
Still learning,
~L
Fitness
I did a real number on my right hand practicing parkour a few weeks ago. While it's healed enough that it no longer impedes daily function, the portion of the palm that runs from the wrist up to the little finger still feels tender to the touch, and putting weight on it is rather painful. I'm hoping to get my hand X-ray scanned soon to see what the nature of the damage is. My fear is that it could be an occult fracture, but I'm hoping it's a bruise of the periosteum.
While I'm frustrated by this, I've taken advantage of the time to start building my core and lower body up to my upper body's level. I've been doing hill sprints every other day, allowing my legs to gradually acclimate to the new stress. When I've reached the point of steadily doing ten hill sprints per session, three sessions per week, I'll throw two isometric stretching sessions into my week as well and work towards the front split, side split, pike and back bridge.
Writing
This one has been going well! As I've already detailed, my output has consistently increased each week, and I'm currently on track to hit my goal of 3,500 words/day before the end of the year. I want to pick up the pace on poetry as well, but getting inspired to write a poem is a rarer occurrence lately. I think two poems a week would be a good target, and I'd consider a three-poem week exceptional.
What needs work in the process of making writing my sole income source is my marketing. It has been three weeks since I started putting myself out there, but my Facebook page has only three followers, my Twitter has thirty-one--but God knows how many of them actually pay any attention to it--and my Tumblr has four. Part of it is being a relatively new regular content producer. Part of it is that writing doesn't often attract large audiences as quickly as music or visual art. Most of it, however, is that I've yet to make my web-presence cohesive. So, given that, let's move on to . . .
Building Web Presence
In the case of my two blogger pages, replacing them with a proper the mutable website is the answer, but Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr remain separate. Learning more about properly customizing those will help me make an impression, but beyond that, I need a content strategy that links them all together with a 'voice.' Presently, I post snippets of the day's work on Tumblr and Facebook, link to the Tumblr entry on Twitter, and make occasional commentary on literary culture. I intend to continue doing these, albeit striving for greater regularity. The following ideas are under consideration:
- "Word of the Day" : In which I choose an interesting word and provide the definition.
- "Song of the Day" : In which I recommend a song for followers to check out.
- Humorous tweets : Fairly self-explanatory. I do find odd stuff funny, though, so I don't know if this would build a dedicated niche audience or just get nowhere.
- Language Learning Videos : Videos in which I practice concepts from the languages I'm learning, inviting commentary and corrections from others.
- Tutorial Videos : Covering various subjects where I know enough to walk someone through useful concepts. With the exception, perhaps, of specific technology-related tutorials, the emphasis here would be on teaching broadly applicable concepts through an example, rather than just teaching the example itself.
- Performance Art : Monologue and other forms of solo performance art.
Web Design and Programming
I have a clear idea of how I'm going to go about this. While there is a true programming component to most dynamic web design, I'm going to separate these into two parallel tracks. I'll approach both with a mixture of reference material and hands-on experimentation, setting myself specific, well-defined projects on both the web and non-web tracks, and I'll allow things to develop naturally from there.
I haven't picked my first projects for each, yet, but I know that on the web side, I'll be looking to start with refreshing my HTML/CSS experience and gradually start implementing more and more Javascript functionality--eventually learning to draw on various techniques like AJAX or JSON and libraries/extensions like Backbone, jQuery and Node. I can create a portfolio page to show the results off and possibly solicit more lucrative freelance work along the way.
On the non-web side, after some consideration and pulling in advice from various sources, I'm thinking of starting with C, then learning an assembly lanaguage (MIPS or ARM), then C++. Where I'll go from there, I'm still considering. Learning Assembly, C and C++ before anything else somewhat undermines the idea of an 'increasing complexity' approach, but would build a strong foundation of following stricter standards of clean code. I would probably take a look at Python, Ruby or Java next. We'll see.
Visual Art and Graphic Design
Starting with very fundamental drawing exercises here: exercises for drawing straight lines, for judging the lengths and angles of lines. These will be more bread-and-butter for a while, until I'm satisfied with the improvement enough to move on to 2d shape and 3d form drawing exercises. I'll also start doing simple drawings of actual subject matters in parallel to these, and study on the results to determine where I need to focus more. My intention is to create a gallery for this journey, which can hopefully inspire some people who want to draw but think they "don't have talent" and therefore can't do it, to try anyway.
These efforts with visual art will innately improve my graphic design skills, but I also need to develop greater acuity for layouts, color composition and typography. I'll be rolling these efforts into my web design practice.
----- ----- ----- ----- -----
That's the current state of affairs. I have a lot learn and just as much to refine, but I'm eager to do so.
Still learning,
~L
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Catching Up
The last few weeks have been an interesting ride--awkward, but interesting.
It was three weeks ago when I released the first edition of the mutable, my weekly literary publication. It started off humble, with roughly 1,500 words of prose and a single poem posted to a blogger page like this one. The second week clocked in at 2,500 words of prose and a poem, and last week's edition marked two changes: first, pushing publication to Monday so I'd have more leeway to get writing done on Sunday; second, increasing the target daily word count by 50 words each day towards an ultimate goal of 3,500 words/day.
So far, this has worked out well. It's a pace that acknowledges both my need for time to work on other things and my rustiness re: writing daily, but still increases the output steadily and non-trivially. For those of you interested in specifics, it means that on my Tuesday-Sunday schedule, the weekly output increases by roughly 1,800 words each week like so:
Week 3 : 550 + 600 + 650 + 700 + 750 + 800 = 4050
Week 4 : 850 + 900 + 950 + 1000 + 1050 + 1100 = 5850
Week 5 : 1150 + 1200 + 1250 + 1300 + 1350 + 1400 = 7650
This means that this week will most likely be the last one wherein the sole prose content is a part of Cat's Eye. Starting with the fifth edition, I'll add short stories into the mix. Of course, because I'm self-publishing, I can put out whatever mix of content I like from week to week. Yay, flexibility!
That being said, I've also re-engaged with social media for the purposes of promotion, and now have a Facebook, a Twitter and a Tumblr, in addition to my Patreon account. The thing is, I have seen the successful use of all these things on the part of content creators, and it involves the development of a particular voice. Given the nature of communication through these outlets, it has to be fairly condensed, with some sort of immediate 'wow' factor. Figuring out how to do that in a way that reflects what I'm about will take some doing, especially since I'm not a very social person to begin with.
Right now, in this transition phase in my life, I've been a bit unsure as to where I should be focusing the time and energy that is not going directly into my freelance work or my writing. Music would be an obvious choice, but I don't really have the financial flexibility to invest in regular vocal lessons or purchase a guitar just yet. Similarly, finances stand in the way of getting coaching in stage or voice acting. There's a litany of such roadblocks that, while far from unconquerable, do move me to ask the question: "What can I do this very moment?"
That question, I am pleased to say, yielded some immediate answers. Building my programming and web design skills is something I can chase down right now. The same goes for drawing and graphic design; I have plenty of pencils and plenty of sketch paper lying around, and the skills of illustration carry over to graphic design. In addition to being tasks I can undertake right now, they have the added benefit of giving me something I can show to attract traffic. I've seen examples of people showcasing their daily journeys of learning and they often receive support not just in the form of congratulations or interest, but in genuinely helpful advice that strengthens their learning process. It makes sense to leverage that.
Another endeavor I can undertake, as soon as I fix my desktop and get access to all my collected materials for it, is language study. There are plenty of opportunities to find people I can speak to in the languages I wish to study, and finding material to read is a breeze, though I suspect I'll need to get clever with the writing practice. Creating Youtube videos documenting my language work also sounds like a good idea, allowing me to get further commentary and correction from native speakers in some cases.
More generally speaking, I'm trying to cultivate greater mindfulness in everything I do. My exercise routine has helped greatly in that regard, though I had to suffer some injuries along the way; meditation has also been a boon in this effort. However, I'm seeking a greater mindfulness in everything, to build not just a habit of mindful exercise or mindful meditation, etc., but a habit of living mindfully. This is mostly a question of focus, though, which for someone who has grown so scattered, must be relearned over time.
I'll have an entry tomorrow that outlines the current state of my immediate goals and how I intend to approach them.
Back on the horse
~L
It was three weeks ago when I released the first edition of the mutable, my weekly literary publication. It started off humble, with roughly 1,500 words of prose and a single poem posted to a blogger page like this one. The second week clocked in at 2,500 words of prose and a poem, and last week's edition marked two changes: first, pushing publication to Monday so I'd have more leeway to get writing done on Sunday; second, increasing the target daily word count by 50 words each day towards an ultimate goal of 3,500 words/day.
So far, this has worked out well. It's a pace that acknowledges both my need for time to work on other things and my rustiness re: writing daily, but still increases the output steadily and non-trivially. For those of you interested in specifics, it means that on my Tuesday-Sunday schedule, the weekly output increases by roughly 1,800 words each week like so:
Week 3 : 550 + 600 + 650 + 700 + 750 + 800 = 4050
Week 4 : 850 + 900 + 950 + 1000 + 1050 + 1100 = 5850
Week 5 : 1150 + 1200 + 1250 + 1300 + 1350 + 1400 = 7650
This means that this week will most likely be the last one wherein the sole prose content is a part of Cat's Eye. Starting with the fifth edition, I'll add short stories into the mix. Of course, because I'm self-publishing, I can put out whatever mix of content I like from week to week. Yay, flexibility!
That being said, I've also re-engaged with social media for the purposes of promotion, and now have a Facebook, a Twitter and a Tumblr, in addition to my Patreon account. The thing is, I have seen the successful use of all these things on the part of content creators, and it involves the development of a particular voice. Given the nature of communication through these outlets, it has to be fairly condensed, with some sort of immediate 'wow' factor. Figuring out how to do that in a way that reflects what I'm about will take some doing, especially since I'm not a very social person to begin with.
Right now, in this transition phase in my life, I've been a bit unsure as to where I should be focusing the time and energy that is not going directly into my freelance work or my writing. Music would be an obvious choice, but I don't really have the financial flexibility to invest in regular vocal lessons or purchase a guitar just yet. Similarly, finances stand in the way of getting coaching in stage or voice acting. There's a litany of such roadblocks that, while far from unconquerable, do move me to ask the question: "What can I do this very moment?"
That question, I am pleased to say, yielded some immediate answers. Building my programming and web design skills is something I can chase down right now. The same goes for drawing and graphic design; I have plenty of pencils and plenty of sketch paper lying around, and the skills of illustration carry over to graphic design. In addition to being tasks I can undertake right now, they have the added benefit of giving me something I can show to attract traffic. I've seen examples of people showcasing their daily journeys of learning and they often receive support not just in the form of congratulations or interest, but in genuinely helpful advice that strengthens their learning process. It makes sense to leverage that.
Another endeavor I can undertake, as soon as I fix my desktop and get access to all my collected materials for it, is language study. There are plenty of opportunities to find people I can speak to in the languages I wish to study, and finding material to read is a breeze, though I suspect I'll need to get clever with the writing practice. Creating Youtube videos documenting my language work also sounds like a good idea, allowing me to get further commentary and correction from native speakers in some cases.
More generally speaking, I'm trying to cultivate greater mindfulness in everything I do. My exercise routine has helped greatly in that regard, though I had to suffer some injuries along the way; meditation has also been a boon in this effort. However, I'm seeking a greater mindfulness in everything, to build not just a habit of mindful exercise or mindful meditation, etc., but a habit of living mindfully. This is mostly a question of focus, though, which for someone who has grown so scattered, must be relearned over time.
I'll have an entry tomorrow that outlines the current state of my immediate goals and how I intend to approach them.
Back on the horse
~L
Monday, October 7, 2013
the mutable (and assorted housekeeping)
The single most important bit of information in this post is that I have launched the mutable, my weekly publication of prose and poetry. Right now, it's somewhat underwhelming both in presentation and in volume of content. For an explanation of the former, see this page.
As for the latter, the low output thus far is the result of pragmatism. I have made quite a few attempts to jump back on the writing-every-day horse since I first fell off it about 6 years ago. A lot of my failures were the results of simple distraction, but excessive ambition has been a factor in those, as well as the sole culprit at times. When making these comeback attempts, I have often recalled my most productive years as a writer. As a boy ages 14 to 16, especially, writing dominated my free time. The moment I was home from school, I'd hole myself up in my room, possibly read for an hour, possibly play video games for an hour, but I'd always write a minimum of five hours each day, quite often pushing to seven or eight. On weekends, spending 10 to 12 hours writing straight through was not uncommon for me. This all contributed to an average output hovering between 9,000 and 10,000 words per day.
Now, of course, my lack of time spent editing and my significantly less rigorous quality-control had some hand in that outlandishly high figure, but most of all, that volume represents the fact that by that time, I had been writing for long stretches every day for 7+ years. To not account for that habituation and expect I could just jump in at some mark near that, when I have less time and energy to devote to writing anyway, is of course going to lead to some burn out.
I also learned, as I got older, that 3,000 words per day is considered quite productive--a novel a month, if you think about it. Weighing that fact alongside what I want to achieve as a writer, I've come to two conclusions. The first is that I'm going to set 4,000 words as my long term goal while still building up my readership, and then I will throttle back to 3,000 when I'm more established and can afford to divert energy to my other literary ambitions--plays, screenplays, television scripts. The second is that I need to build up to that goal gradually.
To that end, I promised myself that I would write as much as I could without straining myself in my spare time leading up to the first edition of the mutable. What I ended up with was an average output of 300 words per day, five days that week. It was a bit humiliating, but that was how far I'd fallen. I accepted that as a starting point, and published anyway. This past week, I was able to turn out ~500 words per day for five days without much trouble. A good increase, but still a ways off my mark, and also a bit abrupt. Starting Tuesday, I'll be aiming to write up through Sunday and push my target word-count up by 50 each day (550 on Tuesday, 600 on Wednesday . . . 800 on Sunday.) 50 is a small enough number that each increment up doesn't greatly increase the challenge, but will add up over an acceptable span of time to my target. I may, if certain milestones seem to give me difficulty, stabilize the word-count for a while, but if things go smoothly, then I should have my first 4,000 word day near the end of the year or the beginning of next one.
As for how I'm going to handle this blog from now on, I'm not quite sure. The lack of structure in my days lately, combined with more difficulty sleeping than usual has meant a lot of time and energy spent inefficiently, leaving me rather exhausted at the end of the day, resenting the idea of having to describe it all coherently. I'm mulling over the possibility of making the blog a morning task, in which I describe the events of the previous day.
I do have some things of substance to discuss in the next post, so I'll probably save schedule restructuring talk for that.
Cheers,
~L
As for the latter, the low output thus far is the result of pragmatism. I have made quite a few attempts to jump back on the writing-every-day horse since I first fell off it about 6 years ago. A lot of my failures were the results of simple distraction, but excessive ambition has been a factor in those, as well as the sole culprit at times. When making these comeback attempts, I have often recalled my most productive years as a writer. As a boy ages 14 to 16, especially, writing dominated my free time. The moment I was home from school, I'd hole myself up in my room, possibly read for an hour, possibly play video games for an hour, but I'd always write a minimum of five hours each day, quite often pushing to seven or eight. On weekends, spending 10 to 12 hours writing straight through was not uncommon for me. This all contributed to an average output hovering between 9,000 and 10,000 words per day.
Now, of course, my lack of time spent editing and my significantly less rigorous quality-control had some hand in that outlandishly high figure, but most of all, that volume represents the fact that by that time, I had been writing for long stretches every day for 7+ years. To not account for that habituation and expect I could just jump in at some mark near that, when I have less time and energy to devote to writing anyway, is of course going to lead to some burn out.
I also learned, as I got older, that 3,000 words per day is considered quite productive--a novel a month, if you think about it. Weighing that fact alongside what I want to achieve as a writer, I've come to two conclusions. The first is that I'm going to set 4,000 words as my long term goal while still building up my readership, and then I will throttle back to 3,000 when I'm more established and can afford to divert energy to my other literary ambitions--plays, screenplays, television scripts. The second is that I need to build up to that goal gradually.
To that end, I promised myself that I would write as much as I could without straining myself in my spare time leading up to the first edition of the mutable. What I ended up with was an average output of 300 words per day, five days that week. It was a bit humiliating, but that was how far I'd fallen. I accepted that as a starting point, and published anyway. This past week, I was able to turn out ~500 words per day for five days without much trouble. A good increase, but still a ways off my mark, and also a bit abrupt. Starting Tuesday, I'll be aiming to write up through Sunday and push my target word-count up by 50 each day (550 on Tuesday, 600 on Wednesday . . . 800 on Sunday.) 50 is a small enough number that each increment up doesn't greatly increase the challenge, but will add up over an acceptable span of time to my target. I may, if certain milestones seem to give me difficulty, stabilize the word-count for a while, but if things go smoothly, then I should have my first 4,000 word day near the end of the year or the beginning of next one.
As for how I'm going to handle this blog from now on, I'm not quite sure. The lack of structure in my days lately, combined with more difficulty sleeping than usual has meant a lot of time and energy spent inefficiently, leaving me rather exhausted at the end of the day, resenting the idea of having to describe it all coherently. I'm mulling over the possibility of making the blog a morning task, in which I describe the events of the previous day.
I do have some things of substance to discuss in the next post, so I'll probably save schedule restructuring talk for that.
Cheers,
~L
Monday, August 5, 2013
Day 1, Take 2: Electric Blogaloo
So, in case it wasn't horribly apparent, this blog has been on an extended, unintentional hiatus. I've been in a pretty poor headspace for a while, including the unique irritation that comes from being injured once you've grown used to a certain fairly high level of physical activity. Thankfully, I'm back on the horse with exercise, and taking a different tack to it. I noticed that my overly aggressive pace seemed related to my desire for variety: in a lifting program, improvement just means bigger numbers, which is boring to me. In a calisthenics/gymnastics/movement-focused program, improvement means entirely new techniques and skills in most cases.
My desire to push on ahead to some of the truly amazing feats currently out of my reach needs to be tempered with a realistic progression scheme. So, I'm dialing back the intensity on my strength training and rebuilding my foundation, but I'm also putting more emphasis on shoring up weak spots (grip strength and core strength) and building more flexibility, mobility and balance.
My biggest physical concern in the physical department is, honestly, meeting my daily caloric needs while keeping costs down. I'm a hard-gainer to be sure. Based on the results of my current diet and the results, I'm aiming for 3200 kcal every day, with the following break down:
Carbohydrates: 8 to 15% - 256 to 480 kcal - 64 to 120 g
Protein: 16-22% - 512 to 704 kcal - 128 to 176 g
Fat: 67-76% - 2144 to 2432 kcal - 238 to 271 g
Doing that on a budget is not the easiest thing in the world. Making sure I get my necessary micronutrients from produce (with low calories-per-dollar ratios) while doing so is a challenge. Coming up with things that can be made in bulk to save cooking time each week is not quite so hard, but becomes much harder when you also add the stipulate of trying to make it tasty. Oh, and I'm also trying to make this work with an intermittent fasting plan.
On the larger life-goals front, I've rethought my strategy with regards to writing--again. I'm still pinning most of my hopes on novels and other long-form works, but having come across Patreon, I'm no longer thinking of smaller works as a total wash. Instead, I think they can return to being useful projects to keep my momentum up and keep me thinking while also still yielding some financial return. My intention is to create a regular online literary supplement of sorts, featuring short stories, poetry, and serialized work, and to offer that up for free while encouraging Patreon and/or PayPal Donation support. It can serve as a way to generate immediate buzz and thereby strengthen my position when the time comes to start publishing larger works, and also to chip away at my financial woes and free up more time for the things I want to do.
Realism demands, of course, that I acknowledge that Patreon is still relatively unknown (compared to its large-project cousin, Kickstarter), and that writing is no match for music or video content in the popularity department, so I do not expect the staggering returns that a few of the most well-known Youtube creators are seeing through the service. Even so, every bit helps towards building a personal brand.
This week is going to be a bit of a calibration process as I figure a few variables out, but regardless it's good to be back in action. Cheers.
Learning again,
~L
My desire to push on ahead to some of the truly amazing feats currently out of my reach needs to be tempered with a realistic progression scheme. So, I'm dialing back the intensity on my strength training and rebuilding my foundation, but I'm also putting more emphasis on shoring up weak spots (grip strength and core strength) and building more flexibility, mobility and balance.
My biggest physical concern in the physical department is, honestly, meeting my daily caloric needs while keeping costs down. I'm a hard-gainer to be sure. Based on the results of my current diet and the results, I'm aiming for 3200 kcal every day, with the following break down:
Carbohydrates: 8 to 15% - 256 to 480 kcal - 64 to 120 g
Protein: 16-22% - 512 to 704 kcal - 128 to 176 g
Fat: 67-76% - 2144 to 2432 kcal - 238 to 271 g
Doing that on a budget is not the easiest thing in the world. Making sure I get my necessary micronutrients from produce (with low calories-per-dollar ratios) while doing so is a challenge. Coming up with things that can be made in bulk to save cooking time each week is not quite so hard, but becomes much harder when you also add the stipulate of trying to make it tasty. Oh, and I'm also trying to make this work with an intermittent fasting plan.
On the larger life-goals front, I've rethought my strategy with regards to writing--again. I'm still pinning most of my hopes on novels and other long-form works, but having come across Patreon, I'm no longer thinking of smaller works as a total wash. Instead, I think they can return to being useful projects to keep my momentum up and keep me thinking while also still yielding some financial return. My intention is to create a regular online literary supplement of sorts, featuring short stories, poetry, and serialized work, and to offer that up for free while encouraging Patreon and/or PayPal Donation support. It can serve as a way to generate immediate buzz and thereby strengthen my position when the time comes to start publishing larger works, and also to chip away at my financial woes and free up more time for the things I want to do.
Realism demands, of course, that I acknowledge that Patreon is still relatively unknown (compared to its large-project cousin, Kickstarter), and that writing is no match for music or video content in the popularity department, so I do not expect the staggering returns that a few of the most well-known Youtube creators are seeing through the service. Even so, every bit helps towards building a personal brand.
This week is going to be a bit of a calibration process as I figure a few variables out, but regardless it's good to be back in action. Cheers.
Learning again,
~L
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