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thefridayfive
May. 15th, 2011 10:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cudaFive Creative Ways to Kill Time...
1. At work
I kill time at work by making tiny sketches, and by writing. I guess I wouldn't call it 'killing time' because at my current job there isn't much time left for killing. Gah, obviously I've been playing Minecraft too much already, because I have this mental image now of approaching a big mountain of time and pounding off some blocks to craft into something else. Somehow I have the impression that the blocks would be blue and translucent.
ANYWAY.
Most of the time when I draw or write at work, I'm doing it as a stress reliever, or - more so in writing than drawing - I have an itch to write a specific idea that just won't leave me alone. It seems like everyone has their own personal best time to write. Mine used to be in the wee small hours after everyone had gone to bed, because it was quiet. I can't write with auditory distractions going on around me, even small ones. Now, however, due to the way my sleep patterns shifted as a result of my work schedule, my most creative time of day is around 10:30, 11:00 in the morning. Nnnnnnot generally the best time to get ideas, since I tend to not have more than a few minutes to write the idea down.
Other things I've done in the past include bending artwork and/or implements of destruction from paperclips. I made a catapult out of a paperclip that flipped a crumpled up ball of sticky note paper over the top of my monitor. I had to stop after that, because if I didn't I wouldn't be able to contain my giggles and would either have to explain what was so funny or make something up.
2. Waiting in line
I don't - as a general rule - do anything creative while standing in line because I get SUPER anxious about what's going to happen when my turn comes up. I have an almost obsessive fear of inconveniencing people and it's never more present than while queuing.
It's fun to think about the kinds of creative things I could do to kill time here, though! If I could, I'd check out the people around me and make up stories about them, from why they're here in line to why they look so pissed off.
3. Riding in a car/public transportation/etc.
Plot. Plot plot plot. This is one place where I can effectively shut out the noise around me. If I'm alone in a car, I will literally talk to myself like two people brainstorming a script. I'll ask myself questions, pose answers, comment on that, pose more. If I'm not alone, I tend to work on scenes, specifically trying to put myself into the atmosphere of the scene and the headspace of the character.
Subcategory: Riding in a car at night: I pretend I'm Dean Winchester. No, really. And my little jellybean-blue import is actually the Impala. And I'm trying to get back to Bobby's before the infestation of zombies comes out of the woods around me and chokes off my way home, or else I'm driving some country road I've done research on and know is haunted and I'm expecting it to put in an appearance at any time. My favorite one of this is a lost brigade of Confederate horse soldiers, because nothing would be cooler than to see a phantom cavalry plunge across the road.
4. Waiting for your date (this can be anyone you are meeting) to arrive
This one's complicated. Basically, since I get anxious about dealing with people (with the exception of immediate family and my girl), I tend to do things engineered to NOT think about them at all. I like to get out a notebook and a pen and write randomly, stream of consciousness, or else go dig out some research I was doing and get back into it. If I'm in a situation where I don't have access to those things, I'll look at things in my environment and try to decide what color they are. Julie Andrews Edwards wrote this fantastic book called The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles featuring a professor who points out that even a winter day isn't drab if you know how to look. Trees aren't only brown, snow isn't only white, and the world is a colorful place if you're willing to see it. That observation really affected me when I read that book, and it's just fastened itself onto my psyche ever since.
5. At the airport waiting for your delayed flight to arrive
Heh. Anxiety over being in line, people, and fear over missing my flight and being stranded. Yeah, it'll be tough to calm down enough for me to do anything creative. I can't do much mentally at this point, but I can read - and I do lots of that. Playing games is also something I can do. I try to find the entire alphabet in signs, tee shirts, logos, newspaper headlines, that sort of thing. I do that when the only magazines in the waiting room are ones I don't like, too.
1. At work
I kill time at work by making tiny sketches, and by writing. I guess I wouldn't call it 'killing time' because at my current job there isn't much time left for killing. Gah, obviously I've been playing Minecraft too much already, because I have this mental image now of approaching a big mountain of time and pounding off some blocks to craft into something else. Somehow I have the impression that the blocks would be blue and translucent.
ANYWAY.
Most of the time when I draw or write at work, I'm doing it as a stress reliever, or - more so in writing than drawing - I have an itch to write a specific idea that just won't leave me alone. It seems like everyone has their own personal best time to write. Mine used to be in the wee small hours after everyone had gone to bed, because it was quiet. I can't write with auditory distractions going on around me, even small ones. Now, however, due to the way my sleep patterns shifted as a result of my work schedule, my most creative time of day is around 10:30, 11:00 in the morning. Nnnnnnot generally the best time to get ideas, since I tend to not have more than a few minutes to write the idea down.
Other things I've done in the past include bending artwork and/or implements of destruction from paperclips. I made a catapult out of a paperclip that flipped a crumpled up ball of sticky note paper over the top of my monitor. I had to stop after that, because if I didn't I wouldn't be able to contain my giggles and would either have to explain what was so funny or make something up.
2. Waiting in line
I don't - as a general rule - do anything creative while standing in line because I get SUPER anxious about what's going to happen when my turn comes up. I have an almost obsessive fear of inconveniencing people and it's never more present than while queuing.
It's fun to think about the kinds of creative things I could do to kill time here, though! If I could, I'd check out the people around me and make up stories about them, from why they're here in line to why they look so pissed off.
3. Riding in a car/public transportation/etc.
Plot. Plot plot plot. This is one place where I can effectively shut out the noise around me. If I'm alone in a car, I will literally talk to myself like two people brainstorming a script. I'll ask myself questions, pose answers, comment on that, pose more. If I'm not alone, I tend to work on scenes, specifically trying to put myself into the atmosphere of the scene and the headspace of the character.
Subcategory: Riding in a car at night: I pretend I'm Dean Winchester. No, really. And my little jellybean-blue import is actually the Impala. And I'm trying to get back to Bobby's before the infestation of zombies comes out of the woods around me and chokes off my way home, or else I'm driving some country road I've done research on and know is haunted and I'm expecting it to put in an appearance at any time. My favorite one of this is a lost brigade of Confederate horse soldiers, because nothing would be cooler than to see a phantom cavalry plunge across the road.
4. Waiting for your date (this can be anyone you are meeting) to arrive
This one's complicated. Basically, since I get anxious about dealing with people (with the exception of immediate family and my girl), I tend to do things engineered to NOT think about them at all. I like to get out a notebook and a pen and write randomly, stream of consciousness, or else go dig out some research I was doing and get back into it. If I'm in a situation where I don't have access to those things, I'll look at things in my environment and try to decide what color they are. Julie Andrews Edwards wrote this fantastic book called The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles featuring a professor who points out that even a winter day isn't drab if you know how to look. Trees aren't only brown, snow isn't only white, and the world is a colorful place if you're willing to see it. That observation really affected me when I read that book, and it's just fastened itself onto my psyche ever since.
5. At the airport waiting for your delayed flight to arrive
Heh. Anxiety over being in line, people, and fear over missing my flight and being stranded. Yeah, it'll be tough to calm down enough for me to do anything creative. I can't do much mentally at this point, but I can read - and I do lots of that. Playing games is also something I can do. I try to find the entire alphabet in signs, tee shirts, logos, newspaper headlines, that sort of thing. I do that when the only magazines in the waiting room are ones I don't like, too.
