Productivity

Hi interneters, it's been a while.

Let's talk today about something I feel is almost central to my, and many many others', existence. Productivity. 

In a world where being able to run more than seven tabs at the same time merits bragging rights (maybe? for some people?) we're constantly pushed to DO things, to PRODUCE things. And when we can't, when we procrastinate and waste time that was probably carefully saved up by some other means, we feel like dismal failures that don't deserve to exist.


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If that's NOT true for you, please realize that your levels of satisfaction with life (and mental health) are most likely more stable than the rest of us. :)

For everyone left: welcome to productivity therapy, where I constantly second-guess myself as I give advice on something I struggle with all too often.

The nasty thing about trying to get work done when you just can't is that the more you pressure yourself to be "productive," the less likely you are to actually do anything. Procrastination is a scrape in the soil that has the danger of becoming a mine shaft in a second. Once you start scrolling through your news feed or catching up on Daily Grace, it's easy for your internal what-I-want-to-be-doing bar to shift from neutral towards lack of work. Sometimes the feeling of regret after YouTube binging leads to to whole "Oh, tonight I'll just not do anything and tomorrow I'll work really hard." You know.
It's not that bad until it becomes a nightly routine.


Or, you know, after you do something fun. 
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The hardest part is, surprisingly, forgiving yourself after that first video or episode or nap. The "once-I-start-I've-already-broken-the-seal" attitude leads to many wasted hours. Honestly, the nights I've gotten the most things done have been the nights when I was happy, energized enough from >4 hours of sleep the night before to actually relax while I worked. When you relax, you end up doing things because you want to, and more gets done in the end. 

Also.
Do. Things. You. Want. To. When. You. Want. To. Do. Them.
If you get an urge to dance to the song playing on Pandora or write a poem about your own legs or make a house out of paper, do it. These urges, once they pass, tend not to come back. And things like this are nurturing; they're like Vaseline on a chapped conscience. (That was gross, I know, just let it pass.) Doing the things you love and acting on whims, which may sometimes be productive themselves, give you energy and satisfaction, two key ingredients to conquering your to-do list and your bad habits.



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Example: I have eight tests and project next week and an awards submission essay to write (one that determines whether or not an entire TEAM of student will win an award they deserve). Yet here I am, blogging, and happier than I would be if I were weeping over my textboks right now. I can almost guarantee you that later, once I do turn to those pages of death, it'll be with fingers warm from typing, at the least, if not from contentment.  

So go ahead and watch that video. Then stop. Because you've filled that void, satiated that craving, and now just let yourself do the rest of the things you want (and need) to do.

You have the capacity to be productive in your own sense as much as you do to procrastinate. There are two toilets, and you don't need to spend all night in the one that flushes down.

(yeah so the visual you should have in your head right now is of an upside down toilet floating in mid air which is where you want to go because hey productivity right?)

Enjoy loveliness (actually enjoy it please)
and remember to muse. :)

Eye Candy for the Writer-blocked

Hi interneters!

Last year I made my first attempt at writing a novel in a month, taking part in the well-known (depending on who you ask) NaNoWriMo. 

[If you're not familiar with it, here's a run-down: during the month of November, aspiring novelists who want to take on the challenge can make a free account that lets them track their progress on their novel. The goal is to finish 50,000 words in 30 days. Hit up nanowrimo.org if it sounds like your kind of thing.
The purpose is sheer creative output, absolutely subject to extensive revision later. It's a let-me-prove-to-myself-that-I-can-do-this-thing.]

Now, with November approaching, I'm frantically scrambling for novel ideas and feeling sort of writer-blocked before I even begin. Sort of like every little piece of the story has to be perfect before I'm allowed to begin, you know? Which is totally not true.
Some photos I came across really inspired my, and maybe they'll do the same for you. 

Visual inspiration is a lot of fun and often very effective, even if you're not doing NaNoWriMo this year (or ever). Keep reading. These photos don't discriminate.

Take a look, and hopefully these artfully arranged pixels will help you increase your output of words, novelist or not. :)

Do me a favor, though. Scroll s l o w l y.



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Artist:  Noell S. Oszvald



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Artist:  Noell S. Oszvald



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Artist: Laura Williams



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Artist:  Noell S. Oszvald



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Artist: Murad Osmann



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Artist: Katerina Plotnikova

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Artist: Katerina Plotnikova

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Artist: Brian Yen

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Artist: Brian Yen

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Artist: Martin Parr

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Artist: Uda Dennie

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Artist: Katerina Plotnikova


Let me know if you guys are into this kind of thing; if it helped even the smallest bit with your creative struggles, I can make more of this sort of post. It was really fun to do!

Enjoy loveliness

and
remember to
m
u
s
e

Thought Provoker #7: Truth (and the lack thereof)

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As we age, we're exposed to more things, and we learn a lot of things about the world that we failed to notice as young whippersnappers.
I'm really impressed that whippersnapper is not underlined in red.

Anyway, one of these things that I'm becoming more aware of lately is the fact that many of my less desirable personality traits come from my upbringing. Which seems natural (or entirely unnatural, I'm not sure which), but it's still strange to realize the deep affect that parental biases (about races, genders, certain activities, the like) can have on your own opinion.

At a certain age, you may start to realize that some things your parents taught you to accept as fact are not necessarily true. 


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And then I go into this whole spiral of what-is-truth, and the reality is that it's almost impossible to deliver a perfect truth. Everyone, every author of every book and every webpage, is a human, and will therefore be (cue the awful word) BIASED. People have genders. Ages. Ethnicity. Lack of gender. The like.

And no matter how hard we try, at some points it's hard to deliver truth to other people. Sure, certain things like "Google was founded in 1998" are sort of indisputable, but life isn't full of such things. The facts that matter are the ones that aren't facts, and there will never be a source of these that doesn't have a slant of some sort. No one can present to you a totally clear view of the things that matter most.

Keep this in mind as you continue to age and absorbs things. You get to decide what your truth will be.

Okay, so clearly this isn't a let's-write-a-poem-now sort of thought provoker. This is a let's-think-about-these-things-because-questioning-the-world-we're-in-is-one-of-the-most-important-parts-of-being-in-it sort of thought provoker.

Oh, and a PSA: Thought Provokers will be changing their name soon. We'll keep numbering as we've been doing, starting with 8 on the next post, but just stay tuned. :)

Enjoy loveliness and remember to muse.

Absorb those truths.

Absorb them.

Then squeeze out your own. 

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GIF Party #3: TBBT 2

GIFs are like Harry Potter pictures blah blah blah.

Oh btw we're doing a theme today just to be cute.
Here's to the seventh season. :)

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When you don't want to hang out with someone, but you have no excuse:



Trying to be funny around strangers:



Certain celebrity crushes:



"You should go outside"



Realizing you're still on the internet when there's something important you really should be doing right now



That's it for now you internet kiddos.
Enjoy loveliness and remember to muuuuse! :)

Poetry Parenting: Day 5

And here we find ourselves again.

Poetry Parenting
Helping your babies grow up
A blog series by Stephanie 


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If you've been following along our wacky, month-long "5-day" journey, you know now that this is the fifth and final post about how to help your poetry grow up.

And if you actually have read every one of these posts, thank you. Thank you for sticking with me in this journey that is as much self-discovery as it is instruction. And thank you for not barfing when I act all dramatic about 5 posts that just happened to fit together as if I actually just wrote a novel or something.

In the last five posts, we've talked about learning from others, telling a story, finding inspiration, and trusting your words. Today we're sort of scattering that to the wind. Sort of. Like a kid who's about to flush a bug down the toilet but hesitates because he's still emotionally attached to it.

Tip #5: Do what you want.

Because you're all grown up now. 

Congratulations! You have unlocked an achievement: end of journey. Your poetry no longer poops in its own diapers or requires bottle feeding, and even if you're still taking baby steps, you're hopefully still better off than where you started.

The truth is, there is no easy formula for good poetry. If there was one, it would probably be something along the lines of " there is no easy formula for good poetry". Creativity demands novelty, and that is where you, my dear reader, come in. 

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There are so many ways to seed your thoughts and nurture faster, better growths of ideas, but those ideas are ultimately going to come from your own cerebral soil. Don't let yourself be limited by what you think 

should be right.

Write without capitalizing. Space your lines oddly. Use a disgusting font. Change tenses. 

The first four days were designed to enhance what you already have. They're suggestions. Now, use what you know, cultivate your verbal brain fields, and don't stop anything from growing. 

And always, always do the thing that makes you uncomfortable. 

With that, I leave you with my final Poetry Parenting tool. 

http://www.pw.org/literary_magazines?&perpage=*

Notice how I didn't even bother changing the link into a permalink. It's too beautiful in its original form.

This, my friends, is the largest bank of online publications that accept (and pay for) literary submission that I know of to date. Use wisely and often.

Go forth, dear interneters, and let your children roam free. 

Enjoy loveliness

and remember to muse.

:)

Poetry Parenting: Day 4

The penultimate of anything is the most bittersweet.


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Poetry Parenting
Helping your babies grow up
A blog series by Stephanie 

Welcome back to Poetry Parenting. Let's go.
Wait, before we jump in, how is it going for all of you who are trying these tips out? Do you feel like the plateau is slowly elevating?

Today's tip is something I recently discovered a long time ago. As in I recently realized something that had been true for a large portion of my poetry non-career.

Tip #4: Trust your verbal instincts.

Because no one can REALLY teach you to speak.

Part of what makes poetry good is the language. Okay, not just part, most. Like 80% with a percent error of however ambivalent you're feeling today. The magic of language manifests itself in poetry, in that a certain sentence can speak to vividly to a huge audience and invoke something different but equally strong in every reader. 

Just typing that gave me chills. That's the reason we write.
It's the reason I write, at least.



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And one of the hardest things to do when it comes to language is make choices-- pick which words you can use to capture perfectly a fleeting but never-fading moment.

Something we can all learn to do better is trust ourselves to have the right words before we even know we need them. You absorb an incredible amount of information throughout the day-- newscasts on the radio, sprinklings of conversation in hallways, billboards on your way home, standout song lyrics. They stick someplace in the back of our brain where we can't consciously pull from but somehow know how to write from.


If you want to express something visceral, or even something less than that, let yourself use the first words that come to mind. They may be surprisingly fitting. 

I tend to try to include symbolism in my poems, and it's hard for me to resist starting from the symbol and then creating the poem, building around some heavily-analyzed object. But when I just let myself write, symbolism happens without me meaning for it to.
"Moral tectonic plates" popped up in a Christianity vs. suicide poem. The more I looked at it, the better it became.

Here are some examples of more good, adult poems. Notice the words, how they're precise and somehow perfect.

An Unconventional Union: http://www.amethystarsenic.com/issues/2-2/kevin-heaton.php

Carrying a baby: http://www.amethystarsenic.com/issues/2-2/shannan-mann.php

Didion: http://www.amethystarsenic.com/issues/2-2/cait-weiss.php

Anyway. Moral of the rambling blog post-- you know more than you think. Trust yourself. And always, always trust your words. 

Enjoy lowliness and remember to muse!

Poetry Parenting Day 3

Poetry Parenting
Helping your babies grow up
A blog series by Stephanie 

Okay, can I just apologize for my lack of productivity in general?
I mean, I know this is a blog about overcoming the downward-spiraling toilet of procrastination, but I guess not till now did you guys realize how bad I actually am at getting things done.

That brings us to web series day 3, about three weeks after launch date. Yum.

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Tip #3: Seek inspiration.

Because "uninspired" just doesn't sell. 

Today is a fun one-- ways to find inspiration for poetry.

Now, this is something that poetry, or writing in general, generally benefits from, but actively seeking inspiration can really help you slow down the pace of the daily grind and look for things that matter.

And, at the end of the day, aren't we all really just trying to write about things that matter?

Inspiration doesn't have to be outward. It doesn't have to be taking time out of your evening to go on nature walks, although that is one way to do it. Inspiration is trying to force yourself to think differently or see different things. Venturing to new places with new thoughts is one of the best ways to advance your writing to a new level, especially if you're stagnating around the same topics in every poem. 

TBH I didn't write about anything but nature until seventh grade. If I had just tried to seek true inspiration, revelation of novelty, that might not have been the case.

Instead of preaching about glorious mental awakenings that result from spiritual soul-dances in the forests, I'll give you a straight-up list of ways to get inspired and pull yourself out of the ruts of repetition. PLEASE feel free to contribute your own ideas in the comments below!

10 New Ways to Get Inspired

-Take a freaking walk in the woods
-Find color names that inspire you (hit up some Home Depot paint chips)



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-Write in a different part of your house (sit in the chair backwards)

-Pretend to be someone you're not-- adopt his/her/its voice

-Look at something too closely

-Google sculptures and modern art

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-Listen to animal noises
-Listen to strange music (reggae, funk, mariachi bands-- something that's not your norm)
-Listen to nature sounds
-Listen. Just Listen


Leave any of your own methods of getting inspired below! Hopefully I'll see you next week for more poetry parenting? :)

Until next time-- enjoy loveliness and remember to muse!





...did I just say "until next time?" Anyways, update: Poetry Parenting will end on day 5. Just to keep ya'll in the loop.

Poetry Parenting Day 2

Welcome back (or just welcome)!
Thank you for not running away from your computer in fear at the absurdity of this blog series.

And please don't run away now.

Poetry Parenting
Helping your babies grow up
A blog series by Stephanie 

Lehhgo.

Most of you guys probably know what's up by now (if not, read the previous two posts) so I'm going to just right into it.

Tip #2: Tell a story.

Because nobody wants to hear a bedtime preach. 

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Most good poems tell, or at least are inspired by, a story. Without that, a poem is just an attempt at telling the world something that you don't even know for sure yourself. 

Don't think of a "story" in the literal sense. I know we're teaching baby poetry to grow up, but that doesn't mean an adventure tale is the only definition of "story" that applies. 

Did you stop when you walked outside and saw the rain-washed petals bathe the sidewalk because it was just such a stunning moment? That's a story.

Have you been questioning your ability to speak in public every time you look in the mirror for the past five years? That's a story.
Did something you read make you realize that the world needs to change its ways? That's a story. 



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And if it's truly a story, if it's truly yours, no matter how you tell it, your poem will be real. And real poems are mature poems.

The beautiful thing about poetry is that it can be intimately personal yet easy to relate to. Often it's the specificity of certain things that makes poems the most universal, because they reach more deeply into the readers and call forth individual memories.

So don't write just to sling words to together on a page.
Write something real. 

Enjoy loveliness and remember to muse! :)

Poetry Parenting: Day 1

Welcome to the first installment of this weird new thing we're trying together!

Poetry Parenting
Helping your babies grow up
A blog series by Stephanie 

If you've decided to follow these posts and see what's up, kudos. It's a brave move.
If you're not quite sure what this is about, read the post below (Poetry Parenting: Introduction).

I'm basically thinking aloud to an internet audience about how not to write poetry that is the verbal equivalent of the following picture: 



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How to not write cutesy-my-seventh-grade-teacher-would-approve poetry. How to transition out of the idea of a "teenage" voice. Don't get me wrong, teen poetry is often really great, and the adolescent voice is definitely distinctive and worth listening to.
But if you're here, you're probably ready to do something new.

With that, let's begin.

Day 1, Tip 1: Stand on the shoulders of other parents. 

Because giants were never that good at poetry anyway. 

The best way to begin learning how to write mature poetry is to read it. You'd be surprised how much you can learn from reading a poem; you get a feel for the voice, the syntax, the diction, the way it reads in your head, immediately. It's something no tips or formulas could really teach. 

Plus, emulation. A wise teacher of mine once said, 

"You need to expose yourself to so many things that you don't really know what you're stealing from."

From the pieces of those of others, you'll find your own voice. 

Okay that's it class is over bye.

JUST KIDDING. 

Note: it's hard to play a joke on people when they're just reading a blog page. 

And you're just sitting in your room by yourself typing away. 

I happen to have a bunch of sources to help you guys dive right in. There's a little bit of everything. Give these poems a read and see how you like them. 

NOTE: All of the publications I've linked pay their submissions in cash. Definitely explore these pages on your own. 

The list that is kind of like a cheese platter except instead of cheese we have poems

"America Ode"

http://www.amethystarsenic.com/issues/3-2/rita-banerjee.php

"Meditation and Form"

http://www.bu.edu/agni/poetry/online/2013/ramspeck-meditation.html

"I Don't Fear Death"

http://www.bu.edu/agni/poetry/online/2008/beasley3.html

"Advice for a New Year"

http://www.amethystarsenic.com/issues/3-2/staci-r-schoenfeld.php

"Brass Knuckles"

http://www.bu.edu/agni/poetry/online/2013/leithauser-brass.html

"Meeting You After Chernobyl"

http://www.bu.edu/agni/poetry/online/2013/nemser.html


I'll continue to shower you guys with good poems as this series continues to progress.

Thank you for lasting through all of that.
Stay verbal!

-Enjoy loveliness and remember to museeeeee

Poetry Parenting: Introduction

If any of you are poets, you'll know what I'm talking about.

There are so many perfect examples of not-yet-matured poems that creating an actual adult-appreciate-able-by-which-for-this-doesn't-make-sense becomes actually really difficult.

Aka, it's surprisingly hard to write like an actual writer.


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Personally, as a high school student, it's been a struggle for me to adopt an adult voice and write poetry that's viable in the legitimate, non-teenage freelance market.

This is one of my fifth grade poems. It might sound familiar. If it does, this post is for you.
If it doesn't, this post is also for you.

Fern

A fern, so cool and green,
Right, left, and in between.
Swaying in the autumn breeze,
Is the friend of all the trees.
If you see one, let it grow.
It will thank you, it will know.
Gently swaying to and fro.
Watch it give and watch it grow. 

I like how the first poem I share on this blog is about fern conservation.

I mean, sure, you can get away with nature poems about the creek beside your house and maybe get published in the middle school newspaper, but no one is going to pay you by the word for that piece of art.

Adult poems, on the other hand, get paid by the word.

You get my drift?

Of course it's not just about the money. "Adult" poems are considered so for a reason; they impart wisdom, they tell stories-- and they do it in a unique, meaningful way that few middle schoolers (or even high schoolers) can master. Matured poetry is true art. That is the goal.


This is, of course, a journey of discover for me (and maybe for you!). But please bear with me as I try to find out what makes a good poem good. (This will hopefully happen in a series of blog posts.)

Without further ado, I present.........

Poetry Parenting

Helping your babies grow upA blog series by Stephanie 

Day 1: Coming soon!



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Stay tuned, poem-raisers. Even if you're male. I see you. 

Enjoy loveliness and remember to muse! :)

On the Social Oddities of the Human Species

Note: I'm currently no longer at camp-- most of this was written while I was still at GHP. (:'( )

Hi interneters!

I'm currently at GHP, or Governor's Honors Program, a relatively exclusive, government funded (aka free!) summer camp for Georgia's finest students.

I'm at nerd camp, and it's heaven.


But in a setting where seven hundred strangers eagerly enter a foreign setting together with the intention of meeting new friends, distinct social patterns inevitably occur.

Humans group. We cluster ourselves into protective enclaves of friends, and it's hard (for everyone!) to open up and let a new member into the pack. We're designed this way by nature, and there's nothing wrong with it. It's just noticeable and worth commenting on (in my frequently flawed opinion).

From a purely scientific point of view, here is a general timeline of the social activity of Homo sapiens adolescents. :)


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Entry into new settings with strangers.

Days 1-3: openness and active attempts at meeting new people are made. Many names are forgotten (as are faces).
Days 4-6: social circles begin formation. Names continue to be forgotten, but faces stick. Finally.
Days 7-20: social circles grow and remain distinct. Outsiders feel sad. 
Days 20-28: attempts at merging social groups are made. Surprise/regret is expressed at not having merged groups earlier.

End four-week-long social experience. 

Now that I've typed that all out, I kind of forgot what point I was trying to make in the first place.
Please don't judge me for pretending for the moment that humans are species of like endangered bird or something. It's fun. Try it sometime.

Well. With school starting soon, maybe you'll be able to notice these patterns more clearly within the first few weeks. We humans are weird things. Take some of the wackiest, most exceptional, unique people, and they all behave on some primal level like everyone else. 
We all do. 

Welp. Please please enjoy what remains of the summer!
Enjoy loveliness and remember to muse!

GIF Party #2

If you enjoyed the first GIF Party, here is a sequel! Because nothing represents true emotions more accurately than slow-loading, Harry-Potter-esque pictures.

By the way, "jif" and "gif" are both correct pronunciations.

You, too, can prevent the slaughter of innocent interneters by misinformed pseudo-grammar-Nazis.

Source: realitytvgifs

When you read certain female statuses on Facebook:


When something on your computer won't load:



Reading the posts on this blog:


Doing homework:


Most attempts at social interaction:


Walking around the house when your clothes actually look good:


Trying to prove than you can be a fun person:



Rage quitting:



Enjoy loveliness and remember to muse!

GIF Party!

 Source of GIFs: realitytvgifs

Hi kids it's time for some GIFs!

Because there's no better way to express the complex inner feelings of a frequenter of the internet than through animated, slow-loading pictures.

Hey, have you realized that GIFs are the modern-day version of Harry Potter photos?
*GASP* realization. Go tell your friends.
Anyway. It's GIF time.


When you write a new piece that actually makes sense:



Doing battle with the voices inside your head:



When your favorite song comes on:



When someone tries to be insulting using unintelligent language:



When bad guys in movies get beat up:



Just, you know, every day: