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Oct. 24th, 2019 09:18 am
I actually wrote yesterday! I can't believe it! :D
I only had around 30 minutes after coming home to get some writing in, and though I was mightily tempted to make dinner and have my husband read the Dresden Files to me, I stuck with it. It wasn't much, just a plot-building conversation between Ralph and Rugel in "Crushing The Competition", but it felt good to dive into the heads of these characters and actually push things forward. I think I should be able to finish up this episode tonight and post it to the Patreon. From there, I'd really like to lean a lot further into lewdness.
One of the things I want to do is make sex and intimacy part of the story. I like the idea that it...reveals a character's personality, strengthens relationships, and gives us the opportunity to get more plot complications into the mix. The idea that sex is a casual part of this world, and that it's one of many ways to bond with someone, is intriguing. As someone who has been functionally asexual for a few years now, it's a way to construct a Platonic ideal of sexual intimacy and work out my own hangups about that. It's a little cliche to make writing a form of therapy, but...this is what I need for right now.
The day job is coming along really well. Yesterday, we actually caught up on all of our tickets and had nothing to do! It was bizarre. Ever since I was hired, we've been fighting a pretty significant backlog that had grown over the summer and trying to put out fires for our biggest client. Now, the fires are (mostly) gone, the backlog is clear, and we can turn our attention to the things I've been excited to do professionally for years now -- build a robust library of internal documentation for processes, help shape the tone of our customer-facing communication, even work on Help Center articles! What a time to be alive.
Of course, it's...pretty intimidating. My new company is one of those places that encourages you to take the bull by the horns and stamp your influence as much as possible. For the first time, I've been given the freedom to do what I want, how I want. It's time to put all those lessons from previous employers into practice.
That's also exciting, but now I have to be mindful of how...little I know with regards to business process, technical writing, and project management. Today, once I'm done with the current batch of tickets, I'm planning to draw up a few project proposals on what could be done to improve our little section of the company. I think that we could definitely stand to benefit from clear internal documentation about our workflow, the tools that we use to get things done, and where to go if something is needed. My colleague did a really great job with a lot of this work before going on medical leave -- solidifying it and making it more readily available is the next phase of the game.
One of the things that I'm trying to be aware of is my tendency to...over-commit. I want to make sure that these projects are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based -- SMART. By putting the project into that framework, hopefully I can get a better handle on what's reasonable and what's not, and really think about how much work each project will actually take. One of the reasons it's been hard to do this is because previous attempts at managing projects have been a bit...optimistic on how much work I can consistently do. If I actually set deadlines in more of a range than an absolute date, it might give me a better chance to actually succeed in what I'm doing.
It's taken an awfully long time to figure out how to adapt to my particular issues, and I'm not sure I've actually managed it yet. I'm still constantly forgetting things, and have difficulty pushing to do the things "past me" signed up for. My husband swears by the trick of "not giving myself a choice, of making a decision and not allowing myself to break that promise to myself." I like the sound of that, but in practice 'present me' just gets really resentful of 'past me' for putting myself in a situation to deliver things I had no idea if I'd be in the mood to deliver. I'm not sure how to deal with that aspect of it. Does past me make allowances for the possibility that I just won't be able to do the thing I've set up? Does present me just deal with the displeasure of doing something he doesn't want to do because I signed up for it in the past?
I'm leaning towards the latter, but with more gentle self-talk. I could coax myself into doing more, instead of taking a tough-love or berating approach. Maybe when it comes right down to it, I could do a better job of finding ways to motivate myself towards better behavior. Once I figure out what works, I can actually let others know how I work as well. It's a process of discovery, for sure, but absolutely one worth taking.
I only had around 30 minutes after coming home to get some writing in, and though I was mightily tempted to make dinner and have my husband read the Dresden Files to me, I stuck with it. It wasn't much, just a plot-building conversation between Ralph and Rugel in "Crushing The Competition", but it felt good to dive into the heads of these characters and actually push things forward. I think I should be able to finish up this episode tonight and post it to the Patreon. From there, I'd really like to lean a lot further into lewdness.
One of the things I want to do is make sex and intimacy part of the story. I like the idea that it...reveals a character's personality, strengthens relationships, and gives us the opportunity to get more plot complications into the mix. The idea that sex is a casual part of this world, and that it's one of many ways to bond with someone, is intriguing. As someone who has been functionally asexual for a few years now, it's a way to construct a Platonic ideal of sexual intimacy and work out my own hangups about that. It's a little cliche to make writing a form of therapy, but...this is what I need for right now.
The day job is coming along really well. Yesterday, we actually caught up on all of our tickets and had nothing to do! It was bizarre. Ever since I was hired, we've been fighting a pretty significant backlog that had grown over the summer and trying to put out fires for our biggest client. Now, the fires are (mostly) gone, the backlog is clear, and we can turn our attention to the things I've been excited to do professionally for years now -- build a robust library of internal documentation for processes, help shape the tone of our customer-facing communication, even work on Help Center articles! What a time to be alive.
Of course, it's...pretty intimidating. My new company is one of those places that encourages you to take the bull by the horns and stamp your influence as much as possible. For the first time, I've been given the freedom to do what I want, how I want. It's time to put all those lessons from previous employers into practice.
That's also exciting, but now I have to be mindful of how...little I know with regards to business process, technical writing, and project management. Today, once I'm done with the current batch of tickets, I'm planning to draw up a few project proposals on what could be done to improve our little section of the company. I think that we could definitely stand to benefit from clear internal documentation about our workflow, the tools that we use to get things done, and where to go if something is needed. My colleague did a really great job with a lot of this work before going on medical leave -- solidifying it and making it more readily available is the next phase of the game.
One of the things that I'm trying to be aware of is my tendency to...over-commit. I want to make sure that these projects are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based -- SMART. By putting the project into that framework, hopefully I can get a better handle on what's reasonable and what's not, and really think about how much work each project will actually take. One of the reasons it's been hard to do this is because previous attempts at managing projects have been a bit...optimistic on how much work I can consistently do. If I actually set deadlines in more of a range than an absolute date, it might give me a better chance to actually succeed in what I'm doing.
It's taken an awfully long time to figure out how to adapt to my particular issues, and I'm not sure I've actually managed it yet. I'm still constantly forgetting things, and have difficulty pushing to do the things "past me" signed up for. My husband swears by the trick of "not giving myself a choice, of making a decision and not allowing myself to break that promise to myself." I like the sound of that, but in practice 'present me' just gets really resentful of 'past me' for putting myself in a situation to deliver things I had no idea if I'd be in the mood to deliver. I'm not sure how to deal with that aspect of it. Does past me make allowances for the possibility that I just won't be able to do the thing I've set up? Does present me just deal with the displeasure of doing something he doesn't want to do because I signed up for it in the past?
I'm leaning towards the latter, but with more gentle self-talk. I could coax myself into doing more, instead of taking a tough-love or berating approach. Maybe when it comes right down to it, I could do a better job of finding ways to motivate myself towards better behavior. Once I figure out what works, I can actually let others know how I work as well. It's a process of discovery, for sure, but absolutely one worth taking.
