Working Notes 07: Today’s Current Reality

The current reality is that I can work on one thing, or one type of thing, at a time. That’s not bad, it’s just different. I already have this week’s Patreon releases scheduled for there Monday through Friday, and the following week on Substack, and the following month on the Lightspress shop. I have edited, written, or drafted two weeks’ worth of Story at the Table articles, which are scheduled daily at 11am EST. When those are done, I’ll work on the next wave of refreshed releases, which will go up on Patreon next week, etc., etc.

I am desperate to get back to my personal curriculum for James Shapiro’s A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599. All I want is to spend a few days reading, taking notes, and watching some of the plays. If I can complete a few units and write about them, I can hopefully have at least 2 or 3 weekly articles before I need to switch back to Story at the Table.

The personal curricula route can still work, I think. Breaking projects, whether it’s something I want to study or a project I want to finish, into units is a good idea. I can work on part of one thing, switch, and do another part of something else. Like a neurotypical brain. But my brain no longer works like that, and all of this is just me figuring out the way forward. I do think things are steadier and more stable than they’ve been in a couple of years, but I’m still learning.

One issue is that the things I think I’ve simplified aren’t simple enough. I had a great new weekly spread, and even wrote an article about it that I never published. It worked for me for two weeks, but broke down because it still had too many moving parts. I’ve even worked up a second curriculum, thinking I could do 1599, a film curriculum, and Story at the Table at once. Nope. Story at the Table alone still has too many moving parts. So it’s going to be narrative roleplaying on one track, film or literature on the other.