Story- Chapter 3- planning

 

“Of all the tasks which are set before man in life, the education and management of his character is the most important, and, in order that it should be successfully pursued, it is necessary that he should make a calm and careful survey of his own tendencies, unblinded either by the self-deception which conceals errors and magnifies excellences, or by the indiscriminate pessimism which refuses to recognize his powers for good. He must avoid the fatalism which would persuade him that he has no power over his nature, and he must also clearly recognize that this power is not unlimited.”
- The Map of Life, William Edward Hartpole Lecky

Even though this is posting with a January date I didn't actually get around to writing it until March 10th. Thing is I like stuff to be in order and the way I planned it to be... and seeing as blogger allows me to back date my posts I can do that. Is it cheating? Yeah probably, but it's my blog and I can therefore do pretty much what I like with it! :-)
But in saying that it makes the quote above which I chose back in January quite pertinent. If I am surveying my own tendencies as the quote recommends there's a bit of self-deception in this. The fact that I am writing this also tells me a lot about how I work my life. In blocks. I tend to need to work at things in chunks- I'll set up a bunch of blog posts to publish over a course of weeks and then go off and do something else all but forgetting the blog till the time when I know it'll run out of posts ready to go. Then hopefully I'll have the time to get back to it. And it's not just blog posts. I've just caught up 6 weeks worth of my 365 project. And recently completed another job that I have had on my to do list for almost 5 years. I had worked on it in chunks over those years and always waited to find a block of time in which I could reasonably expect to finish the job. It never came. In the end it made it to the top 5 items on my 'Guilt list' and I shelved everything else to get it done.
So how does this contribute to my story? Are there positives? Are there negatives?
One of the positives is that I think I am more efficient if I work in blocks like that- I am on the same task for a decent period of time and so am more likely to be focussed and also to remember all the aspects of the task I need to do and all the ideas that I have had around the task- so long as I can get it completed.
One of the negatives is that with 4 children including one still at home during the day large blocks of time are few and far between in my life without a lot of late nights- and therefore lost sleep- something that also negatively impacts my story and that of those around me.
Another negative about doing memory keeping in blocks- which is what blogging most often is for me- is that I lose details and the smaller stories that make up the whole. These stories within my story are often the ones that bring the most feeling to my life. Excitement, laughter, joy... these things in my life are delivered in small moments. From a funny thing someone has said to quite simply a look exchanged between Les and I when one of the kids has done something that only the two of us would really find remarkable.
What's the answer? I think maybe my story needs an outline- an idea of how I want my plot to develop. I need to plan. And follow the plan too. This is no better illustrated to me at the end of the weekend. I spend the week not being able to complete or even start some tasks. I think to myself that Les will be home on the weekend and I can do it then. But with no plan I spend the weekend dithering about Les' need for time out, the children's needs that I should meet and seem never to be able to get much done because 'taking' the time for 'myself' (and it isn't always or necessarily for me) creates guilt. For our story and my story to be balanced and satisfying we need to plan. I need to schedule in the routine- so that it become so much like habit that they almost seem to disappear into the setting of my story- and then the delicious details can stand out from the mire.
The other thing I need to remember is not to start another big project till the last one is finished.

♥