Wednesday, August 1, 2012

The Universe’s Decisions


I had a longer title for this point, but I can’t remember what it was.


Anyway, I have recently taken to making lists of things, like facebook statuses, twitter updates, blog post topics, story ideas, things like that. Then I take these lists, cut them up into little slips of paper, and stuff them in a jar. (A different jar for each list, naturally.) And, I make my posts based on what I pull out of the jar that day.

Random chance.

Part of the reason I do this is simple laziness. I would rather come up with a whole bunch of stuff at once, witty or not, then sit down each and everyday to write whatever little thing it is. I know it doesn’t sound easy, not the doing it all at once part, but I think it’s easier and I guess that’s what matters. So, yes, random chance decides what I’m going to post today, and tomorrow, and pretty much for the next 100 days.

And, instead of calling it random chance, I call it a universal decision. I hate making decisions. It makes my brain hurt as I overanalyze every single thing about the decision. I can never clearly see the decision from one side or the other. So, to relieve myself of that stress and headache, I make lists, and I use jars. And, yes I use this for writing too.

No, I don’t sit down and come up with a list of completely random words then pull those words out of my jar to try and make sentences. (I would be extremely creeped out if that method made coherent sentences.) But, what I do do is on the same level as the facebook posts and what not, only the list is shorter. I write story ideas down, breaking it up into three categories or so: Short-shorts, short stories, novels (I might need to add novellas to that). I have a jar for each category, and when I’m done with one idea I pull another until I’ve exhausted the ideas. At that point I turn them into second draft jars, and repeat the cycle. (All of this is fairly recent, so I suppose I’m talking about the way I want the system to work.) In doing all of that, I remove the stress of decision-making, and it’s much easier for me to get straight into working.

Anyway, that’s about all I’ve got to say on this topic, for right now anyway, and I was just curious about how you all handle decision making stress?

Please share in the comments, and I will talk to you kids later.

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