I was chatting with BlueKangaroo on IM the other night, and she told me moi was trying to convince her to sign up for thing-a-day.com. The premise is that you do a small, focussed, finish-it-in-and-hour-or-less creative project each day in February. “Huh,” sez I, “sounds … interesting.”
So we chatted a bit about different projects she could do, and she mentioned that one of the reasons she was thinking about it was that she wants to get back into writing, and that this would be a good framework to get her to sit down and do it every day. We were talking about different types of focussed writing exercises she could do, and I eneded up offering to provide her with a daily list of ten words which she could then take to write something with – a short short story, or a poem, or a brief essay, or whatever.
Being me, I’ve been thinking about what kind of lists I could write, and, being me, I’ve come up with some ideas for different kinds of themes I could use to amuse myself in creating them. (Anyone who has clicked on one of my “wordplay” threads has seen the results of my “what do these words have in common” cogitations – but there are other ways of doing it besides word manipulation.)
Bottom line – I’ve signed up for thing-a-day myself, with the intention of each day’s creativity being a wordlist for Blue Kangaroo. I look forward to seeing what she does with the lists – and the fact that no one but me may discern the nature of that day’s list theme actually makes it more amusing to me, not less.
A sudden and seemingly unwarranted chill blew over BlueKangaroo. Figuring it was just nerves for the third day on a job she is unsure in, she fired up the SDMB to chill out for fifteen minutes before she left. Not long after that, she realized the source of her nerves and saw her impending doom.
Okay, in all seriousness, I think it’s completely cool that you’ve signed up too, twickster. My doom level rose when I saw this thread, only because the thought of thematic lists with no seeming connection to me is both freeing and worrying. Maybe I’m a worrywart.
Actually, I think I failed to notice the “in an hour” portion of thing-a-day, but I have a bit more free time than most, so I’m going to stick with my current plan. Mostly writing, with some photography, cooking and baking thrown in. Any word lists that are not used during February due to other projects, I have already promised twickster I will use after February.
Sounds like the 365 (or 366 this year) photo blogs. The idea is to take at least one photo every day of a year and then, sometimes the hard part, to post the photos regularly. I’ve just started my first one this year and its been an interesting experience so far. I usually take my camera with me where ever I go anyways, but there are still some days that I find myself in my room struggling to come up with a photo to take. I just did a count, seventeen of the twenty-nine photos posted so far were taken in my bedroom. It’s interesting to see what patterns appear with a project like this. Good luck with yours!
Hmmm. This is pretty cool. Lord knows I feel like I don’t have another hour in the day to squeeze something else into, but I can probably manage 20 minutes.
I thought in January I’d have the leisure to develop some new pieces/designs. HA! That was before I had my stuff accepted at a gallery that’s been bugging me for more stuff. I’ve been in relentless “crank out as much you can” mode.
But I have to do new things! So I’ll commit to keeping an art journal where I can fiddle with design ideas, keep swatches of color combinations I like, etc.
What a cool concept. I’ve been (very irregularly) working on a concept for organizing stuff I want to know more about (yeah, it’s rough). I want to see if I can define 29 different aspects of this in February. Maybe that’ll get me in the habit for longer…
That’s good to know, since I am planning to cook and bake and such.
But since the writing’s the priority, I don’t want to lose sight of that. I’m a terrible cook much of the time, but I want to get better. And it’s always easy to look up a recipe and claim I’m going to do that. Forcing myself to write is much harder. I love writing, to the point of being compelled to do it when I was younger. I’m not sure why that compulsion went away, but I’d love to write again, even if less dramatically (or well!).
So, I’m really looking forward to your words. Probably going to teach me to keep a dictionary nearby, eh?
There’s an old story about a pottery teacher who gave two classes different assignments – one would be graded based only on the number of bowls they made, the other only had to do 1 bowl all semester. The best work came from the quantity group.
Personally I never did learn how to throw a pot, and my paints are still in storage (due to time/space/mess issues). But I’ve been hand sewing a mosaic quilt instead. It’s wonderful - the process, not the result. The result is probably awful, I don’t know. Sucker is for our king-sized bed and nowhere near finished.
But how I love doing it. Takes me to the magical peaceful place.
I wasn’t planning to post the lists here, but anyone who wants to participate is welcome to read them over at thing-a-day: linky. As I say there – anyone who wants to use one of my lists for whatever creative function it may serve for them is welcome to – but pls. link any results back to my blog so we can see which how the ripples spread across the pond.
fessie – know what you mean about BIG projects – satisfying in so many ways, but not really right for “thing-a-day.” BlueKangaroo and I were talking about maybe knitting or crocheting one afghan square a day. I’ve been on a knitting kick recently – but am completing one project (my first sweater! ), and have started an interim “mindless enough to do while chatting with someone” project in addition to knowing what my next big project (afghan with long strips in different stitches) will be, so didn’t want to do knitting for my thing-a-day.
Sorry! I jumped into this thread last night but didn’t get around to actually signing up on Thing-a-day until this morning. Yes, as a matter of fact, I am a procrastinator! Why do you ask?
But I’m in the list now, and I just posted a pic of my “old” work.
I will simply say that I did okay for about the first half of the month, and then kept doing things but not documenting them for awhile longer, then just petered out. I am disappointed, but I have enjoyed the results of even the start of this. I’m still being more inclined to bake, cook, photograph and, of course, write. I’m still trying to figure out how to battle the distraction demons, but at least I’ve given myself permission to read more, like I used to.
So, a half-successful experiment. I’ll definitely be looking for TAD 2009.
), and have started an interim “mindless enough to do while chatting with someone” project in addition to knowing what my next big project (afghan with long strips in different stitches) will be, so didn’t want to do knitting for my thing-a-day.