I have been somewhat stuck with my writing lately and am realizing more and more that I should probably focus more on my dino writing, my actual book(s), than on blogging, sharing updates on my life and even creating and sharing my dino art. All of the latter feel like a distraction from what I set out to do, a year and 8 months ago: writing and finishing a book.
The fact that the game depicted in the picture above this post, came up when I planned to write all this, is no coincidence. Although I disagree with the GAME OVER part.
For those who didn't know that this dino showing up in (y)our browser, every now and then, was actually more than a picture, here's some info:
this mini game starts after hitting space bar and can be played by just using the space bar on your keyboard, in order to jump. It stops as soon your computer is connected to the internet and you are Game Over when you hit a cactus or a flying dino.
GAME OVER it says here, after what has probably been my all time high score haha! My running T-Rex bumped into a low-flying pteranodon or pterodactyl.
This post ( and its title ) was inspired by a conversation with @riverflows and @pavanjr on Discord chat today.
Long story short, riverflows encouraged me to say NO ( to her ) if I wanted to say NO. I took my time though, as I had felt like saying NO, more or less from the start here, but I wanted to make sure that it was a conscious decision and not just an easy way out or an excuse or a NO out of feeling overwhelmed, lack of sleep, coffee induced anxiety and so on and so forth.
I also started another post that I ended up not sharing, a day or two ago, explaining how my other writing is distracting me from my dino writing.
Then, in this convo with river and pavanjr, the latter pointed out to me that "di no" is actually spanish for say(ing) no. I hadn't thought of that, even though I speak, write and understand Spanish pretty well. Another little sign showing me that saying no might make it easier to focus on my dino writing.
So, after saying NO today, I actually felt pretty relieved, which is a good sign. A NO that makes one feel bad, guilty and so on, is usually a sign that we said NO but actually wanted to say YES ( and vice versa with YES ).
It is probably also no coincidence that, while writing this post ( yeah, I know, focus is far from my forte ), I logged into reedsy.com , where I write / edit my books and I actually started adding some words that felt pretty good, not too forced. Unlike what I have been feeling lately.
I should probably go back to writing soonish, so I'm gonna cut it short here.
Let's conclude by saying that there is a chance that - from now on - I will be mainly sharing progress updates on my book writing here. I won't promise anything though ( as I know myself pretty well by now ) as I am not much of a planner - and believe me I've tried to become one - and I pretty much live day by day, going with the flow, here in Portugal.
As you all know, a lot has happened to our ( daily ) lives, in the last year and three months or so and this sure has had an impact on my writing too. It made me wonder if my message is still one worth sharing with the world. Also, I am not the same person that I was when I set out writing my dino stories. I think my story is still worth being shared though ( and so is yours ) and, being a creative, I will surely find a way to get it out into the world, one day. If it doesn't work clockwise I will try counter-clockwise.
So what about you? Do you struggle with saying NO in a way that feels good? Have you improved in this area lately? I am curious to hear your story. I am also curious in what way ( not ) saying NO impacts your creativity. .
Much love,
Vincent
It’s funny but I’m not sure what you are referring to for the dino stuff! But saying no is a great thing to do. I started doing that in the past few years and it’s good to do. I was always one to say yes even if I knew it wasn’t something I did or wanted to do. Nothing terrible like stealing stuff but with work and that it’s hard to always say yes even though you might not want to!
You might not be aware of the fact that I have been posting about ( the life of ) a velociraptor called Hypersensitivosaurus since September 2019. I will forgive you for that ;<)
Like you, I used to say YES most of the time ( as an effect saying NO to myself ), which made it harder and harder to switch to NO, as I felt others always expected a YES. It's like a muscle that grows stronger every time you practice it, though. Now I usually say YES when I mean to say YES and NO when I actually mean to say NO.
Ah I remember your hypersensitivosaurus post! I think that's how we first interacted, you might have dropped that here in the rant community! That I'm tangentially aware of, I will have to go back and look at it!
Yeah saying no is definitely a good muscle to flex! When we make our own choices it feels great instead of sort-of pressured into something.
Ah, did I? I literally thought that I only started posting in your community a couple of months back but I might have :<)
And hear hear to the goodness behind the NO saying muscle building!
Did i say no to many times ?
Is the sign i hold a big NO , until one opens up to me ?
Did my stand where , i do not consent , interfere with my creativity ?
I guess it does , or there must be some other global cosmic mystery going on .
And is it no coincident that our mental condition follows the Sun cycles .
Creativity , survival , is becoming a struggle for all somehow .
And now i wonder ,.. do turkeys swim ? ;-)
Thanks for your reply!
There is definitely a 'global cosmic mystery' going on ;<)
I also start to see more and more how the sun ( and moon ) cycles, as well as the planets, influence us on a daily basis. @drrune 's posts are some of my favorite Monday to Friday reads on here.
You might want to give this write up of mine, that is almost 3 months old, a read. It explains how Cold Turkey ended up on the rock above the water and how the inspiration for my first to be released book came to me:
Cold Turkey on the Rocks - Shaken, not stirred
Good question. I might answer this in my upcoming post ;<)
Groetjes uit Portugal!
Just wanted to say (because it's often late by the time I get to your posts so I've just been reading/upvoting/running sorry x_x I should actually be in bed now but stuff happened) that I get where you're coming from with writing about other things getting in the way of writing your actual book XD I have a similar thing trying to balance life, homeschooling, AER and hive, and often feel like hive takes up a lot of time I should be 3d-ing XD
Hopefully you'll actually figure out how much time you need to be spending on the things you want to be spending time on and have everything work out :D
I have not but my excuse is I have five timelines to keep on top of and I'm sticking to it x_x
I knew you would get it :<)
We'll see about that but it sure would be nice haha!
best of luck with those time lines of yours ;<)
It's good to say no when you need to say it, and feeling good about it is a good sign, because it's a positive for mental health. After all, you have to learn to say NO, when you should. And the same with YES, but I see NO as more impactful, more sublime and stricter when it comes to responding to a decision. I'm so glad you mentioned me, thank you very much Vincent. I'm looking forward to reading your book, I'm a fan of diNO and his adventure.
Abrazos y bendiciones para ti, amigo mio. :D
Wise words and yes, there is often more of a tension behind a NO, but I think that all goes back to saying NO as a kid ( going against your parents ) or hearing NO as a kid, when you wanted to hear a YES.
Great to hear this! The dino writing continued today.
Un abrazo!
Sometimes we get sidetracked and lose focus, which is okay. Then certain events make us aware that we need to finally get back on track, and pick ourselves back up. I hope you get to continue writing your book and rise above the challenges along the way (for ex. getting distracted, losing focus, procrastination, etc.).
Yes, I just said NO to a job that doesn't fulfill me anymore. I am happier to be back here and pursue my passion and other opportunities. Life has endless possibilities. 😊
Very true. I feel I just needed to get this post out there to get going again. It seems to have worked.
Glad you managed to say NO to your job. I felt that it was doing you more bad than good for quite some time. When we close certain doors, others open to us.
Big hug!
So true! 🙏☺️
Saying no is the best feeling for me because I used to our others happiness before my own without even realizing it.
I understand the difficulty in focusing all too well. That’s why I started trying to try have some discipline about the things most important to my life. You know me though. My discipline isn’t very strict. I have 30 minutes set aside for working on bushes stuff and 30 minutes set aside for writing my novel (although I already decided June would be all about my body). If I want to keep going after 3 minutes I can, but I gotta put those 30 minutes in even if I split it up into 3x10 and end up deleting everything.
Been there, done that, so many times.
Which makes me wonder you do in those 'bushes' ;<)
I like that 30 minute rule. All little steps add up, after all, over time.
Cheers!