use what you have and keep going ffs
ideas on either revitalising the project or throwing it in the bin
welcome to bee-witched zines, a newsletter about zines, spiral time, ocean time, bee time, vampire time and, er, wait, yes slowing down. This post originally appeared on my website, and you can explore other articles there if you’d like.
OK! onward!
This is a post about pulling the breaks on that kind of procrastinating that feels like you’re creating something, and using the materials and research you have. to just DO THE THING.
There is a particular kind of sleek, slippery procrastination that feels like I’m Actually Creating. The usual suspects include researching, saving links, buying supplies, making mood boards, collecting prompts. Opening twelve tabs about the thing I might write one day.
Now, to be clear, I’m not shaming anyone here. Creative people often have hoards. Not always huge ones, though let us be honest, sometimes huge. (Mine are huge)
✩₊˚.⋆☾𓃦☽⋆⁺₊✧
✩₊˚.⋆☾𓃦☽⋆⁺₊✧
On top of this…what if you’re into what can feel like way too many things? Are you careening from half-finished projects to shiny new ones and then back again? Do you feel genuinely guilty every time you pass the half-finished project sitting there forlorn, gathering dust?
Me too! Hooray!
I don’t have a product or a book or a course I can try and hawk to you to solve this problem BUT I have some ideas on either revitalising the project or throwing it in the bin.
Revitalising a physical art project with what you’ve got
Gather 10 existing fragments: notes, scraps, photos, drafts, colours, or materials. 10 sounds like a lot? Maybe 3 or 6. 8? Or any pretty number, really.
Make one new piece using only those fragments.
What else is lying around, hopefully waiting for the day you remember you own it? (use it, the day is today).
Stopping hoarding ideas and information for your story
Ban new research for 7 days
Stuck? Find 1 old sentence that still feels alive and build a new paragraph around it.
Even stucker? Cut the piece out into paragraphs and move them around into some bizarro version of itself.
How I’m doing this in real life
with an art piece I’m currently working on
How I’m doing this with the unfolding slowly book: it’s an ongoing body of work that I think of as unfolding slowly. It’s about paper, thread, and found treasure gathered over time. Reminder: book binding tutorial
Signing off,
Jessica
From the archives:
Spiral time, ocean time, bee time, vampire time
Here we are again, in the endless end of August, turning into September. I feel like my whole life is the end of August, the last golden hours, the whispers of autumn to come.
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☆.𓋼𓍊 𓆏 𓍊𓋼𓍊.☆
And finally…if you’re looking to slow down I made you this:
Pause and Create: a ‘slow art’ starter kit workbook zine.
Free workbook zine download. No fancy rituals needed; this is just a zine for grounding and slowing down. Print, read, create, breathe, rest.