MANW Check-In Week 6: Decisions Based on Last Time Used

MANW February Badge

We’re a month and a half in, and true to this month’s theme I want to talk about organizing. Last time, I mentioned that one way to get your art supplies and files sorted is to think about how you’re using them. For example, if you’re the type of person who stashes projects here and there (only to discover them later), ask yourself which space you use the most.

Today’s tip is about assessing your usage to help you get organized. Often, I’ve noticed that people start with Keep, Recycle, Toss, but I find that’s too generic for me. I base categories on increments of time, because that is a strong indicator on when I’ll use it.

What I do is assess the last time I used a project/file before making a decision. To this end, I’ve been using my digital calendars more and more–it’s so helpful to have a visual picture of what I’m doing and when. I’ll recommend some calendars next week!

Here’s how my assessment breaks down:

  • Current: For me, what I’m currently using is either within a window of thirty days, or during the last event. For example, since I infrequently cross-stitch I’d consider whatever I worked on last as current.
  • Past: This can either be within the past six months or a full year to cover seasonal-related uses. For example, NaNoWriMo.org, which occurs in November, and Camp NaNoWriMo, held in April and July, happen the same time every year.

From here, I think about usage up to five years. If I haven’t used something in five years, then that automatically gets archived, donated, or thrown out. For digital files, my methodology is to focus on what I’ve written within one-to-two years, because as I change and grow so does my writing. To go back and edit something I’ve written in the past is an exercise in insanity. I might farm the ideas, mind you, but rewriting older works isn’t healthy for me or my work.

Okay, once I have that sorted, it’s easier for me to make decisions based on what I’m using, what I want to use, and what I can safely get rid of. Why do this? Well, it’s a good way to save and make money. Going through your stuff gives you a sense of your personal inventory, and it helps jog your memory for gifts you’ve promised and projects you wanted to do. Sometimes, if I can’t find a specific calligraphy pen or a canvas, I’ll buy another one thinking I don’t have it. This way, I’ll know exactly what I’ve got–and what I tend to use more of!

The point of this exercise is to take control of your spaces, files, and art supplies to give you the mental and physical room to make more art. There’s also several psychological benefits to getting organized as well as a few health benefits, too. You might have another method of getting organized that works better for your style–and that’s okay!

    Mood: It’s Wednesday, already? GAH!
    Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: Three-ish.
    Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: Sorting, sorting, sorting.
    In My Ears: Some crappy B-movie for background noise.
    Game Last Played: Dragon Age: Inquisition
    Book Last Read: Research materials for work.
    Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
    Latest Artistic Project: Make Art Not War 2017 Challenge and Rules
    Latest Releases: In Volo’s Wake for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Read my end-of-the-year list of releases for an overview of what I’ve put out for 2016.
    Current State of Projects: Read my latest project update. New project update coming this month!



February 8, 2017
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On Personal Power

Sephiroth Avatar

Back in November, I asked other artists if they thought that politics would impact their work. Most said yes, and a few others told me they couldn’t let that happen because of the type of work they did. For me, it was a confirmation that other people were feeling the same way I was. Only, I didn’t know how I could help in a way that mattered. Though I am introverted to a degree, I lose touch with the reason why I make art if I don’t connect. Just focusing on my own page only works up to a point; too much time alone and I turn into Captain Caveman. Not enough, and I’m Animal.

Enter the Make Art Not War 2017 Challenge. By focusing on making art and talking about how to retain that focus, I thought, maybe I could help people weather the political storm in my own way. Those who are taking the challenge are to varying degrees; as their focus narrows, they abandon the online spaces they used to frequent to spend that time making art. Challengers aren’t the only ones who don’t visit online communities as much; many other people I know have, too. It’s overwhelming. It’s hard to know or trust what the truth is. That’s when the questions start: What can I do? Why do I feel so small? What voice do I have?

The question “What can I do?” also seems to be generating guilt for a lot of people. “What’s the point of making art when the world goes to shit?” “Why does my work matter?” which then leads to surfing the web for answers. Maybe one pundit will have something smart to say about why we are where we are or what we can do to fix it. Maybe my friends will agree with me that the proposed policies are shit and we can commiserate so you’ll feel better knowing other people feel the same way you do. Or, maybe just maybe if you can convince “that one guy” on the internet they’re wrong, you’ll win.

Only, you know deep down you can’t convince “that one guy” on the internet. Hell, you can’t convince your own family members to listen to you. You’ve heard of confirmation bias, of course, but you have to try. The question I have for you isn’t about why you’re having the argument in the first place, or why you’re feeling the way you do about making/selling/promoting your art, or why you’re doing anything you’re doing. The question I have for you is simply this: “What can you do?”

My guess is that you’re already doing everything you can, and you’re still feeling guilty that you’re not doing more. Some of you are calling your state Senators and Representatives. Some of you are protesting. Some of you are voting in the mid-term elections or are running for office. Some of you are donating to PEN America, the ACLU, the EFF, the Hero Initiative, the RPG Creator’s Relief Fund, Planned Parenthood, etc. Whatever it is you’re doing, you feel like it’s not enough. Then, you’ll read some pundit’s article about how protests don’t matter, how your small donations won’t add up, how your feel-good efforts are misguided and don’t count, how all your activism online is boosting the signal to an echo chamber. Or worse, you or someone you know is directly impacted by all that’s been happening and now you’re in pain. You feel powerless, and in your heart of hearts you know that’s the edge of the abyss that leads to anxiety and depression.

It is depressing and, like you, I feel powerless. I’m not a politician, I’m not a brilliant scientist or a doctor or a lawyer, I’m not wealthy, either–I’m an entertainer. So, here’s how I’m dealing with this: I start with what I can do, not with what I can’t. I focus on making those moments count.

Actions like:

  • Reconnecting and building local communities
  • Reviving a pen pal
  • Dusting off old to-do lists
  • Going for a walk–movement matters!
  • Getting my address book up-to-date
  • Sending birthday cards

Will taking small actions like these change the world? No, they won’t. They’re so small and inconsequential–what’s the point? They will, however, help me in other ways because they’re affecting my world. Maybe I can lift a friend’s spirits; maybe I can encourage a fellow artist to make their deadline; maybe I can find a young writer to mentor; maybe I’ll meet new people.

Despite politics, the bills come every month. Meals still need to be cooked. Sleep still needs to happen. Deadlines still have to be met; art still has to be made(1). It doesn’t matter what era of history we’re in–events on a timeline are not reflective of the people who live through them. We are all a part of the living fabric of history, and that’s why I am directing my attention to having a life. That is what I can control. Even then, dear reader, I am human. Sometimes, I make the mistake of adding the word “should.” That’s when I make my world smaller. If I can’t do a big thing, I turn my attention to doing something small. If I can’t do something small, I focus on something smaller and smaller and smaller still. Then, I grow from there.

By focusing my attention on my personal power(1), I don’t feel so powerless anymore. It’s not a perfect solution. It may even sound incredibly lame, misguided, or filled with privilege, but as a survivor I’ve learned over time that self-care isn’t selfish. It only feels that way sometimes–especially if you’ve been in an abusive relationship. It only feels that way when someone else says you aren’t doing enough, your attention is misguided, you aren’t helping in the way they think matters. That someone else is not you, however. You’re the only person who knows how to best take care of yourself, and that person is the one you need to listen to.

(1) Friend of mine shared this article that making more art than you consume has health benefits. Shiny!
(2) Personal power is a theme I’m working on in stories I’ve written recently.

    Mood: So sick of winter it’s not even funny.
    Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: Erm… Two. No three!
    Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: Walking, walking, walking
    In My Ears: A snoring cat.
    Game Last Played: Dragon Age: Inquisition
    Book Last Read: Research materials for work.
    Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
    Latest Artistic Project: Make Art Not War 2017 Challenge and Rules
    Latest Releases: In Volo’s Wake for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Read my end-of-the-year list of releases for an overview of what I’ve put out for 2016.
    Current State of Projects: Read my latest project update. New project update coming this month!



February 7, 2017
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MANW Week 5 Check-In and Get Organized in February

The Tick Weapons Lab Avatar

Hello challengers! It’s the start of a brand new month, and that means I’m kicking off a new theme. In January, my year-long MANW initiative started with a month of playing and experimenting with different art forms. Out of that, I had fun playing around with new jewelry design techniques, watercolor, lettering, and a few side projects that had been lingering–plus I’ve also generated some plans for what I refer to as Operation: Muchness.

I hope you enjoyed January’s theme. If you got off the horse, keep in mind that’s pretty natural–especially this time of year. Many people break New Year’s Resolutions for a variety of reasons.

When a goal isn’t met, I find it’s usually because the initial goal was too:

  • complicated
  • unrealistic
  • time-intensive
  • frustrating!

Often, goals require preparation. Or, in other words, you have to subtract something in order to add that new behavior in your life. Plus, if your personal life goes wonky, your goal needs to be so simple you can refocus and redirect your attention even in smaller chunks. According to this article, it takes 66 days to form new habits. I’m of the mind that its closer to 100, however, or three months. Why? Well, consider that the best way to achieve a goal is to break it up into smaller, more manageable chunks or milestones. If your new, desired behavior requires more time than expected or winds up not working for you, you’ll know that’s the case within that first month. Then, you’ll need time to make adjustments to ensure your revised goal will work for you.

Regardless of whether or not you embraced January’s PLAY theme, I hope you figured out what was and wasn’t working for you so you could make room in your life for more art.

February’s Theme: ORGANIZE

February’s theme is all about getting your art supplies, files, etc. organized, and I’m going to provide tips throughout the month to help you clean and sort your materials. This tactic will help you assess what you have in order to make room for the new art that you’re making. It’s also a way of assessing your own inventory; this is important to do from time-to-time, if you plan on making money from your art or wish to revive old projects and see them across the finish line.

As a heads up, I’m planning on embracing some artistic challenges this Fall, like NaNoWriMo.org and Inktober for my monthly themes. Organizing now will help you get used to your new processes, too, before you wrap your time making art if you decide to take another challenge later on.

Creative Challenge: Why Organize?

To get started, the first step will be to narrow down your personal goals for organizations. Why do you want to get organized in the first place? What do you want to do with your space? What do you want to obtain? Make more use out of? Get rid of?

If you have a lot of supplies and projects, or you feel you’re so scattered you have no idea where to start, this is a great time to free-write and get in touch with what you want.

More questions to consider:

  • Can you list/name the art projects you haven’t finished yet?
  • What do you need to finish your projects?
  • When was the last time you used your art supplies?
  • What do you keep buying more of?
  • What can’t you never seem to find when you need it?
  • Do you have excess lower quality art supplies that don’t quite work for what you need?
  • Do you have space available for storage?
  • Do you have space to make art?
  • Of the spaces that you do have, how are you using them now?

Thinking more deeply about storage spaces and inventory is one way of setting goals. For example, I have beads I’ve purchased over the years that were for patterns I liked. I also received some beads as a gift, and others because I thought they were cool. Now, my beads are partially sorted into CraftMates Lockables containers for easy access; others are in see-through vinyl bags in larger containers. Right now, I have no way of knowing or remembering everything I wanted to make; I found an extra bin of beads last night, where I separated out the beads by type for the pattern.

In other words, I have three storage systems going on and inventory I haven’t quite figured out yet. For patterns, I have two systems; hard copy and digital. But, I can’t look at my beads and go, “Oh yes, I have enough to make this.” That leads to buying more beads, guessing the colors I need, and a lot of potential waste.

I have a few reasons why I want to organize my jewelry components. They are because I want to:

  • reduce buying supplies I don’t use
  • make better use out of the supplies I do have
  • use lower quality supplies for learning new techniques
  • reduce the time it takes me to set up and clean up
  • make better use out of my storage space

From these answers, you can start to see the roots of an organizational wish list I’ll customize according to the space and materials I have. Before I start re-arranging or setting up yet another process, I now understand what I want to accomplish. That “why” is pretty important, because without it I’m just cleaning and sorting to make more space. Instead, I need to focus on usable space and systems that will help me make more art.

That’s it for today’s post. I hope you’re continuing to make art! If you want to check in, you can comment below and tell me how you’re doing. What’d you think of January’s theme?

    Mood: I am a focused grasshopper.
    Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: Funny story… I drank loads of green tea thinking it was herbal. So, a lot. Whoops!
    Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: Hour of yoga
    In My Ears: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 23 – Allegro (Part L1)
    Game Last Played: Dragon Age: Inquisition
    Book Last Read: Research materials for work.
    Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
    Latest Artistic Project: Make Art Not War 2017 Challenge and Rules
    Latest Releases: In Volo’s Wake for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Read my end-of-the-year list of releases for an overview of what I’ve put out for 2016.
    Current State of Projects: Read my latest project update. New project update coming this month!



February 1, 2017
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MANW Check-In Week 4: Celebrating One Month, January’s Accountability, and Turning No into Yes

Congratulations! We’re now in Week 4 of the Make Art Not War Challenge 2017. How are you doing? This month’s theme was PLAY, and I hope you’ve embraced that with vigor. The theme was designed for you to plant the seeds for discipline; I will help you grow as the year continues, by building off of this initial theme every month.

Okay, now that we’re in week four this is a good time for me to check in with all of you and see how committed I’ve been to my pledge.

My Make Art Not War 2017 Challenge pledge:

  • I pledge to devote one hour a day to my original art.
  • If I don’t feel motivated, I pledge to write down the reasons why I wanted to take this challenge for fifteen minutes or one-to-three pages whichever comes first.
  • I pledge to mark down on the calendar whenever I complete a day’s efforts.
  • As the challenge creator, I pledge to create a weekly accountability post every Wednesday beginning on January 9th. Comments will be open. Hashtag #makeartnotwar2017 #manw2017
  • I pledge to check into social media twice a week for personal use, and once a month with my local community of artists and writers.

January 2017 Accountability

  • I made original art for one hour every day when I could. I had a convention, and I figured out that making art while at conventions is more involved than I imagined it would be.
  • I did not have a problem with motivation.
  • I used gold star stickers to mark down on the calendar when I made art.
  • I have posted the accountability posts and did use the hashtags #makeartnotwar2017 #manw2017.
  • I did fall down on social media usage, because I wanted to keep abreast of political changes and right now I’m regretting that. More on this below.

Okay, so where I fell down was on social media. It’s hard to extricate myself from it, because I do log in for work. The problem isn’t doing that “one quick thing”, it’s the fact that I have had 24-7 access to it on my phone, my dual monitors, etc. So, yesterday I made the decision to remove access on my phone; I’ll put it back when I’m traveling, but for now this is the safest and best approach going forward.

How I’ve Been Using Social Media

In talking to other friends so many of us rely on social media for making plans and remaining in touch as well. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had that begin with “Well, didn’t you see what happened on Facebook?” Even when I do use it, I’m not on it enough to know or read what everyone is up to. I’ve been engaging with Facebook Groups more, though, and I also use Messenger. The nice thing about Messenger, is that it’s a separate app so I don’t need Facebook on my phone. That’s definitely staying.

With respect to Twitter, I was using the service as a news aggregator and… Well, I just cannot have access to the news 24-7, either. The only solution is to disconnect and stick to my original pledge. It didn’t affect my productivity this month, but that’s never the problem. The issue is that it impacts my mood, and that’s when my focus and enthusiasm for my original art tends to go by the wayside.

I’m seeing quite a few of you checking in on the Twitter hashtag–and that’s great! Don’t be afraid to revisit your personal promises, too, because next week’s check-in kicks off a brand new month. Exciting!

Creative Challenge: Turning “No’s” Into “Yes’s”

Some of you may have stopped and started on this challenge. You had every intention of making art every day, of setting aside your frustration, and focusing on yourself. You might feel guilty for taking that time, or might be comparing yourself to other, more established artists wondering if you’ll ever get “there.” Or, you might feel a ton of pressure to be perfect or make a gorgeous, saleable piece of art every time you sit down to create.

Negativity is a Creative Challenge that you’ll have to overcome if you want to establish a routine and sharpen your focus. Right now, what you’re telling yourself is “No, I can’t do this.” The reasons why you’re saying “No.” will vary widely, but that negativity is exacerbated by everyone around you and our current political climate. It does have an impact, even if you can’t see it now; artists are keen observers, because it’s up to

The question you need to ask yourself is: “How do I turn a ‘No’ into a ‘Yes’?” If you cannot say “Yes, I will devote my time to making art and focusing on my craft.” then how can you expect anyone else to publish, buy, or support your finished works?

Your reasons for saying “Yes!” to yourself will also vary; the first step, however, is to recognize that you are saying “No.” Then, it’s up to you to figure out why that is to overcome your personal, often very emotional, challenge. I believe you can do it, and I wish you the best of luck.

Now that we’re a month in–tell me how you’re doing! Comments are open, and I’d love to hear how this challenge is impacting your life as an artist.



January 25, 2017
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Creative Prompt: A Time Capsule You’ll Open In Four Years

Wonder Woman Avatar

Today’s creative prompt is inspired by the Presidential Inauguration and, in part, by famous artists and actors like Octavia Butler and Bruce Lee who wrote down the definitive goals they had for their careers. Simply, my idea is to use the words “I will…” and then list what you will do during the next four years.

To turn this into a creative prompt and kick your artistic nature into high gear, create a time capsule for your future self instead. You might write a letter to yourself and seal it away, only to be opened again in four years. You might find a shoebox or some other container and fill it with slips of paper to remind yourself where you are now, what you hope for, and what you think will happen. Or, you might take this as an opportunity to find images and pictures to record for your future self; these are elements that you believe are super important that you will hang on to–no matter what.

Creating a time capsule, either through letter writing or by using your physical space, gives you the gift of time. It removes a small piece of yourself from this moment and helps you visualize yourself in four years. It’s also a way to bring hope and clearly pinpoint what you’re feeling as well, and that can be powerful on multiple levels. Though, if you want to go the traditional route and put artifacts in the capsule, that’s great, too!

The key for this prompt will be to remember where you put the time capsule four years from now. If you’re writing a letter to yourself, I would put it in a sealed envelope and attach it to December in your 2017 wall calendar. Then, I’d continue moving the envelope to December 2018, 19, and 20 until it’s read to be opened. Alternatively, you could go the digital route and use a service like My Time Capsule, instead.



January 20, 2017
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Monica Valentinelli > Make Art Not War Challenge

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