Just Create - Lacuna Edition

[silvercat17]

What are you working on? What have you finished? What do you need encouragment on? Are there any cool events or challenges happening that you want to hype? What do you just want to talk about?

Chores and other not-fun things count!

Remember to encourage other commenters and we have a discord where we can do work-alongs and stuff, linked in the sticky

Comments

[genderphasing]

getting my site into better shape. this time last week it was all written by hand, but as of now it's partially automated, and i'm working on getting it fully automated today and tomorrow.

[the_broken_tower]

Needing to scrapbook for memory-tending purposes but not knowing quite where or how.

- Lorraine (he/him)

[cornerofmadness]

trying to clean the house and also working on several deadline stories

[silvercat17]

I did laundry today and finished 3d modeling a knife that is completely original and not at all inspired by a well-known knife that can transform into a sword that is carried by a lion-person. ORIGINAL CHARACTER DO NOT STEAL

[zenigotchas]

How difficult is 3d modeling? That's always seemed like a cool skill to have.

[fred_mouse]

poking at lots of projects, making relatively steady progress as long as I don't think about how many projects I'm doing Just One Thing on!

[dianec42]

Plugging away at cross stitch projects, posting over at https://nacramamo.dreamwidth.org/.

Grudgingly accepting that I need to learn time management so I can actually get stuff done, but a bit stuck on where to start.

[zenigotchas]

NaCraMaMo looked/looks fun I wish I could join in! I haven't officially followed the group yet but I've been popping in every now and then to see what's been happening, it seems like a lot of stuff is being done.

I might be able to help with some of the time manegment stuff. Potentially. Exactly what angle are you struggling with right now?

[readera]

I haven't worked on any fun crafts recently but I've been doing some cooking. Yesterday I made maple pecan cookies. https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/maple-brown-sugar-cookies/
They turned out well but we wanted cookies Now so I didn't bother with the icing.

I also made a whole soy sauce chicken with rice & steamed broccoli. I need to strip the meat off the carcass for easier access & so I can make stock out of the carcass. I'm trying to hype myself up to get it done.

I need to put my mixer back together before I can do much baking. Its also our blender so there are a few of our usual recipes that are not do-able until I get that fixed.

[zenigotchas]

Wtf that sounds delicious. I love experimenting with new cooking, do you have any particular aims here or is this more for fun?

[readera]

It's mostly for fun and adding to our diet on a limited budget. I'm on unemployment atm so we eat out very infrequently. Whole chickens are the cheapest way to buy chicken and I'm not great at butchering it into parts. We got tired of plain roast chicken fairly quickly. Here is the soy sauce chicken recipe : https://thewoksoflife.com/soy-sauce-chicken/ & here is the broccoli recipe. It has a sauce that keeps it from being super plain. https://thewoksoflife.com/steamed-broccoli-recipe/

I've enjoyed baking cookies for a while now and I'm trying to branch out of my usual chocolate chip cookie. I started baking bread during the pandemic & its fun.

[zenigotchas]

I FINISHED A FANFIC IN ONLY A FEW DAYS HAHAHAHAHA. And here I thought being a plotter would slow me down! It is a 3 sentence styled fic so I've never done that before so even if I'm not gaga about the final form? I've got a lot of joy out of making it and am proud of myself for sticking to it even though I was nervous about trying something new. (EDIT: You can read it here https://zenigotchas.dreamwidth.org/360111.html)

Anyway I can tell I had fun because I really REALLY want to turn this into a longer fic. A little look into the pysche of two people who have more in common than they'd ever admit to themselves.

The original fiction plods on! I am having so much fun filling out this skeleton. I don't think the end result is going to be the greatest, but you shouldn't try to start by making your magnum opus anyway SO.

I'm learning how to live with executive dysfunction better. My current aim is to figure out a bare minimum or 1% I can do everyday so on days I feel confused and unsure what to do or don't have any time or spoons to get big daily work done, I can still say I've been making progress on things I want to commit to.

My plans for my next drawing training arc are well! I'm proud of myself for that <3 I will be practicing perspective drawing because I'm not good at that yet.

[heya_baru]

Finished a blog post about the politics of asylums in horror films: https://heya-baru.dreamwidth.org/2465.html

Progress on my next story is slow, but it is happening.

[light_of_summer]

I made digital drawings for two more Drawtober challenge prompts, "Foxy" and "Window," though I still need to upload and post the latter.

I worked more on my apazine. (It's actually done, now, but that happened in the small hours of Tuesday the 22nd, local time—that is, in the new week, not last week.)

And I mailed the promised donation knitting to the identified collection point. I also started another try at the next piece of donation knitting, but the start is always the most difficult part of this pattern, for me, and I had to frog it. I might try it again, soon, but we'll see.

In this new week, I plan to inventory my stock of nutritional supplements and then place an order for what I'll need for the next six months. I also have my yearly mammogram screening appointment. I hope to successfully balance my checkbook and then promptly pay some bills. I want to do some drawing and/or photography. And I'll aim to try something new to get myself to make some progress on some household upkeep tasks.

[zenigotchas]

You've been busy! How did you manage to find time and balance for all of that? I'm genuinely curious to hear about your productivity process

I hope all is well on the medical front.

[light_of_summer]

Ah, it's kind of you to say that—it doesn't feel very balanced to me!

Let's see if I can tell you anything useful about my productivity process:

First, some caveats—I'm not in the workforce, and I live alone and am not dating anyone romantically, so my experience is likely to vary from a lot of people's. It is possible (though not wise) for me to ignore dishes and laundry and a certain amount of sleep, etc., in favor of writing or drawing.

That being said, things that help me be productive include:

1. Participating in an online 12-Step group for procrastinators, which provides me with a place to state my intentions and report my progress, and know that my efforts are being witnessed by people who can relate to struggling with challenges.

2. Participating in a weekly Zoom work-session support group for writers. This runs for two hours or so on Saturday nights, with five minutes taken for checking in at each of {start, midpoint, and end}, with the rest of the two hours being devoted to working on our individial writing projects.

3. In the past, I've done significant amounts of knitting during social events and at actual knitting groups. Once I get past my current pattern-start challenge, I expect to be able to knit during social Zooms, again, until I need to do another challenging bit of knitting.

4. When I am planning or creating or otherwise making notes, I often listen to background music that I know I like. When I'm writing anything, I generally choose music that is either instrumental or sung in a language I don't know. For art and handwork, background music with words that I understand is usually OK, too, or I sometimes choose to listen to a familiar audiobook or a low-emotional-stakes podcast, instead of music. Pleasant listening can also help me get through dishes and laundry and such. I use Bluetooth headphones if the task is noisy enough to interfere with the listening I want to do.

5. I have a monthly "project date" with a friend, in which we do some socializing and some mutual support for working on things we each need to do. And, occasionally, we'll collaborate on a project, or offer each other our help with particular projects that started out as individual ones.

Let me know if you have questions about any of that! (But please send me a direct message, rather than commenting, here, for questions about any of the more personal or touchy items I've mentioned, above.)

Re medical matters: I do have ongoing health issues that require significant management, but I'm doing OK, medically, all things considered. Thanks for your good wishes about that, and thanks for witnessing and commenting!