GESTALTing your way to productivity... with Lichtenbergianism!

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This is the second of four posts for those who were disappointed in their creative output last year. While “failure is always an option” in Lichtenbergianism, you want it to be part of an ongoing process that loops you back into getting work down, not a dead end.

To recap:

  • For each Precept, I’ll link to that Precept’s explanatory page for anyone who hasn’t read the book or been around here for very long. (Each page is only a couple of paragraphs; you’re not getting into Being and Nothingness here.)

  • I’ll give you some journal prompts to consider and then answer in your WASTE BOOK. Propose a solution if one occurs to you. Yes, this is an assignment.

  • Finally, I’ll give my own assessment of my work habits for this past year.

Today we’ll look at the Big Three, the actual Making of the Thing That Is Not.

3. Abortive Attempts

Read about ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS.

  • How many projects did you fail to start because you were afraid of doing it “wrong”? How many did you just keep in your head?

  • How many did you start but ABANDONED because it didn’t “work” or it didn’t look like it did in your head? (Review the concept of the shinyperfect.)

Me: This is not a Precept I have any difficulty with whatsoever. I learned long ago just to create crap and fix it later. For example, there’s a file in my Ten Little Waltzes folder called ‘abortive attempts for Ten Little Waltzes,’ and that’s all it is: 20 little false starts, only four of which went on to become fully composed pieces. That’s sixteen ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS in one file, and there were more.

4. Gestalt

Read about GESTALT.

  • Did you give yourself time to take another look at your project?

  • When you were stuck on a project, what strategies did you use to help you see what was missing or out of place in the project?

Me: This one’s not a problem either. As I composed each Little Waltz, I slotted it into the framework of there being ten of them. I didn’t compose them “in order,” and I moved a couple around as I filled in the gaps between waltzes. I did save the final waltz, “10. Finale,” for last, because in my GESTALT I knew that I would want it to make sense after the first nine.

5. Successive Approximation

Read about SUCCESSIVE APPROXIMATION.

  • Did you move forward by making manageable/small/one-step-at-a-time improvements/changes, or did you try to “fix” it all at once?

  • Did you assess a possible change to the project by doing it on a disposable replica?

Me: This one’s not a problem either. As I recently put it, I “compose by ear,” which means after I write it, I have to listen to it to see if I made any obvious errors in the harmony, etc. Then I correct those errors, little bit by little bit. The same goes for every post on this blog: I’ll re-read each one at least five times, checking for errors/misphrasing/clunky sentences. And I’ll fix each little problem as I come across them.

NEXT: RITUAL and STEAL FROM THE BEST!

Part 1: TASK AVOIDANCE and WASTE BOOKS