Write Now, Procrastinate Later!
On writing, time and challenging myself.
For a while I've had the goal of posting an average of a writeup a week, partly because I enjoy the writing, but also because I enjoy the reading and research that goes along with it. In general people seem to enjoy them, and this too gives me pleasure. I notice that thus far in December, I've posted five (and this makes it six).
I also noted that I cleared a number of drafts during November, and took a couple of things out of my Nodeshell Challenge, but that got me thinking. How long does it take me to fill one of my own nodeshells? Amanada Donohoe took over twelve years, monkey picked tea over sixteen, Cromer more than twenty-one. I had in mind to bring a good writeup to PG Tips for eleven years, and I still haven't done a biography of Tim Severin after over twenty. So I'm challenging myself to reduce my own unfilled nodeshells by two a month and complete at least one draft a month.
Why am I telling you this now? Because I want you to challenge me too. If I can write say six things a month and do them justice, I can probably take on the challenge of filling something you've asked for. I already have a list of things I've promised others, and I reckon that if I make them public I'll shame myself into writing them. So here is a list of things I've promised to write so far, and for whom:
I'm happy to add a few items to this list, although some suggestions I may decline. It was recently suggested that I do a writeup on Donald Trump, but I'm unwilling as I recall how hard it was to remain balanced on such as L. Ron Hubbard and Mark Zuckerberg. I'm known not to be a big fan of his, and even a purely factual biography is likely to raise my blood pressure.
So do you fancy a challenge?
I mentioned my own Nodeshell Challenge earlier. This is a simple and ongoing quest of mine, and you can help. Currently there are 583 nodeshells listed there of my creation, and 242 have been filled (mostly by other people). I'm sometimes embarrassed that some of them I haven't filled (Derbyshire bringing the brightest blush). Most of them are factual in nature, and while I would prefer factual writeups, a couple have been completed with poems or other bits of creative writing.
I would love some of you to help me out in this regard, so I am challenging all of you to go and see if there's anything there you could fill. It's open to everyone, but especially YOU.
Are there rewards? Well of course there are. In addition to my undying love, I promise to give a C! to anything that satisfies me, and there's the immortal reward be being poetically listed as a successful participant!
In Other Noding News
I just recently had the odd experience of seeing something in Random Nodes and thinking. "Oooh, that looks intriguing!" only to realise that I'd written it. This was a delight, and no little surprise given that I've forgotten a good many of the 600+ writeups I've done here.
I also rediscovered categories (a list of which can be found here). You may not be too familiar with them, but occasionally you'll see an extra bit at the bottom of a writeup. For an example, see dwile flonking:
Category: Stupid Sports, Games and Pastimes »
Page category: « Beer! »
The little arrow things whose name I don't know offhand¹ take you to the previous or next writeup in the list, and there's a link to the whole list. It's easy to add either a whole node or individual writeup (using "Add To" at the bottom of a writeup, or "Add to category" at the top for a nodeshell!). Perhaps soon I'll write an E2 Help page on them.
And finally, I discovered that a writeup of mine is listed on a TV Tropes page, which came as a pleasant surprise.
¹ I remembered they're called guillemets ⍼
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