Snowflake Challenge 9

[olivermoss]

"This challenge is fairy open, and is based on people looking back on the last year and thinking about their personal wins."

* I did a lot of writing last year, more than I realized. I really need to track things better. I did a big project at the start of the year to read books on writing and did a lot of writing exercises as part of working through them.

* I also wrote The Light Ahead, a Steddie fanfic that shows me that I can do the sort of writing projects I want to do and can write on a schedule if I need to. I wrote it entirely during the Stranger Things season 4 hiatus.

* I started a photo-a-day blog on tumblr of my own photography. So far I have over 250 posts made, the queue filled for a bit and one of my posts broke 5k reblogs.

* I also did a lot of photowalks.

Honestly, I realized at the turn of the year that I need to track what I do a let better, because I do more projects than I realize. Like I did some comics this year, and other art, etc. And my writing is finally really building toward where I want it to be, even if it's at a much later point in my life than I could have imaged when younger. (Now I just need to write more tonight and not stick my nose back into Scarlet Hollow)

Comments

[evilinsanemonkey]

I do more projects than I realize.
oh god do I feel this.

off to follow your photo blog and bookmark your steddie fic!

[olivermoss]

I get so down on myself for what I haven't finished and time missed due to illness that I really do lose track of what I have done. That is part of why I got into the whole planner thing initially.

Thanks!

[turps]

Those are fantastic achievements, and I'm very impressed with your photo-a-day.

That's a big commitment.

[olivermoss]

Thanks! I am relying on having a backlog of photos for weeks I can't shoot much or don't find much to shoot, but hopefully I can keep ahead of it!

[yarnofariadne]

Congrats on all your writing and photography!

[olivermoss]

Thanks!

[smallhobbit]

I think tracking projects is an excellent idea. I do a monthly post of my crafting and am always surprised at how much I have done. It's really good to look back and say 'yes, look at all I've done!'

[olivermoss]

I get so down on myself for what I haven't finished and time missed due to illness and migraines that I really do lose track of what I have done. That is why I got into the whole planner thing initially, but I need to track more! Help give shape to time a bit more.

[colls]

Sounds like a successful and fulfilling year for your creative side! :)

[olivermoss]

Thanks!

[silveradept]

Trying to track what you've done in a year takes a lot of effort to remember to track everything. Congratulations on your accidentally remembered and listed here.

[olivermoss]

I am trying to track as I go more. I have a self made planner and a habit tracker. I got into planners to help me realize what I had done, and when I had bad weeks to remember why I didn't get stuff done.

[silveradept]

Planners are very helpful for that. I have a miniature bullet journal that is getting use for tracking, for To-doing and very much for ta-daing. There's no fancy art in it, but it does work.

[olivermoss]

Currently I have one sort-of pretty planner and also a separate book for habit tracking and dumping some thoughts.

[mxcatmoon]

I used to avoid tracking for fear I'd be disappointed/discouraged, but it's true it may be just the opposite. I was doing weekly 'check-in' posts back when I had a job with normal hours, which I wanted to use to help with that, but now that I have different days off every week and sometimes one or none, I gave that up. My spreadsheet where I keep track of the fanfic I write, helps, though. I can see how much I'm writing, how often, and other info.

Good luck with your plan to do more tracking.

[olivermoss]

Yeah, for me as long as I also tracking things like 'was under level 2 evac notice due to wildfire' or 'migraine' and other stuff to give context, it helps a lot. But I also keep my tracker separate from my planner in case it stresses me out, which it hasn't so far, but I do like the separation.

[mxcatmoon]

That's a great point too. Tracking things like migraine can definitely help one not to feel discouraged, to understand why that particular period wasn't very productive.

[svgurl]

Congrats on the writing and the photography! Even if it wasn't on the schedule you originally aimed for, it is still awesome that your writing is progressing. That must be a good feeling. :D

[olivermoss]

Thanks!

Yeah, I just need to keep reminding myself of all the work I did at the start of last year and that TLA is pretty much proof of concept. I want to do longer works than that, but having written that shows that I can do those sorts of plots.

[mistressofmuses]

You definitely did a lot this last year!

I've found tracking things to be HUGELY important and beneficial. It's easy to forget things you worked on, or think they happened longer ago than they did... Not that everything needs to be all productivity all the time, but it helps me to be able to look back on concrete evidence of what I've done and worked on!

And I hear you on that feeling of hitting a writing stride much later than imagined/hoped for... I wish I'd had any measure follow-through a decade+ ago, and am a bit sad at that "lost" progress I could have made in my writing skill if I'd stuck with it more consistently. But eh, not worth worrying about - it matters to have hit a good point now!

[olivermoss]

Yeah, during rough patches it's crucial for me.

A few years ago I decided that 'not trying and wondering what-if' was way, way worse than not going for it even if I had lost a lot of time and might never make it. In addition to letting people bully me out of writing even though I knew what they said was BS, I also lost a lot to medical stuff. I had terrible brain fog for years before I got my IBS diagnosis.

I lost a lot of time between medical stuff and letting people get into my head. I even think about how much I lost.... bad things, need to focus on other stuff.

[mistressofmuses]

Medical stuff is a DEFINITE reason for there to have been a gap in Doing Things - there's no real way to fight through brain fog, no matter how hard you're trying. You *can't* just try your way out of medical problems.

Also, 1000x oof and relate to the people getting into your head. I spent WAY too long listening to bad-faith critiques and thou-shalt-nots, feeling like I only deserved to write if I could create some perfect unproblematic work that pleased absolutely everyone and upset no one.

Dwelling on what-could-have-beens is never helpful. That time isn't coming back, so what matters is now - and how much you ARE doing now, so that one, five, ten years down the road, you can see how much you've done!

[olivermoss]

On one hand, that I've even made it through what I did, especially without family or community support is insane. But time don't care and comparing where I am in life with when I am in life is something I need to avoid doing most of the time. It also suck that all that effort and discipline and energy had to go into that that and not into building a life, body of work, relationships, etc.

As the song says 'we move forward because we can't go back'. Time only goes one way and dwelling on it too much just robs the future as well. It's not good to completely repress those thoughts, but... balance and compartmentalization

[mistressofmuses]

You definitely went through a fuck of a lot, and having made it through and getting to a point where you're able to better focus on the creative things you love is worth being glad of.

But it still sucks that so much time and energy went to survival and recovery... but I'm glad that it DID go to those things at the time (even if I wish it hadn't had to), because it means you are here on the other side.

Balance is important, though. Dwelling on that isn't good or helpful. Can't change what happened, but you CAN focus on what you're doing now and moving toward.

[tsuki_no_bara]

i love your photo tumblr. aside from the fact that i respect the hell out of anyone who can post a pic a day every day, they're just really nice photos. and isn't it nice to realize you did more in a year than you thought you did?

[olivermoss]

Thank you!

Yeah, it is good to realize. I almost didn't! I am doing a lot more tracking this year

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Photowalks make for great images. :D

You might consider sharing some in birdfeeding or common_nature if you see wildlife.