Tag: self-care

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words 3/3/2011

Erin Penn

82946022 © creativecommonsstockphotos | Dreamstime.com
Product vs. Project
Two major processing methods exist to produce stuff, and the concepts hold equally as well for physical/manufacturing (industrial) as for ethereal/information (technology). 
Product provides mass production the ability to have individuals (or machines) to specialize; the object being produced is moved through the line. At the beginning of the line is all the dissembled items and at the end of the line is the finished delivery product. Production Line never ends, several items are always in process at varying stages. Fixing and streamlining a production line tends to be easy because the same thing is being done all the time; you can see where the holdups and bottlenecks of the process are and management can adjust them until the “slowest” part of the line becomes a different part. Each slowest part gets fixed in turn, until everything is as efficient as possible under the present technology and needs of the production line. The downside is production never ends. Each day is more of the same.
Most chores within a home are products. Making meals three times a day goes from groceries restocking through dishes dried and put away. Sweep, mop, and dust once a week. Mow, weed, and pick up branches. Never-ending tasks, but needed for survival. Just like heartbeats and breathing. A school year is another product task line – the student body moves from kindergarten through senior year.
Projects, on the other hand, are one-off tasks. Once done, they are done. But making them more efficient is nigh impossible, because the bottleneck on one project might not be the bottleneck holding up finishing the project on another. In information technology, most items being produced are projects. 
We are about to go into the “project” time of year for homes. Thanksgiving dinner requires a different group of materials than usually is in the house; Christmas presents need to be bought; Halloween costumes need to be decided on. While we may be using last year’s blueprint as a guide, the costumes and presents must be new, and the T-day dinner is nothing like normal food production and throws the normal meal production line into turmoil for about a week. Within school, there might be special projects to break things up for the teachers and students.
Where does writing fall into this? Well, BIC (butt-in-chair) every day would be product line, as is draft to second draft to cleanup to beta reading to editor to publisher to book. Writing a series might have one book in draft stage while another is with the editor and one about to come out and marketing is needing done.
But at the same time, every story is different. If genres switch up, mysteries have a very different process from romances in the skill and tools needed.
Diana Pharaoh Frances wrote about dealing with the Production vs. Project (though used different terms) issues of writing in “The Truth About Writing Books” in Magical Words (3/3/2011):
Most people are either product or project oriented by nature and/or training. By tapping into the mind-set that works best for you, you can harness a business model that best suits your energy production.
WRITING EXERCISE: Create a business model for your product/project nature.
My attempt
I’m a project person. I like thing done. Some personality types like things undecided and are most comfortable with something always flowing. I’m working toward done. I check in my head how long something is taking, look how far I still have to go, and know about how long I have until finish. Like everyone, I always under guess-tamate, but I’m working toward something.
So for my books, I need a project to finish. Unfortunately, right now I’m completely “ooo, shiny” – moving from one idea to the next with my project windows in hours, not weeks. I need to crack down and create a weeks-type project process. And now – with holiday package season kicking off for the post office and tax season around the corner – that isn’t going to happen. Soon though. 2022 will be the year! 

Art is hard

Erin Penn

Photo from unsplash.com by Deva Darshan, taken in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the Holi Festival

While COVID-19 officially started in 2019, it really didn’t hit America until March 2020. Tax season was a nightmare. And 2021 hasn’t gotten better – tax season was just as bad, I’m still running soil and water meetings remotely, can’t visit family, Pennsic got canceled, again.

And art … art is hard. Really hard. Crafting words, putting needle through fabric, even painting. The creative juices just aren’t here.

Can’t even do gardening and I had such high hopes. Even made a meme.

Sorry past self, but still mourning the loss of normal … of people, friends and activities. Someday, but not today the joy should return. But meantime I’m in a fog with everyone else.

Geeking Science: The more things change…

Erin Penn

Photo by Roxy Aln on Unsplash

The more things change … the more things *we think* remain the same.

Not a result I was expecting, and yet, also, exactly true.

Some people call it a version of mission creep. Not just adding more things to be done, but refusing the acknowledge progress by expanding the problems to be resolved as some are solved.

Among the traumatized, threats never go away. PTSD sets a person threat-awareness at a certain level, and the way humans are set up makes it hard to change.

For writers and other creatives, the “I suck” remains the same even as product quality and quantity increases.

In 2018, three studies gave a look into perceptual and judgement creep, and jointly published under “Prevalence-induced concept change in human judgement.”

The study most people focused on was where the scientists asked volunteers to judge threatening faces, but decreased the number of threatening faces over time. The participants reported numbers close to steady, with previously benign faces becoming threatening. (Schneier)

Another study had people review ethical vs. unethical proposals. When the percentage of unethical proposals lowered, the participants started identifying previously benign proposals as unethical. (ScienceDaily)

The kicker was having people judge blue dots, in case you think it is just high-level assessments. When the blue dots decreased, participants started picking purple dots to make up the difference. (Science.org)

Even when the participants were warned about the judgement-creep might happen, it continued. Even when paid to watch out for it and resist it, “prevalence-induced concept change” remained in effect.

Social problems may seem unsolvable because we keep seeing and processing the same amount, even though the overall percentage has changed. “I always found 10 homeless, there are always 10 homeless. This problem can’t be solved.” (Never mind that during the broad census, the area had 10,000 in 2010 and 5,000 in 2020 (random statistics as an example, not actually real) – what was processed remained unchanged.)

Schneier points out “This has a lot of implications in security systems where humans have to make judgments about threat and risk: TSA agents, police noticing “suspicious” activities, “see something say something” campaigns, and so on.” (Schneier)

Daniel Gilbert, the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, who organized the studies with his post-doctoral student David Levari, states “these studies suggests that there may be a need for institutional mechanisms to guard against the prevalence-induced concept change.” (ScienceDaily.com)

“Anyone whose job involves reducing the prevalence of something should know that it isn’t always easy to tell when their work is done,” <Gilbert> said. “On the other hand, our studies suggest that simply being aware of this problem is not sufficient to prevent it. What can prevent it? No one yet knows. That’s what the phrase ‘more research is needed’ was invented for.” (ScienceDaily.com)

Being aware is half the battle, the question is what the other half of the battle?

For creatives, be aware your perception of your writing and art should change with time. For childhood or adult-onset PTSD, be aware that the threat detection matrix in your mind is not giving your correct information (which you were already aware of, but now you have another scientific study explaining how the brain is wired).

I believe one of the best ways to fight it within society in general, and maybe individuals, is statistics. Numbers may not be the greatest way to hack into the emotional programming, but logic can help some.

Good luck. Fight the mission creep by clearly defining goals. Fight the threat assessment by working on rewiring threat processing.

Bibliography

Schneier, Bruce. “Conservation of Threat.” Schneier on Security. June 29, 2018 at 9:44 am. https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2018/06/conservation_of.html – last viewed 12/20/2022.

Science.org. “Prevalence-induced concept change in human judgement.” June, 29, 2018. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aap8731 – last viewed 12/20/2022.

ScienceDaily.com. “The problem with solving problems.” June 28, 2018. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180628151752.htm – last viewed 12/20/2022.

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words (Self Care)

Erin Penn

87660978 © creativecommonsstockphotos | Dreamstime.com
Self-Care Everywhere
It’s con season, or would be if the COVID wasn’t an issue. I thought I would touch base on a few of the things we need to do to keep healthy at conventions (and at other places too).
1. Drink water – We don’t do it nearly enough, especially on long con days followed by a bar tab night. Do not start the night dehydrated, otherwise day two of the con is really gonna suck. And if it is a long convention, like DragonCon, you won’t make the distance.
And remember, it is also important to drink water when typing or longhand writing your manuscript. Drink water while editing, etc. We are bags of mostly water, and we need to replenish is constantly. Water is a primary go juice for your brain, beating out even sugar.
Additional note: When flying, the air on planes is being dehydrated, therefore dehydrating you. Pour water down your throat to recover, otherwise you will have a travel dehydration headache. Not a happy place to be when you hit the ground running into the first panel of the convention.
2. Eat regular – At a con, with panel after interview after contest, it is easy to forget to eat. Put it on your schedule. Pack snacks. The candy at the artist alley is not enough. Protein and other long-time digestive substance is required. A good protein-laden breakfast will push you further than coffee and a box of donuts.
And, again, while writing, EAT. Do not skip meals to find more writing time. The brain chews through about 20% of the day’s calories even though it is only 2% of the weight. Active use kicks up the calorie count, just like muscles burn more when actively used. And while it is tempting to pour sugar on it – that is a surge-and-crash method. Long-term at the keyboard needs fiber like apples and protein like cheese.
3. Make friends – The publishing industry is a tough gig. You need friends. Especially in the middle of a pandemic. Build that support network. The network is both keeping in touch with the industry – finding out about changes in self-publishing, when anthologies are looking for submissions, and what agents have openings – AND keeping in touch with humanity. The first is silver and the second is gold. The first allows you to be a writer, the second allows you to live.
Other self-care and attending convention tips can be found in the following Magical Words:
9/6/2011 – Misty Massey – Eating at Con –
5/20/2015 – Tamsin Silver – Con-Prep (aka organized chaos) –
6/4/2016 – John Hartness – Making Money Mondays – Mental Health & Money 
6/13/2016 – John Hartness – Making Money Mondays – More Revenue or Lower Overhead? –

Writing Exercise: Not Today

Erin Penn

Photo by Josefa nDiaz on Unsplash

Not Today. What happens when you really, really don’t feel like writing?

Well, what happens on your dayjob when you really, really don’t feel like dayjobbing? You go to work, don’t you.

If writing is your dayjob, then you don’t get to wait for the muse to strike. You pick him or her up and sit her down at the computer and get to work.

But what happens if writing is your second or even fifth job? What then? 

Two questions – how much do you want it to be your dayjob, and do you have ANYTHING left in the creative stores?

I recently have been on a blogging run, 18 days in a row catching up on missing blogs. Then dayjob pulled a 13-hour day and I had NOTHING. I tried, I really did – but no-braining was happening. I looked at the 18 day streak and, as much as I hated it to end, I forgave myself the need to sleep.

John Hartness facebooked a “no interest in writing day” and many authors – some dayjobbers and some writing-primary-income – responded after his initial response to himself – mortgage doesn’t give a single fuck about what I feel like today: doing the book bible because don’t have the creative in me today; I figure some days I hate drafting divorce papers for my lawyers and some days I hate drafting books for my publisher – if I want to be taken seriously as a writer, I got to do it whether I feel like it or not; I find writing in chunks works – just get 500 done … and suddenly at 4,000 (or at 500, but, hey, 500!); playlists help.

I know I posted a lot of “don’t beat yourself up,” especially during the pandemic. That is taking a lot of energy and creatively away; basically we are all in mourning for what we used to be. 

At the same time, you want a job as a writer, you write.

To balance all the self-care and forgive yourself, today is the just write day.

WRITING EXERCISE: Write 500 words. For a blog, a scene for your WIP, a character background for your D&D group. Doesn’t matter, get the words down today.

My attempt: 399 words here plus 101 words for a different blog.