Social media and Morning Pages: my latest writing drains

[chanaleh]

So, so tired, you guys. So tired. And I haven't been posting to LJ because somehow, in the past 2 weeks, I magically became one of those 21st-century creations known as a full-time Social Media Professional. Though you may have noticed that I'm now on Twitter and, if I must incriminate myself, Foursquare. :-} But, thus I spend a lot more time making micro-posts and sharing links (on both my own behalf and my employer's), but a lot less actually putting words through the keyboard.

I must say that this is partly due to the fact that we get lunch at my workplace, and it comes on these wide cafeteria trays that (no joke) make it difficult to type while eating lunch!

And partly it's also that the writing class I've been taking (four sessions down, two to go) gave us the standing assignment of hand-writing "morning pages" in a journal every day, à la Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. Which is good in that it gives me a place to get out emotional stuff I wouldn't feel comfortable putting out here (and believe me we have plenty of that going on right now), but it also eats up the 30-40 minutes each morning in which I might otherwise be writing something on LJ. -- Like right now, except that I went in early for a meeting yesterday, so I don't feel any compunction about being a little later today. :-)

In terms of actual class assignments to turn in, I'm trying to write a short-short story (weekly assignments are 500 words) about the guitar lesson gremionis gave me after we had dinner last week. He said I clearly need a guitar. Maybe. :-)

Shabbat dinner invite tonight, which I'm looking forward to! Hoping to have some chill time this weekend (it doesn't seem to happen much, even now), and to catch up on sleep (ditto).

Comments

[moria923.livejournal.com]

I managed to do a few weeks of morning pages back in 2004. "The Artist's Way" ws a project I took up for Lent and failed to see through. I recently reread those morning pages. It was nice to look back in detail on a few weeks of my life: there was stuff there about books I'd been reading, about the gay marriage debate in Mass., about my feelings toward our then housemate. There was also plenty about how I didn't really want to be doing morning pages.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Interesting. We've been a check-in at the beginning of each class about our use of the creativity tools (of which this is one), and it keeps surprising me how many people express real psychological resistance to doing the morning pages. I mean, I understand having trouble being willing to get up half an hour earlier, but the process itself? What's to resist? What could be more freeform? Then again, fluency of self-articulation is rarely my problem. :-}

Also, funnily enough, about half the time (especially nearer the beginning of the practice) I would pick up the notebook and find myself singing "Morning Glow" ("Morning pages fill the earth, come and write for all you're worth... Oh morning pages, I've -- something -- you for ages..."). Which indirectly makes me think of you, of course. :-)

[desireearmfeldt]

Nothing intelligent to say, but hello out there!

[musicjill.livejournal.com]

yeah; guitar! I need to get mine out more.

go to a place where they fit you properly.

mine seems a little big; but then that just encourages me to capo up; which isn't so bad as that's where my singing range is anyways....

for the beginning; you may want to rent a classical which is easier on the fingers than a steel string. then maybe switch to a steel string later. it's what I did; but you may want to ask others for advice as ymmv.

good luck!

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the update! I have been wondering how things were going over there. Glad it seems like a nice place to work.

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

As a Social Media wonk, you may enjoy these stats: http://adage.com/article/adagestat/stats-day-50-social-media-stats-kickstart-slide-deck/231093/

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

I think you misspelled "wank".

(Also, thanks! I will add this to the slate of fun links for my next entry. :-)

[tallou.livejournal.com]

If you decide you need a guitar, my husband has found several really good basic guitars by looking at MusiciansFriend.com level 1 and 2 (and maybe 3) used guitars. He says "I've been really impressed by the quality-for-money of their Deans - both the bass and I think the 12-string are both those."

[cos]

So... you're not posting to your blog much because you're working in social media? :)

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

What I'm saying. :-D

[cycon.livejournal.com]

Is it bad that that actually makes coherent sense to me?

[taylweaver.livejournal.com]

So glad you were at dinner! I hope it helped you unwind. Oddly, given all the singing we did, the morning pages song was one you shared with us.

I am an evening journaller - I write in my journal before bed, which clears my head a bit so I can sleep better (usually. Sometimes, it gets me more worked up). I have a friend who does morning pages for emotional well-being, though. She said there's something about writing first thing in the morning, when your mind isn't fully awake yet that changes what ends up on the page.

I think part of your classmates' resistance to it may have to do with how much time it takes, though. I think my friend only spends 10-20 minutes on it, not 30-40.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Apparently we didn't get up to Pippin, then!!

Yes, my instructor has said that about the morning-brain effect. There are other practices that elicit different effects, of course.

And, the daily assignment (goal) as stated is to write "three pages", longhand. This generally takes me a solid half-hour to accomplish, even if I write continuously. (If I make a concerted effort to do it as "muscle work" and concentrate on spewing out words rather than assembling thoughts, it goes a little faster, though not much.) But I've been stealing from my alloted time a fair bit, unfortunately, so most days this week I've only managed to do two pages before I had to put it down and get going.