I saw a meme the other day- January was so long that February is already half over and no one noticed. I’m in that boat. I was supposed to report on my January efforts for the bingo card, and here we are, halfway through February before I write and post it. It does mean I can give a bit of a sneak preview of February.
Let’s look at January
Journaling
While I am not journaling as much as would be desired, I am doing more than I used to. I’m not a journaling kind of person, never have been. But I am being told by many people it is a good thing, so I am going to try it.
This series of articles I am writing is a form of journaling for me. So combine this, with the 2 or 3 times a week I have squeezed into January, it’s a move forward.
Podcasts
I have found a few podcasts about writing, including The Creative Penn podcast. I’m not one who can handle a 60 minute podcast, I tend to have my attention wander, but Joanna Penn’s I listened to.
But, upon catching up with my wife, she says the point of the podcast challenge is to expand the type of podcast I listen to so it’s not just about writing. I need to do some more searching on this.
Lego Build
I’ve got 5 Lego builds on my Bingo card, and looking at the pile of sets still in the box, that should be an easy score. I just need a place to put them all. I was gifted a Ferrari F50 for Christmas. So I
built that and it sits with the other cars in our little showroom in the lounge. So one out of five ain’t bad there.
Creative Prompts
I scored my first gold star with this. The original plan was to work out some macros to help randomise my epic genre prompt boards. However, I discovered a website that specialises in helping you create random generators – Perchance. There is some basic coding involved, but I used templates and figured things out by breaking them and fixing them.
After some fiddling and fixing, I got a selection of my genres up as random tables! I currently have four genres up on my Written Off Writing website- go check them out!
Articles on Websites
Yes for these. It is going to be a year-long endeavour, so I could have put- once a month- as a caveat, but I didn’t. For January I posted an article about overcoming your fear of beginning. I am working on the behind-the-scenes stuff for this website and will be adding some professional writing work to my portfolio, as I may be doing some freelance writing work.
Op Shop Adventures
We ventured to Dandenong and did some op shops down there. It was a hot and windy day, so it wasn’t very inviting, but I discovered the Waverly Antique Bazaar. I also found a cool antique and assorted shop in Lilydale, where I bought a Funko Pop of Drunk Thor, for just $5. People thought I had it custom-made because it looks so much like me!
Miniature Painting
I started and I tried. I’ve organised with my friends to get back into it on a Thursday night. I’ve hit a few hurdles and realise I need to do a lot of learning to get back to where I was, or to get as good as I want to be.
I also discovered this massive gap in my creative brain involving visual art. I can write, but visual art fails me. I was holding this mini in my hand, and I had no clue what colours I wanted to paint it. So I am going to draw back and get into basics.
- Find some online tutorials for basic painting.
- Buy some cheap miniatures to practice and paint.
- Think and plan the colour scheme before I start painting.
- We have some colour-matching books to help with that.
- Practice and learn by doing.
Libraries and Cafes
This is called “changing the scene”. I am exploring the libraries in my area. The cool thing about my maps app is not only does it show me libraries, but it shows me street libraries, which is another square on my bingo card.
I have worked out that I need to decide what I am going to write BEFORE I get to the library, or else I will just twiddle my thumbs. I finished a chapter in my Urban Fantasy Murder Mystery, finished 3rd edition of Chapter 1 in my Weird West, and wrote an article. I have many things in the writing oven, I just need to choose one to do before I arrive else I can’t decide.
Coffee Sundays
I’ve rediscovered my single French press, so that works. I have also been told that I can grind up a lot more than just one press worth of beans, and keep them in an air-tight jar. So my Sunday coffee ritual is now stretching through the week, thanks to an old vegemite jar.
This is what I achieved for January. I think the excitement of it launched me forward. There are things I could have done but didn’t, such as make a cheesecake, or put up some floating shelves. But they will happen. I am so happy that I scored a gold star though, that was probably my biggest win for the month.
If you want to get involved with this, send me an email and we can talk about creative accountability!