slow and steady – Jamie DeBree

I wrote my first novel 250 words at a time, during commercial breaks while watching TV in the evenings. I used to put puzzles together on a regular basis, working on them for a few hours every Saturday, and then putting it away for the next week. Those were the days when TV was only live, and you had to wait a week between episodes to find out what happened next, and wait through 15 minutes of disbursed commercial breaks to get through 45 minutes of programming.

Information was starting to be available online, but it still took time to dial into the internet, and then electronic traffic was slower, so clicking a link or typing in an address meant waiting a few minutes each time for the forum or rudimentary website to load (much longer for an image). Call waiting was barely a thing, and cell phones just starting to be accessible, so making a call still generally had to wait until you were somewhere you could either borrow or pay to use a telephone, or until you got home or to work.

The commonality in all of this is the patience required simply to move through the average day. One simply had to be patient and persistent to get things done. There was no binging a whole season of a show at a time, at least not until the season was completely finished, after which you could buy the whole set if you really wanted to. No calling up someone while you’re out shopping, or texting someone instead of waiting to talk to them when they (or you) get home. No typing in a query to Google and instantly getting page after page of information back before you can even blink.

These days, everything is faster and more efficient, but it’s also really changed my expectations not only of the world around me, but of the demands I place on myself – and the latter is not necessarily for the better. My attention span has shortened, and my persistence along with it. I don’t like that about myself, but it’s a difficult thing to rewire the brain, especially when the entire world is screaming that you have to work faster, faster, faster. That slowing down and pacing yourself is lazy, inefficient, and unproductive.

However, I really believe that constant go go go/faster faster faster attitude is unhealthy, stressful, and ultimately less productive than taking a slower, more measured approach. So I am working to rewire my brain. Focusing on measured, steady progress, rather than how many words I can write in 15 minutes, or how much cleaning I can get done in one hour. Working on creating maintainable routines, rather than whirlwind frantic “sessions” that burn me out by the end.

I’ve been writing a lot more lately. Working at my writing desk, on my Freewrite without distractions, and even Election night, I managed to get around 400 words in before bed. I’m working on short drafts at the moment – four flash fiction drafts that I really want to finish before the end of the month. I have two done, and by the end of the week when this post goes up, I will probably have finished a third. I’m using these to create the routine, and then I’ll go back to working on my main novel drafts three nights per week, and short fiction one night per week. I’m not striving for specific word counts, just writing for a set time, and the words I get down are the words I get down. I find it rather calming, not worrying about how much I get done. It puts the fun back in the activity, and gives me a satisfying sense of relaxation late in the evening before I plan out the next day and read a little before bed.

I’m also working on my deeper cleaning skills, one kitchen cabinet door at a time. Every night before writing time, I clean the kitchen. And now, at the tail end of that when I’m wiping down my counters, I wipe down one (just one) cabinet door. It’s actually hard to stop at one, because it’s been so long since they were clean, and I just want to rush through and clean them all at once, and then start my “one nightly” routine, but the thing that motivates me to keep going right now is that the next one is still visibly dirty. That dirt is what drives me nuts (and has been for months), but it’s also what’s driving me to clean a door every night, instead of being lazy and skipping if I just don’t feel like it or am in a hurry or whatever.

So I’ll continue to stop myself after just one, and by the time I finish going all the way around my kitchen, I’ll have cleaned a door a day for nearly 22 days. That should be enough time to cement the routine into my nightly muscle memory, and after that, it should be easy to just continue wiping down a door every night, and keeping them much cleaner than they have been in years.

I’m employing this pacing wherever I can – at work, to my piles of paper that need to be dealt with at home, other cleaning tasks, etc. Training my brain to take things once piece at a time, and not rushing to do too many things at once, but rather to focus on what I’m doing *at that moment*, and creating routines wherever possible. I’ve really noticed a shift over the last few weeks in my stress levels (for the better), and contrary to what it seems like, I’m actually getting more done, rather than less.

Efficiency is not a bad thing, and I do use tools whenever I can to make my life easier and get things done more quickly. But patience and persistence are “life skills” I was starting to lose, and I’m glad I decided to work on developing them again.

Now if I can just apply the same principle to getting my blog posted weekly and a monthly newsletter going again, I’ll feel *really* accomplished.

One other thing – I do have an account on Bluesky (since it seems that’s the new Twitter, and it does feel like “the old days”). Feel free to follow me at jamiedebreemt.bsky.social. I’m currently just posting a daily writing word in the morning, followed by a bit of micro-fiction using that word at night (I’ll probably start posting these on FB as well), but you never know. I may post something witty at some point. Odds are good if you don’t post a lot of political stuff, I’ll probably follow you back, too.

That’s it! Until next time,

Support your author:

Happy New Year!

Yes, I know we’re already a week in, but so far, 2023 is coming in like the proverbial March lion. I’m still optimistic, though. I’m hoping that we’re just getting all the hard stuff out of the way early, so we can cruise through the rest of the year. One can only hope, right?

Just to be up front, the serial novels will not continue here in serial form. It’s too much day-to-day pressure for me, so, I’m backing up a bit. I am planning to finish Magpie Shiny this year, but on a slightly different writing schedule. My apologies to anyone that disappoints – I shouldn’t have started the serials up again in the first place…but I got a little swept up in actually making good progress there for awhile.

That said, I finally made the time last week to figure out what I’m going to focus on for the next year, and these are my “Big Three”:

– Weekday Quiet Time: 11:30pm – 12:20am
Next day planning, Journaling, and Reading

– Weekday Mindful Movement
One balance exercise, and one dexterity exercise or craft practice daily.

– Weekly Flash/Micro Story
One story no longer than 1k words written weekly throughout the year. Must be started and completed in the same week, not including final edits.

When I sat down and thought about the last year, I considered all the experimentation I did, specifically with writing/publishing. There were highs and lows, which are always easier to remember, but there was a mid-point too, where I was (as always) frustrated to not be moving faster, but I was also making very good progress on my projects – steady, meaningful progress. I wasn’t journaling last year, so it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the shift happened, but if I remember right, it was early to mid summer when I decided that I was doing well enough with my new routines that I could handle a few more things.

I also got enamored with the idea that if I did just a few *more* things than that, I could potentially make more money. And that was part of the experiment too – to see if I could make more money last year than I had the year before (no, I haven’t done my taxes yet, and I won’t until I get our investment account statements, so it’ll be awhile before I know if I managed that). So I left the “smooth sailing” behind for more experimentation and…that was the beginning of the end/burnout.

So this year, I don’t want that to happen again. I want to find a smooth, easy writing and publishing rhythm, and ride that all the way to the end of the year. I want to make good progress in a sustainable way, while still leaving myself time for hobbies and reading and the other things in life that make me happy.

The one micro-story per week is just to give myself a regular deadline that isn’t stressful or difficult to achieve. Consider it an affirmation that I still want to keep writing, and I will keep writing, and working on a couple of novels after I start each week with a warm-up story.

I also don’t want to get hurt as much this year – hence the “mindful movement” resolution. This year, I’m going to focus on maintaining my balance and dexterity. Neither of which are foolproof ways to not get hurt, but they are good ways to safeguard against major injuries from any number of minor things that could happen while I’m dealing with bouncy dogs or just walking down the sidewalk (I mean, you never know).

And of course, my nightly quiet time, which will take a chunk out of my normal scheduled writing time, but I feel like it’s necessary for maintaining good mental health going forward, and also for maintaining my ability to both write and be effective at work – both requiring different types and levels of creativity throughout the day, depending.

So those are my Big Three resolutions for the year. I have other, smaller goals that I’ll also be working towards, but these three get priority. I feel good about them, and as rough as this year’s starting, I still feel optimistic about where I’ll be at the end.

And that’s the important thing, really.

Do you have any goals or resolutions you’d like to share?

Next week, it’s time to “go big or go home”. Or is it?

Jamie DeBree

Writer | DBA | Dog Wrangler

Articles

Rewiring: One Door at a Time

Resolutions 2023