Trying to keep it brief this week so I do it on time(ish)!
To find out more about the Sunday Circle, check out Peter M. Ball’s blog, Man Vs. Bear.
This week, I’m working on: Summary Draft! I got through the questions that needed thinking on (to a mostly satisfactory degree), so after plugging those into my notebook, I’ll be plunging ahead with the summary draft of the rewrite. I’m going to try to put in an hour a weekday working on the summary draft and see where that gets me by end of Friday. That should give me a better idea of how fast (or slow) this quick draft will take.
This week, I’ve been inspired by: More last week than this week, but Season 16 of Project Runway just wrapped up, and this season more than any other has made me think about creative confidence, aesthetic comfort, and what it means to push oneself creatively. All four of the final contestants were very unique designers, and their method of approaching their final shows were very different. It really drove home the balance between aesthetic/thematic vision and confidence in one’s ability to create (and how that confidence works with or is undermined by (both good and bad) criticism). One of the finalists had a really concrete grip on his aesthetic vision, but was so confident (and had gotten very little criticism) that he didn’t really push himself outside his usual (and somewhat surface/detail-oriented) comfort zone. One was a train wreck of lack of confidence, heavily impressed-upon by negative criticism, until she put confidence in the aesthetic she liked most, and then found confidence in herself through exploring that and ignoring criticism, which served her very well. Another had a very clear thematic vision, and confidence that she had a point of view that needed to be shared, and yet also felt the push to always go further, to apply whatever criticism she received in the way that truly spoke to her (even if it counteracted judging criticisms), and in that way, grew and strengthened her work. (The thematic rather than totally aesthetic vision seemed to help, too: thematic allowed her to reinterpret challenges and diversify her own work, without losing the core of her vision. The designer with the clear aesthetic vision knew what he liked in terms of details and silhouette, but struggled to get outside of that specific style.) The last was confident, then destroyed by negative criticism, and instead of just giving up, he allowed his lack of confidence in his ability to win to drive him to do exactly what he wanted to aesthetically without fear of “not winning” (since he took that as a guarantee), and that ease and joy in his work not only showed in the final products, but also took the pressure off of him and allowed him to take risks he might otherwise have tried to reign in to please the judges. It was a very interesting viewing experience.
Also just started Poldark which I think is my new go-to show.
What action do I need to take this week? I need to commit to a regular work schedule, since I’m getting back to prose-words rather than purely thinking. An hour a day is do-able, but still plenty challenging to fit in.
Maggie Slater 