Use it or lose it but keep going<3
There is a particular kind of sleek, slippery procrastination that feels like I’m Actually Doing Something.
The usual suspects include…
researching
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saving links
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exploring plot structures
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making Pinterest boards
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researching 🦄 saving links 🦄 exploring plot structures 🦄 making Pinterest boards 🦄
A bit of a hoard, you might say.
Now, to be clear, I’m not shaming anyone here. Creative people often have hoards. Not always huge ones, though let us be honest, sometimes huge. (Mine are huge)
On top of this…what if you’re into what can feel like way too many things? Are you careening from half-finished projects to shiny new ones and then back again? Do you feel genuinely guilty every time you pass the half-finished project sitting there forlorn, gathering dust?
Me too! Hooray!
I don’t have a product or a book or a course I can try and hawk to you to solve this problem BUT I have some ideas on either revitalising the project or throwing it in the bin:
For a physical art project
Gather 10 existing fragments: notes, scraps, photos, drafts, colours, or materials. 10 sounds like a lot? Maybe 3 or 6. 8? Or any pretty number, really.
Make one new piece using only those fragments.
What else is lying around, hopefully waiting for the day you remember you own it? (use it, the day is today).
For a story
Ban new research for 7 days
Stuck? Find 1 old sentence that still feels alive and build a new paragraph around it.
Even stucker? Cut the piece out into paragraphs and move them around into some bizarro version of itself.⬇️
You can see this in action with the body of work Unfolding Slowly. It’s as much about letting go as it is about paper, thread, and found treasures. Reminder: there’s a step-by-step bookbinding video tutorial you can follow with:
Look at what you have and let go of things, even if it’s only a tiny amount of them. Then use the others to make gremlins. 👾👾
Signing off, stay safe my friends,
Jessica
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Wanna slow down?
Pause and Create: a ‘slow art’ starter kit workbook zine
Free workbook zine download. No fancy rituals needed; this is just a zine for grounding and slowing down. Print, read, create, breathe, rest.