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v-thinks-on · 5 years ago

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We Know That We Need, But Not What - Part 2

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“Not a trace of the Romulans, as far as we could tell,” Scotty reported as Kirk relieved him of the captain’s chair.

Kirk nodded. “Set course for outpost five - I want to get to them all.”

“Sir, with all due respect, I believe we’re closer to outpost seven now,” Sulu said.

Kirk tensed, but he knew better. He kept his voice level as he answered, “Thank you. Plot the most efficient route, helmsman. And I want to check on any Federation planets along the way.”

“Yes, sir.” Sulu complied.

The story on outpost seven was the same as on six: “We haven’t seen any Romulans, but I don’t know who else could be scattering the sensors and breaking into our computers.”

After Kirk signed off, Spock remarked, “Captain, it is illogical to waste time searching for the Romulans when we know where they have been already and are likely to return.”

“We don’t know that, Commander,” Kirk snapped before he could stop himself.

“It is only logical.” Spock sounded exasperated with his foolishness.

“I’m not going to wait around an outpost until the Romulans happen to show up! We’re here to patrol and gather information and that’s what we’re going to do,” Kirk insisted.

“You are allowing your emotions to interfere with your reason.”

“Your opinion has been noted, Commander.” With that, Kirk turned to face forward and forced himself to take a deep breath. A little more calmly, he ordered, “Mr. Sulu, onto the next outpost.”

If Sulu and Chekov exchanged a glance, Kirk pretended not to notice.

On their way to outpost four, they stopped by a Federation planet, where they were greeted with a less than warm welcome: “No, we haven’t seen anything. If the Romulans were up to something we’d know it. We don’t need a Federation warship interfering with our business.”

“We’re here to help,” Kirk attempted, but to no avail.

Even Spock put in, “It is not logical to refuse our assistance.”

Kirk shot his first officer a warning glare and faced the planet’s head of state on the viewscreen, “If you don’t want our assistance, so be it. We’ll be in the sector if you change your mind, otherwise, you can deal with the Romulans directly.” He signaled for Uhura to close the channel and ordered the helm to continue on their way.

“Jim,” Dr. McCoy cautioned.

Kirk shot him a warning glance too.

Dr. McCoy frowned. “A word, Captain?”

Kirk let out a huff of air and his glare faltered. “I know,” he admitted, “You’re right.” Even though Decker was gone, Jim was still competing with anyone and everyone who questioned his authority, and they both knew it.

“You bet I am,” the doctor retorted.

They continued on to the next outpost. No outpost or Federation planet had much more to report than Kirk had already heard. Some detected more disturbances and others less - all of the incident reports were uploaded into the Enterprise computers - but the Romulans had left no concrete evidence of their presence behind.

Kirk called all the senior officers for a conference. Once they were all gathered around the table he declared, “I want answers.”

“All of the glitches and strange readings are probably not a coincidence,” Chekov concluded.

“Thank you, Mr. Chekov,” Kirk replied with a sardonic smile. “Anyone else?”

“They could be leftover from V’Ger,” Uhura suggested.

“I don’t think so,” Scotty said with a shake of his head. “Nowhere else has reported aftershocks like this.”

“The only logical conclusion,” Spock put in, “Is that Romulan vessels have crossed the Neutral Zone and are trespassing on Federation space.”

“Vessels?” Chekov exclaimed. “You mean more than one?”

“Yes,” Spock replied. “I do not believe that only one ship would be capable of causing all of the disturbances reported; multiple disturbances have been reported at distant outposts in exceedingly close succession. Furthermore, if the Romulan Empire truly intends to take advantage of the Federation’s temporary inhibition, it is highly unlikely they would send an invasion force of a single ship.”

Kirk crossed his arms over his chest and took a step toward Spock. “You think this is the beginning of an invasion?”

“Given our knowledge of their history and culture, I find any alternative highly unlikely,” Spock replied. “Unlike humans, Romulans do not allow themselves to be ruled by their passions, but they harness them with warlike notions of duty and glory. They will take any evidence of weakness as an excuse for violence.”

Kirk gave him a skeptical look, but let the insult to humanity slide as he turned the possibility over in his mind. At last he asked, “If you’re right, what would they do next?”

“Once they have ascertained the Federation’s weakness, they will launch a full assault, prioritizing ostentatious prizes such as outposts,” Spock answered.

“What I don’t understand,” Chekov remarked, “Is if they wanted to take an outpost, why wait for a starship to arrive to defend it?”

“Maybe we’re the ‘prize’ they’re after,” Sulu suggested.

Scotty nodded. “Aye, the Enterprise would be worthy.”

“You haven’t picked up anything on the sensors?” Kirk glanced between Chekov and Spock.

“No, sir,” Chekov replied.

Scotty peered at Kirk, as though he could see the gears turning in his head. “What is it, sir?”

Kirk shook his head. “Just a hunch.”

Spock’s eyebrows rose in disbelief.

Before anyone else could question him, Kirk said, “Meeting adjourned. Return to your stations.”

Kirk followed the others out of the conference room and back to the bridge.

When his shift was over, Kirk returned to his quarters, but he had more important things to do than sleep. He sat down at the table and ordered, “Computer, I want all the incident reports from the planets and outposts along the Neutral Zone.”

The next day, they continued going from outpost to outpost. Kirk sat on the bridge, attempting to read more technical manuals as he waited. But somehow as the hours had passed, he started to feel like he was wading through thick, hazy soup, even though the bridge had been nothing but quiet all day - but maybe that was the problem.

He read the sentence again as though he would understand it better after another attempt. It was something about dilithium storage, but what he couldn’t tell. He hadn’t really understood the rest of the paragraph either and he was considering starting the whole section again, or maybe better yet, giving up the whole thing as a bad job.

Finally, he put aside his reading and rubbed at his face to try to wake himself up a little, but he only succeeded at stifling a yawn. He could feel the bridge crew’s eyes on him, even as they worked at their stations. He knew Spock could hear his every move with those sharp Vulcan ears.

Kirk just needed to get up and do something. “Spock, you have the con,” he declared, and took a turbo lift down to engineering before anyone could protest.

“Captain, what’re you doing down here?” Scotty exclaimed at the sight of Kirk meandering around the engines.

Kirk gave him a smile. “I’ve been doing some reading and thought I might see the dilithium crystals for myself.”

“Certainly, sir! I’d be happy to show you around,” Scotty said.

“If it isn’t too much trouble.” Kirk gestured for him to lead the way.

“Why the sudden interest in the engines, if you don’t mind my asking?” Scotty remarked as he started across a catwalk, Kirk following close behind.

“A captain should know his ship better than anyone,” Kirk replied, a little more seriously than he had intended.

Scotty nodded in understanding. “That’s what you’ve got us for,” he reminded Kirk.

Kirk grinned, but he was only half joking when he said, “I should be able to run her all on my own if I have to.”

Scotty glanced back at the captain, his skepticism clear, but he didn’t argue.

Kirk followed Scotty around the engine room, asking about anything he could possibly need, until his chief engineer was needed elsewhere. When Kirk was left to his own devices, he continued on a self-guided tour, trying to identify everything mentioned in the manual just in case.

Kirk waited at the entrance to the ship’s garden. He half expected Spock not to show up. Kirk had no logical excuse for the invitation and there were many more important things they could have both been doing with their time.

But sure enough, just as the hour was about to change, Spock made his appearance. He was still in his pale blue uniform, and when he stopped at the door, he stood at attention, his hands clasped firmly behind his back. Kirk suspected nothing would ever suit Spock quite as well as the old science blues, but the sight of him still made Kirk’s heart leap a little.

Kirk offered Spock his arm with a smile.

Spock gave him a skeptical look - Kirk lowered his arm - but he allowed Kirk to lead him inside.

Kirk had chosen the gardens because they were quiet and peaceful. They passed a few officers here and there, enjoying the greenery on their off hours, but for the most part, the two of them were alone.

Kirk stooped over to smell a bright orange flower in full bloom and held it up a little for Spock to share in its sweet aroma. Spock looked bemused by the gesture, but there was a softness to his expression. Kirk could not help but smile back, the flower forgotten. If he ambled a little closer to Spock as they continued walking, he doubted anyone would mind.

Kirk’s eyes wandered about the alien flowers and trees from across the galaxy, but he never lost sight of Spock at his side. Spock watched him in return with a hint of something almost like a warm smile.

Kirk glanced around to make sure there was no one else in sight and let his hand drift toward Spock’s, his first two fingers extended in the Vulcan way.

But their skin never touched. Spock slipped away as though it was entirely coincidental, as though it were perfectly natural for the two of them to walk with a couple of feet between them. He appeared preoccupied, idly admiring the leaves of a tree. When he turned back to face Kirk, Spock’s gaze had turned passive, as though he were watching him from some distance.

Kirk withdrew his hands behind his back. He tried to force his voice light and neutral. “I just realized there’s an urgent report I still need to get to. I should go.”

Spock turned to face him and gave a shallow nod in understanding. Kirk did not miss how Spock’s gaze had hardened - Kirk reflexively readied for a fight.

“I advise that you take the opportunity to rest,” Spock said. “You have been showing signs of stress and fatigue since you have resumed command.”

“That’s a nice idea in theory, but I don’t have the time,” Kirk snapped.

Spock looked unconvinced. Still, he offered, his expression almost smug, “Is there any way in which I might be of assistance?”

“Following orders would be a start,” Kirk replied before he could stop himself.

Spock raised an eyebrow at him in disbelief. His lips were set in a firm line.

Kirk shook his head and let out a sigh. Finally, he looked back up at Spock and said, meaning every word, “It’s more than enough just to have you back. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Spock seemed to regard Kirk with some curiosity, as though he was some strange creature, which maybe a human was to a Vulcan.

“I am grateful I was able to return in time,” Spock remarked at last and left it at that.

Kirk hesitated. “I should go.”

Spock made no move to stop him.

Kirk went straight down to sickbay to see if Dr. McCoy couldn’t find a cure for his ills.

He found Bones in his office. The doctor smiled at the sight of him, but that quickly faded as he saw Kirk’s sheepish expression, and gave way to a wary glare.

Kirk let out a sigh.

“First Decker, now Spock,” Bones remarked, “I see things haven’t changed a bit.”

Kirk shook his head. “It’s not about that.”

Bones gave him a look that said it certainly was. Still, he said, “Well, don’t leave me in suspense.”

“It’s Spock,” Kirk explained. He hesitated. “Maybe you’re right; I’m still... getting back into things. And I thought Spock was back to normal, but maybe he’s still figuring it all out too.”

Bones nodded along as though he’d expected as much. “You want to know something? I’ve had Spock in here a few times since he reappeared out of the blue in the middle of the ‘V’Ger incident.’ You want to guess how all of his readings have been?”

Kirk had a guess - he had noticed how gaunt Spock had become - but there was so much he didn’t know about Vulcan physiology or what Kolinahr entailed.

Bones didn’t wait for an answer. “I don’t know how he’s still standing. That ritual of his is more than just getting rid of emotions, that’s for sure. He described it as riding himself of all desires, apparently including hunger and thirst.”

“But I thought it was over,” Kirk protested, his eyes narrowed as though if he looked hard enough he could see the explanation written on Bones’s face.

Bones shook his head. “A lasting side effect apparently,” he said with a grimace. “I couldn’t convince him otherwise, but maybe you could get through to him. If not, I don’t see how I’ll have a choice but to declare him unfit for duty.”

“I can’t let that happen,” Kirk said reflexively. “I’ll try to talk to him, though he hasn’t been listening to me either.”

“Good luck,” Bones said. He gave Kirk a sympathetic pat on the arm - Kirk immediately stiffened at the touch.

Bones just shook his head.

Kirk glanced around his quarters yet again, just to make sure everything was in place: the lights at a comfortable fifty percent, the table set for two with a flower from the garden in the center - nothing too much, just a little touch. It wasn’t supposed to be anything formal, just a captain and his first officer eating together.

Kirk let out a long breath and adjusted his low cut white shirt, wishing for hardly the first time that he was back in command yellow, but the new uniforms were the least of his problems.

He glanced around again, just to be sure.

Precisely on time, no sooner, no later, there was a chime at the door.

“Come in,” Kirk answered, maybe a little too quickly.

The door slid open to let Spock in. His eyebrows rose as he took in the scene before him.

Kirk tried to flash Spock an easy smile as he waved him inside, but it felt strained and seemed to do little to win the Vulcan’s confidence. So, Kirk let his expression fall and tried to lead Spock to the table, which bore a small sampling of Vulcan delicacies - or the closest replicated approximation.

Spock did not follow him. “This is not a briefing,” he remarked dryly.

“I thought, while you were here,” Kirk attempted to deflect with a gesture at the table. He hoped Spock found the strong scent of all the alien spices enticing.

Spock’s lips curved downward in a definitive frown. “Your behavior is highly illogical. Our relationship cannot return to what it was.”

“Why not?” Kirk demanded. “There’s nothing un-Vulcan-”

“You are attempting to engage me in a human romantic relationship despite my request to the contrary, is that not correct?” Spock demanded. His voice was level, but there was a sharpness to it.

“Why does it matter if it’s human or Vulcan?” Kirk exclaimed. “How do you feel?”

“What I feel is of no consequence,” Spock retorted.

“Then you’re just like V’Ger!” Kirk pounded his fist on the air for emphasis. “Isn’t that what you said?”

“You misunderstand,” Spock said as though his tangled web of logic should have been easy to unravel. “I am aware that attempting to rid myself of emotion was a mistake. Emotion is an essential part of my being like a necessary bodily function. However, that does not mean I must allow it to dictate my actions like a human” - he said the word like Kirk might have said “Klingon.”

“You’re human too!” Kirk took Spock by the shoulders even though he knew he shouldn’t. “I know we humans make mistakes - I know I have. But I’m not so sure the Vulcan way is any better.” He met Spock’s eyes once more and let his hands fall back to his sides.

“I acknowledge that I am half human and that there are even advantages to human philosophy. However, just because I am of human heritage does not mean that I have any obligation to behave according to your principles. I have evaluated both the human and Vulcan ideologies and found the former to be inferior - you cannot argue that it has served you well. Therefore, I see no reason to indulge in your human customs.”

“Spock,” Kirk began, but any words that could follow caught in his throat before he even thought of anything to say. He tried to meet Spock’s eyes, but they were sharp and cold. For all Spock’s indifference, Kirk could feel his raw resentment.

“If there is not actually any matter of ship’s business about which I should be briefed, I will take my leave.”

When Kirk did not respond, Spock gave him a sharp nod, turned, and left.

#v writes #Star Trek: The Original Series #Spirk #Star Trek: The Motion Picture #We Know That We Need

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crazyfreckledginger · 6 years ago

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The Girl’s Pack ~ Chapter 23: Wrong Signals

[Princess][Archer][Wolf][Wally][Jason and Roy][Dick]

"You mean selling as in?"

"As in it is exactly what you think it means," Tim muttered as Black Canary walked up to the screen and leaned over it, inspecting the writing.

"Care to explain?" Red Hood's robotic voice resonated in the room as his arms crossed over his chest. The tension in the air was thick and tense. Nobody knew what to expect of the news Tim was about to announce, but by the looks of the situation, it wasn't looking good.

"They plan on selling (Y/N) to the highest bidder after taking some blood samples."

"To replicate the blood samples?" Nightwing asked.

"Most probably" Tim answered.

"So clones." Red Hood concluded.

"What kind of highest bidder?" Batman asked.

"It seems that they might sell her off for money and make their own clone without any emotions -- which evidently she has." Tim nodded, "but," he sighed, "it's possible Deathstroke or Lex Luthor might send someone to buy them-"

"To collect her instead." Batman finished.

"What about Lilith?" Robin asked.

"She has no use for her, she wouldn't care what happens to (Y/N) as long as she doesn't roam free," Black Canary illustrated.

"Bitch," Arsenal grumbled, earning a small nudge from his best friend and a glare from the Bat.

"How do we corner them?" Wally asked.

"We'll talk about that tomorrow," Dinah smiled softly, glancing down at her watch, "it's getting late, regain the energy you lost for the trip," She gestured to the bats. They nodded, fairing their goodnights and leaving the room.

Robin went ahead, scurrying to his room and changing into his sleepwear before heading to (Y/N) room.

When he entered the room, she was sleeping soundly, facing the other way of that which he was. He closed the door discreetly before tiptoeing to the foot of the bed before (Y/N)'s wolf instinct kicked in and she woke up.

"Hmmm, Dami?" She mumbled, her head slowly peeling off the pillow to begrudgingly open her eyes to stare at the culprit.

"Yes," He simply answered, sliding under the covers beside her. She cracked a small smile as his back faced her and she pulled his waist closer to her, snuggling into his hair.

"I missed you," She whispered, leaning over to kiss his temple.

"I missed you too," He grumbled, hoping it would be barely audible to her, fortunately, her wolf hearing made the answer very audible and she smiled in his hair. She slowly drifted off to sleep, her mind only shutting down when Damian turned around in her grasped and hugged her waist.

******

Batman and Nightwing however, didn't go to bed, since Canary had stayed up the night before with Tim, they both decided that they would keep investigating into the night to obtain as much information as possible.

"Hey, look at this," Dick pointed to the screen, highlighting a specific paragraph in one of Lex Luthor's emails to Deathstroke.

[x]

~As per discussed, the weapon will be finalised by the end of the week, but trial runs will be needed. Additionally, it has to be securely placed and cannot be transported regularly and easily. However, we were able to increase its range by 10 kilometres in it's stationed position. One cautious point to note, when transported, the detector becomes unstable and could be set off if not handled correctly.~

"A weapon?" Batman grumbled, narrowing his eyes.

"And look at this, I think they'll be able to tell when the wolves and (Y/N) pass to and from Earth," He muttered.

It was a scanned official document from Lex Luthor's firm:

~Ability to detect instant increases in energy: conclusive~

Batman huffed lowly, sitting back in his chair and thinking deeply.

"That's how they do it right? They increase the level of particles and teleport?" Batman nodded in response.

"Shit," Nightwing muttered. Batman would have corrected his language but given the very inappropriate timing, he was going to let it slip. In fact, he was actually thinking the same thing.

"If this happens anytime soon, we'll have to be prepared, let's call it a day," Batman informed, getting off his seat and turning the computer off. Nightwing hummed in response, walking back towards the numerous rooms and peeking inside (Y/N) to make sure she was okay. He grinned when he saw her peacefully sleeping in Damian's embrace.

"Go away Grayson," The child grunted, hugging the girl tighter. He did as instructed before moving towards his room.

*******

The next morning, (Y/N) woke up before Damian. She played with his hair, gazing upon his cute, little frowning face as he slept in her arms. He must have been exhausted from the mission.

She was happy he was getting some sleep. She caressed his cheek softly, pulling away when he started sturring. His eyes opened slowly, trying to adjust to the different brightness in the room. Then, his eyes landed on the girl's grinning face.

"Why are you smiling? It's morning, no one likes waking up," He grumbled. She chuckled at the comment.

"Your baby sleeping face is cute," He blushed three different shades of red, his frown returning, glaring at the girl hard as she slid out of bed, walking towards the bathroom. His cheeks still burnt as he followed suit, knocking on the door to let her know he would be going back to his room and pacing out. He bumped into Jason and Roy as he exited.

"Little bird stayed with (Y/N) huh?" His older brother teased.

"Shut up Todd," He grunted, walking straight past them and glaring hard at the raven haired man.

"I'm going to have breakfast man," Roy patted his best friend's chest before nodding and meandering straight as Jason stopped in front of (Y/N)'s room. He knocked, hearing the shower and assuming she wouldn't here.

"Come in," He thought he heard, obeying and sitting on her bed, waiting for her to exit. As soon as she came out, even in only a towel, Jason raced to her, hugging her tightly. He didn't know what came upon him but he needed to know she was safe at this moment. With everything they had discovered, he was a little spooked with everything that could happen. She slowly hugged back, realising who and what was going on.

"I missed you," She muttered in his chest.

"I missed you too," He whispered, pulling away slightly. He unconsciously glanced down at her lips -- which she noticed and blushed slightly. It was only then that she noticed how close their faces were to each other and her heart beat faster. From the lack of personal space or was it something else? She didn't know.

"How, um, how are you?" He cleared his throat but not pulling away.

"I'm okay, how are you?" She mumbled.

"Tired but I'm fine," He nodded, suddenly finding himself staring at her lips again as she bit them anxiously.

Slowly, he leaned in, decreasing the very small space between them, he stopped for a moment as his lips caressed hers before he captured them gracefully. The kiss was hungry and eager.

[x]

Her eyes fluttered closed at the feeling, his chapped lips were rough against hers, but they moved gently and swiftly. He cupped her cheek gently until she pulled away when she finally understood what was happening and she blushed, looking away still in his embrace.

"Sorry, I don't know what I want," She mumbled, staring at the ground. His heart clenched slightly and he nodded.

Suddenly, the bedroom door opened and Dick's head peaked into the room. A frown forming on his face immediately as he interrupted the moment. (Y/N) head snapped at the door after Jason's. The latter glared hard at his brother and (Y/N) pulled away.

"Dick!" Her mood washed over completely as she went to engulf his older brother in a hug. Jason frowned as he witnessed the interaction. Did she have feelings for her brother instead? Is that why she pulled away from the kiss? His heart physically hurt as it broke from the complete emotion the girl felt in Dick's grasp.

"I missed you!" She muttered. Jason heard enough and walked right past them with a pissed expression. Dick raised his eyebrow in confusion as he felt the anger radiating off the man as he walked by.

"Jason?" Dick inquired, (Y/N)'s attention peeled off of the hug to distinguish the other Wayne marching off frustratedly. Knowing exactly what was going on, she softly pushed Dick out of the way to run after him.

"Sorry Dick," She mumbled, "Jason!!" She proceeded to call out his name before he disappeared into one of the numerous hallways.

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kinetic-elaboration · 4 years ago

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February 2: Some Thoughts on My Writing Style/Habits

Tried to do some writing tonight but I just couldn’t come up with a thing. That’s fine, I guess. I wasn’t trying to work on any particular project, but just do some random exercise, but it’s not happening. I have a bit of a headache right above my right eyebrow and I’m still cold and I just want to burrow into bed.

It feels like it’s much later in the week than just Tuesday. I thought the week would be getting easier by now but I don’t really think it is. I’m not going in to work tomorrow (part of a larger Web of Stress) so that’s really going to drag the day/week out and also discombobulate me further. And I still feel like all my work projects are just a big old mess. I hope I’m in the mood to organize tomorrow because that’s what I need to do.

On the upside, I’m in a good place to finish edits on my Troped Western fic, which I feel positively about. I haven’t done a proper, complete read through yet, more like re-reading it in bits and pieces and out of order, but I know I’ve already made a lot of little, stylistic improvements, and I know where the remaining Problem Spots are. So I think I’ll be just about as satisfied with it as I could be, for something written on this timeline, by the time I post it.

I think one of the best aspects of Troped for me is that it forces me not to overthink, over-complicate, or draw things out. When I say I write things for Troped that I would never write otherwise, it’s not just that I’d never come up with these bizarre trope combinations by myself. It’s that I can’t put things off. I can’t write them sedately. I need to edit ideas out right from the start. I know that a fic like Exiles couldn’t have existed without Chopped because I would have overthought it. And a story like The Taste of Hope, which works perfectly well at just under 5k, would have turned into a novel if I hadn’t had that deadline and word count. A novel I half-outlined and never actually wrote. On the other side of the coin, I’ve written fics like The End of the Story (which was an old Chopped idea, in fact) and Next Time On, which are waaaay too long and way too sedate. They need to be severely edited, but they needed that editing in the outline phase. Like, I’m not going to take them down and I’m not going to re-write them, but I’m a little bummed out by them because I worked long and hard on them both, and Next Time On is part of a ‘verse that’s dear to my heart, but they don’t leave a strong taste. They’re pretty enough on a paragraph-by-paragraph level but I literally wrote them and I can barely remember them now.

And, like, I look at them scene by scene and I don’t even know what I’d cut! But I also know that if I’d had to write them in 5 days or over one weekend, or whatever, I would have found stuff to cut--or, more likely, I wouldn’t even have brainstormed as much because I’d be coming in with a ‘this is going to be short and sweet attitude’--and they would be better stories in the end.

This doesn’t happen with all my fics--I think Never-Contented Things! is a good size, for example--but it does happen a lot. And it happens even more with fics that don’t get finished. It’s WHY they’re not finished. I mean, how many multi-chapter fics or long one-shots do I have just sitting around because I let them meander too much, or I built them up too much in my head and couldn’t finish plotting them, or I just lost the thread?

I think this is probably the problem with The Sleeping Beauty AU, which could certainly be much less complicated and much shorter than it is. But it’s a bit too late to fix that, by which I mean it would take longer to write the whole thing again than to finish it as is, especially with two chapters posted. And I definitely, definitely think that it’s the problem with the Jonty AU I tried to resurrect last September. I was writing it without an outline in 2017 and when I picked it back up, I wrote an outline to finish it, but the only way I could see to bring it to a conclusion was to add quite a few new scenes. And then when I started writing I just felt...like I wasn’t adding anything to it, really.

I’m not ready to jump back into it but I still.. I want to post SOMETHING from this fic because there are parts of it I like. But I don’t want to do whatever I was doing last fall. I’ve never cut up a fic before or transformed it into something else and tbh I don’t really know how, but I think if I were to ever to try such a thing, 2021 would be the year to do it. The mood is finish those WIPS! Also like.. I’m not going to delete anything so what’s the worst that could happen by just experimenting in a new doc?

Another thing Troped has taught me is that I can actually write Plots on occasion and it can be fun. Not everything has to be a moody piece of meandering introspection lol. In fact, I’m getting actively bored with that sort of thing, I think. (I say, even though I started both Slide and UTWS last summer and neither of them has ANY plot.... Oh well. Now I’m over-thinking my over-thinking.)

I wish I had a way to force myself to be more concise and focused in my non-Troped, non-event work, without having to impose artificial deadlines on myself. Because, first, I won’t keep them, and second, I don’t want to add pressure. I don’t want to be eyeing deadlines all the time and creating these artificial stressors for myself when tbqh my real life is stressful enough. But I also want SOMETHING to restrain me. Is the desire to get crap out of my WIP folder sufficient?

#the year 2021 #2021: writing thoughts #i expect zero people to want to read all of this long post but i do welcome thoughts from anyone who does #and has thoughts

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talabib · 5 years ago

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Powerful Tools For Accelerating Your Productivity.

We all have goals. Moreover, most of us probably have a set of personal goals as well as a list of professional goals. But what we often don’t have are the tools and understanding to create a realistic and actionable plan that will get us from where we are today to our desired destination.

This post presents three tools, Selective Focus, Creative Ownership and Pragmatic Growth, that are designed to get you from point A to point Z with focused determination. The practices related to these three tools will help you block out distractions, use your energy to its fullest and increase your creative productivity.

At the end of this post, you’ll be on your way to tossing out your to-do lists and charting a practical route to making your dreams come true.

Mental energy is precious, so learn to say no in order to protect this resource

If you spend your days interacting with a computer, there’s a good chance you’ve encountered those times when you just feel stuck, staring at your computer screen. The more you try to get unstuck, the less you feel able to make any decisions. This is due to the fact that, when your mind is exhausted, no amount of time or effort spent on contemplation can help.

The key to avoiding this kind of exhaustion is to have mental energy, as this is what allows you to be enthusiastic and enjoy what’s going on in your professional and personal lives. But while it may be important, mental energy is also scarce and easily depleted.

According to a 2007 study in the Harvard Business Review, the average person enjoys only two hours of peak mental focus every day, along with an additional five hours of relatively high mental focus. At all other times, there’s a good chance your mental focus will be relatively poor.

So, how do we make sure our mental energy gets replenished each day? A 2012 study by medical researcher Taeko Sasai suggests that sufficient sleep is what’s needed for this to happen. But even then, with high mental energy and especially peak mental energy being such limited resources, it’s clear we need to treat each minute with care.

And that’s where Selective Focus comes in. Selective Focus is about being careful and choosy about how you spend your energy, and the first rule is learning how to say no to certain things that are competing for your attention. After all, you can’t give your time and energy to everyone, no matter how politely they ask.

Saying no doesn’t always come easily or naturally. Many of us were programmed as children to say yes to whatever our parents or our teachers asked of us. When you said yes growing up, you were probably rewarded with attention, praise or even a big, welcoming hug.

But now that you’re an adult, there are rewards to saying no. Through analyzing over 80 studies that looked into the benefits of saying no, psychologist Martin Hagger found conclusive evidence that it not only helps people avoid wasteful and unproductive activity, it also helps them achieve their goals more efficiently.

Deliberate Practice and focus are what lead to success, whereas busyness leads to mediocrity.

If you’re interested in mastering a new skill, you may have heard that it takes around 10,000 hours of practice. This may be true, but you can’t just pile on one consecutive hour of practice after another and expect to reap the rewards. Those hours need to be filled with Deliberate Practice, which is the second rule of Selective Focus.

In 1993, psychologist K. Anders Ericsson used deliberate practice to illustrate the difference between average achievement and exceptional achievement. He found that it was the hours people spent on deliberate, high-quality practice that made the difference.

More precisely, Ericsson found that while average achievers worked more hours overall, they would also engage in a lot of non-constructive practice over an entire day. Exceptional achievers, on the other hand, would only engage in deliberate practice, which might consist of one burst of concentrated energy in the morning and another one in the afternoon. This would add up to just three and a half hours of practice a day, but it was more effective than an entire day’s worth of meandering practice.

One of the things that keeps us away from deliberate practice and continually engaged in non-constructive or unfocused activities is that we tend to find certain distractions pleasurable.

Activities like checking email or tidying up your desk can trigger a dopamine release that makes these usually unproductive tasks seem more rewarding than the ones that are aligned with your long-term goals. While such activities may make you feel like you’re “keeping busy,” they can be highly counterproductive if you’re supposed to be preparing your business plan for that upcoming loan meeting.

In fact, rather than keeping busy, it would be better to stop what you’re doing. That way you can think clearly and plan the next steps that will help you reach your goal.

Be warned, though, that if you don’t “look busy,” someone may see this as an opportunity to dump work on you. This is why it’s important to protect your free time as well as your Deliberate Practice time.

If you’re ever unsure about when to say yes or no to a task, ask yourself: Is this going to bring me closer to the goals I’ve set for myself? If not, then it’s probably best to say no.

Other people’s opinions are contagious, and negative influences are bad for your brain.

Getting a cancer diagnosis can send you searching for answers. You will probably reach out to friends, doctors and therapists, asking everyone for their opinions on how best to fight the disease.

While it’s natural to seek advice when things get tough, it’s also important to be selective in this regard as well, because the attitudes and opinions of others can be infectious and sometimes harmful.

According to a 2010 study from the Proceedings of the Royal Society, being around someone with a positive attitude can improve your own outlook by 11 percent. However, being around someone with a negative attitude can make your own outlook more negative by a whopping 50 percent.

If you don’t want that to happen, you have to be highly selective about the opinions to which you expose yourself, which is why this is the third rule of Selective Focus.

This can make a big difference in your achievements, because if the people around you call your dreams unrealistic, or think you’ll never have the skills to achieve your goals, you’ll probably start thinking that there’s no point in even trying. So it’s best to keep such pessimists at a distance while surrounding yourself with an ambitious and upbeat crew.

If that’s not reason enough to do so, consider the fact that negative influences can even be harmful to your brain.

According to Stanford University biology professor Robert Sapolsky, studies have shown that after listening to 30 minutes of negative speech, the neuron cells located in the hippocampus begin dying. And this is the part of the brain related to problem-solving, so those are definitely neurons worth keeping!

A study from 2013, published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, found similar results. After researchers asked people either to ignore or to listen to someone’s four-minute-long negative rant, they found that the “ignoring” participants were better than the listeners at subsequently solving thought and concentration exercises.

Write about what you know, and use the Disney method to write more freely.

The second tool is Creative Ownership, which is about freeing yourself up so that you’re working toward your own goals and no one else’s.

One of the primary ways of achieving Creative Ownership is to produce and market your own content. Now, you may be thinking that that sounds great, but that whenever you try to write, the results aren’t so hot.

If you have writer’s block, there’s a good chance it’s due to trying to write about something of which you have no experience. That’s why one of the best pieces of writing advice is to write about what you know.

Try starting by simply writing about what happened to you yesterday. Then go a little deeper by detailing one or two childhood experiences that have stuck with you. When you start to get the hang of writing from your own experience, you can graduate to hearing stories from other people and trying to write those down, and over time you’ll be able to write comfortably about yourself and others.

To help expand your creative side and really get production moving along, you can make use of the Disney method.

Named, of course, after the animation pioneer Walt Disney, the Disney system was outlined in a 2015 study by University of Munich media studies professor Sarah Tausch, and it is aimed at helping both individuals and groups to boost their production.

An important first step is to turn off the nagging inner editorial voice that says your ideas stink or that last sentence was terrible. You’re going to start off with a first draft, so feel free to write whatever comes to mind, regardless of how little sense it makes.

When you move to the second draft, turn your inner editor back on, but only at partial strength. This draft should take the good sections from the first draft, the bits that do make sense, and expand on them in paragraphs that come together in a coherent way.

Then there’s the third and final draft, in which you crank the inner editor to full power by streamlining your story, cutting repetitive bits and any parts that ruin the flow. After this draft you should have an engaging and well-formed text.

So, first is overcoming writer's block by silencing your editor and letting the words flow freely and easily. Then you hone in and expand on the good ideas before finalizing and finessing your final draft. Eventually, you’ll regularly be able to produce creative content that is interesting and high-quality.

Use lead magnets to build up your customer base, and find out what your customers are interested in

In the quest for independent Creative Ownership, one of the most valuable assets to have is a loyal customer base. The question is, how do you gain customers when you’re just starting out?

One great tool for getting customers’ attention is lead magnets. A lead is essentially customer information, so a lead magnet is something that attracts customers and compels them to give you their details. If you’re a writer, a good lead magnet might be a site where you post your first book chapter for free and potential customers can provide their email to be the first to know when the rest of the book is published.

Let’s say you’re running your own lifestyle improvement business. A good lead magnet may be a blog that regularly provides general tips that show you’re an expert in your field and that you provide quality service. You can also use customer information collected through your blog to send people newsletters and updates when a new post is published.

Lead magnets generally offer something of value for free, so in this department you should expect to operate at a loss, but keep in mind that leads may boost revenue in the long run, and can even add up to their own product. For example, all those tips on your blog can eventually be turned into a book.

The eventual goal of writing a book can serve as good motivation to update your blog regularly. This is also important because your site’s ranking on Google depends on how often you add written content; the more content, the higher you’ll be ranked in search results.

Google can also help you to figure out what customers like most about your business, which in turn can help you to pick the most effective lead magnets for new customers.

Google Analytics and other website tools can show you which blog posts or web pages on your site are getting the most views. If you’re putting that book together, this can help you decide which articles to include. It’s also great to know which lifestyle tips people are most interested in, since you can then plan future articles that expand and follow-up on these topics.

If you find that all of your popular articles are about one topic, this is a clear sign that you may have found a good niche. For example, if your audience is overwhelmingly interested in tips on how to become a successful businesswoman, then you can focus on such articles and end up with a book called Lifestyle Tips Every Businesswoman Needs to Know.

A pragmatic mindset is helpful for health and success, and this includes keeping your negativity bias in check

A pragmatic outlook can be useful in many situations. After the James was given his cancer diagnosis, life quickly became stressful, and that’s when he realized that the way forward was to be pragmatic, and focus on small, doable actions that would improve his condition.

A pragmatic outlook is not only good for your health, it can do wonders for your success as well, which is why the third tool of intelligent achievement is Pragmatic Growth.

Pragmatic Growth is essentially about increasing your ability to be pragmatic. The hallmarks of being pragmatic are being proactive and relying on realistic plans – especially in emotionally charged situations. It’s also a great way to overcome self-doubt and thoughts like, “I’ll never be able to finish this.” In these moments, pragmatism can help you focus on small, doable tasks and get you back on track to reaching your goals.

Studies also show that pragmatism is a good defense against stress. In research published in 2008, psychologist Francis Flynn found pragmatists in general to be happier and more emotionally stable than other people. During times of stress, their happiness levels didn’t decline steeply, as was noted in participants who lacked pragmatism.

Other studies have also shown how a pragmatic approach can keep the tides of negativity at bay. According to psychologist Rick Hanson, everyone has a negativity bias, or a tendency to focus more on unpleasant things than pleasant ones. His study showed that our brains will immediately store negative information in our memories, whereas positive information requires at least 12 seconds of focused attention for it to be stored. This is why we tend to remember the person who didn’t hold the elevator door open for us, but quickly forget the kindness of the person who did.

But once you know about the negativity bias, you can take pragmatic steps to correct it and keep it from interfering with your goals.

A 2008 study in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin shows that your negativity bias is likely to sabotage your success if you don’t take steps against it. You can set regular small tasks to help with this very purpose, like making sure not to dwell on bad moments, and not only recognizing good ones, but taking at least 12 seconds to appreciate them.

To-do lists are a waste of time, and learning to say no is the pragmatic way to avoid a long to-do list

How do you feel about to-do lists? Are they a useful tool for staying on top of things? Or are they a daily reminder of all the things you wanted to do but never got around to?

Well, if you’re not a big fan of to-do lists, you may be happy to hear that part of Pragmatic Growth is about accepting that to-do lists are often a waste of time. The truth is, making lists rarely leads to the kind of direct action that moves you closer to your goals.

In a 2012 study, biologist Mones Abu-Asab found that a big problem with most to-do lists is that they’re made up of unrelated and dissimilar tasks. Some might take a few minutes, while others might take weeks to complete. And since people like the satisfaction of ticking off a completed task, they’ll focus on small tasks, while bigger ones, like preparing your business plan, linger and die on the vine.

Staying away from distracting to-do lists filled with small tasks once again comes down to saying no and staying focused on the work that will clearly get you closer to your goal.

You can even set your default response to incoming requests to no. Or use the rule of three and only accept incoming requests if the person asks three times, since it probably means you’re the only one who can help.

You’ll also find it helpful to say no in the right way. According to a 2012 study by Vanessa Patrick, making excuses while saying no won’t help you in the long run; stating clearly that you don’t want to take on a new task is empowering and shows that you have more important work to do.

There are eight pitfalls that will stop you from being productive.

In his role at the helm of countless productivity workshops, jack has worked with thousands of people who’ve helped him identify eight pitfalls to pragmatic productivity. You can think of the tips to avoiding these pitfalls as the ultimate tool kit for keeping you on the road to Intelligent Achievement.

The first pitfall is accepting gifts. As the saying goes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, because chances are the person picking up the tab is looking for a favor. This doesn’t mean you need to be cynical and think everyone is selfish, but if you do get invited to lunch, it doesn’t hurt to question the motives and wonder whether it isn’t, say, just a ploy to get you to work overtime. In short: pay for your own lunch.

The second pitfall is not having a morning routine. Having a regular morning routine is great for reducing the amount of mental energy you use, since you don’t have to make any decisions – everything can just go like clockwork. This means you’ll have more mental energy to spend on more important tasks later in the day.

Third is the mistake of prioritizing busywork. Always focus on the big goals and taking the steps that get you there.

Similarly, the fourth pitfall is prioritizing easy tasks over difficult ones. Don’t do it!

Pitfall number five is to be overly reliant on the eight-hour workday. Remember, you only have five hours of high-level mental energy available. So it’s all about being efficient and focused during these hours while spending the rest of the time resting and recuperating.

The sixth and seventh pitfalls are the ever-present distractions of smartphones and incoming email. Constantly checking social media, texts and email wastes mental energy. Avoid these pitfalls at all costs.

The final pitfall is giving in to requests from others. Again, this is about becoming comfortable with saying that magical two-letter word: No.

So there you have it: the three tools for Intelligent Achievement are Selective Focus, Creative Ownership and Pragmatic Growth. Now it’s time to apply these tools to your life and accelerate your career with smart, Deliberate Practice

Intelligent Achievement is about attaining your goals with the use of smart, focused practices, and the tools for doing so are within anyone’s reach. Once you focus your attention on what’s truly important in reaching those goals, you can begin to filter out distractions, including people with distracting requests and negative attitudes. You can then become more independent, creative and productive with tools like the Disney method, and use lead magnets to help you gain customers. The final tool is to be more pragmatic by being aware of your negativity bias, and taking small, realistic steps that will add up to major life goals.

Action plan: Hone your creative voice by listening to others. Finding a voice that connects with your audience is about combining your interests with things that resonate with the public. You can start doing this today by talking to your friends about a topic that interests you and seeing how they react. Maybe a different but closely related topic is more interesting to them? Take in this information, and try to write a new article that incorporates your views as well as those of your friends and target audience.

#Powerful Tools For Accelerating Your Productivity.

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kristinejrosario · 8 years ago

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How Do You Blog Consistently When You Have Very Little Time?

From ProBlogger Expert Ali Luke of Aliventures.

Do you ever feel like your blog is yet another responsibility on a very long list?

For the vast majority of bloggers, blogging has to fit in around an already full life. Perhaps you’re:

Building an online business, which you’re marketing by blogging … but the business takes up loads of time

Starting out as a freelancer writer, and building a client list through your blog and newsletter … but you need to focus most of your working hours on your paid writing

Raising a young family – with sleepless nights, hectic mornings, and tons of housework along the way

Working long hours at a busy day job … leaving you very little time or energy to write

Even if you have very little time, you can blog consistently. Here’s how:

Step #1: Remember That Consistent Blogging Doesn’t Mean Frequent Blogging

Perhaps, right now, you can’t realistically commit to publishing posts on a frequent basis.

That’s fine.

You don’t necessarily need to blog weekly (and you definitely don’t need to blog daily). I’ve never met a reader who unsubscribed because a blog didn’t publish quite as much great content as they’d have liked; I’ve met plenty who unsubscribed because they felt overwhelmed by the volume of content … or who left because the quality dropped.

I suggest blogging between once a month and once a week: decide on the frequency and do your best to stick with it.

If you can, write a post or two to keep back for times when you’re particularly busy. If you haven’t been posting for a while, delay starting back until you’ve built up a little stock of posts.

Step #2: Batch Together Your Blogging Tasks

When you’ve only got, say, an hour a week, you don’t want to waste your time struggling to come up with an idea.

I’ve been blogging for nine years now (on my own blogs and as a guest poster and freelancer), and over time, I’ve learned that it’s easiest to batch together different content creation tasks.

Batching can be a huge help with managing your energy as well as your time – take a look at Naomi Dunford’s great post How To Stay Amazingly Productive On Low Energy Days for examples of how different blogging activities might fit your “ebb” or “flow” times.

Here’s how I suggest you batch your tasks:

Ideas

Set aside 20 minutes. Come up with as many ideas as you can (try to get at least 10). They don’t have to be amazing ideas! Get lots down as quickly as possible and you’ll soon find that you move beyond the unworkable or boring ones.

If you’re stuck, try using the ProBlogger blogging prompts to spark off ideas: you can get a whole pack of them when you join the ProBlogger weekly newsletter (which is also a great source of blogging inspiration)!

Planning

Set aside another 20 minutes. Pick four ideas. Spend no more than five minutes very briefly planning for each one.

It helps to come up with a consistent structure (which I’ll get to later in this post). For a very basic structure, think:

Introduction

Several key points that all relate closely to your idea/ title

Conclusion

Outlining

You might be happy to write straight from your five minute plan (especially if your post is a short one). If you want, though, you can add an extra “outlining” stage into the batching process.

Go through your 5 minute plan and flesh out each key point. Add notes about:

What specific tips or ideas you want to share in each section.

Any links or examples you want to use.

I’d suggest spending 10 minutes per outline at this stage.

It’s absolutely fine to change things about your plan at this point, too – don’t feel that you have to stick 100% to what you’ve already written.

Drafting

Once you’ve got an outline, drafting your post is pretty straightforward! It’s just a matter of going through and writing out each section that you’ve planned. You won’t need to worry about where you’re going next, and you won’t find yourself going off on a long tangent.

You also don’t need to draft your post in a single session. You’re not trying to store it all in your head – your outline is down on paper already – so you can draft in short bursts (e.g. 10 – 20 minutes per day) if that suits your schedule better.

Rewriting

If you created a good outline before you drafted your post, you may well not need this stage! If you didn’t, you may have found that your first draft went off in an unexpected direction or that your initial idea needed some refining as you wrote.

If that’s the case, set your post aside for a day or two, so you can come back to it with fresh eyes. Then:

CUT: Cut out any sections that don’t really fit the post. Save them for a different piece.

REARRANGE: See whether any sections (or even paragraphs) would read more smoothly or logically if you reordered them.

ADD: Check whether there’s anything you need to add. This might be simply a link to another post or an explanation of something that new readers may not understand.

Editing

When you edit, you’re looking very closely at your post: at the sentence structures and word choices. (This is why you want to rewrite first, if your post needs a fair amount of work: there’s no point perfecting a sentence that you’re only going to end up cutting out altogether.)

You may find that it’s helpful to have a batch of 2 – 4 drafts ready that you can edit in sequence, with your critical “editing” hat on rather than your creative “writing” hat in place.

Formatting and Links

If you’ve not already done it when editing, go through your post one last time and make it look great.

Put in an image (or several images), Header 2 format for subheadings, bold text for key points, blockquote format for quotes, bullet points for lists, and so on.

Also look out for any opportunities to include a useful link – whether that’s to an old post on your blog or a post on someone else’s site.

Step #3: Use a Content Calendar

If you sometimes struggle to know what to post, or feel like your blog needs more variety or consistency, you need a content calendar or editorial calendar.

This doesn’t need to be anything fancy or complicated. I make a simple calendar in Evernote each month, with one blog post title and one newsletter piece listed for each week:

You can take this a step further and “theme” the different posts that you do. For instance, if you write one post a week, your standard calendar template might look like this:

Week 1 – “how to” post

Week 2 – re-run an old post (see tip #4)

Week 3 – inspiring, encouraging post

Week 4 – round-up post, linking to good posts elsewhere during the past month

Alternatively, you might make a calendar that rotates around different topics. For instance, if (like me) you blog about writing, you might have a calendar like this:

Week 1 – fiction-writing

Week 2 – freelancing

Week 3 – blogging

Week 4 – publishing

There are plenty of different ways to use and structure your calendar, and Darren covers lots of good suggestions in this podcast on creating an editorial calendar.

Step #4: Have a Consistent Post Template

All blog posts have a structure. At the very least, posts start with some sort of introduction – even if it’s just a sentence or two – then have a main body of content. Ideally, they should have a conclusion too.

Bloggers who produce a lot of content generally have at least one standard post structure to work from. Michael Hyatt has a very specific template that he uses for pretty much every post on his blog, for instance.

You might think that using a template will make your posts less interesting. In fact, the opposite is true. It’s easier for readers to engage when your post has a logical progressing (instead of being a meandering collection of points) – and it’s generally far easier for you to share your thoughts if you have a structure to contain them.

Step #5: Recycle Old Posts

If you’ve been blogging for any length of time, you’ll have an awful lot of posts that new readers won’t easily spot. Even if these are listed in your archives, they won’t necessarily be seen.

One very easy way to post regular content when you’re busy is to revive an old post. Simply choose one from your archives (I’d suggest going back to at least a year ago), and repost it.

Depending on your topic and how old your post is, you may want to:

Update the post with new information or facts, if those have become outdated.

Update the post with fresh examples and links – these can date quite quickly, so do check all existing links in particular to make sure they still work.

Change the formatting or layout of the post – perhaps you’ve altered your blog’s theme and the post no longer looks as good as it once did.

Include a note to state that the post was previously published. I like to do this to avoid confusing readers! I usually pop a line in italics at the top of the post, e.g.: This post was first published in 2012 and updated in 2017.

I’ve republished several of my favourite old posts, and so far, not a single reader has complained … and several have thanked me for publishing content that was just what they needed, right now! So even if you’re reluctant to republish content, give it a go and see what happens.

Of course, there’ll probably be a fair amount of old content that you decide not to republish. You could still save time by using it in other ways – ZenOptimise has a handy list of 12 different ways to do this.

Step #6: Look at Your Whole Weekly Schedule

If you’ve tried the above tips and you’re still struggling to find enough time for your blog, then you need to take a look at everything else going on in your life.

Chances are, there are a lot of things you can’t realistically change (e.g. the hours you spend at your day job, the hours your partner works, how long your baby naps) but there probably is at least a little bit of leeway. For instance:

Can you set aside one or two nights a week for an hour’s blogging, e.g. from 8pm – 9pm? You don’t have to work all evening every evening!

Can you get up 15 minutes early to blog in small increments? (Check out Tip #2 on batch producing posts, above.)

Could you reduce the time you spend on some household chores? For instance, could you batch cook a couple of nights a week so you don’t have to cook each night? Can you order groceries online so you don’t need to get out to the shops at the weekend?

If you live with a partner, can you arrange your joint schedule so that you both get a little more free time? For instance, perhaps you’ll take the kids out on Saturday afternoons and they will have the kids on Sunday afternoons: that way, you’ll have time to blog and your partner will have time for their hobbies.

If you don’t know where your time is going, keep a time log for a week to find out and write down everything you do. If you’re mostly at your computer, use RescueTime to track what you’re spending time on.

There may well not be any easy answers, and you may be frustrated that a lot of your schedule can’t be changed. Focus on what you can change and control, though.

Moving Forward, Step by Step

Blogging can feel a bit relentless at times: your blog needs fresh content week after week. Treat it as a marathon, not a sprint – don’t burn out.

Also (and I really struggle with this!), do try not to compare yourself to other bloggers. They may well be at a completely different stage of life from you (perhaps they don’t have a day job, or they don’t have kids, or they can afford to pay a team of assistants…). Instead of thinking about them, stay focused on what you can do to keep growing your blog – or, as Charlie Gilkey puts it, watch your own lane.

Ideally, you want to gradually move towards a position where you do have more time for your blog – so you might look at creating or growing some income streams, for instance, so you can afford to pay for some childcare or for a virtual assistant.

I know how tough (practically and emotionally) it can be to keep up with blogging when you don’t have much time to spare. Take it at your own pace, step by step. And while overall consistency is important, if you do feel overwhelmed, it’s fine to take an occasional week off!

How do you fit your blogging in around your busy life? Does one of the above tips already work well for you, or do you have something else to suggest? Share your ideas in the comments below!

The post How Do You Blog Consistently When You Have Very Little Time? appeared first on ProBlogger.

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richardrobertsimsuccessblog · 8 years ago