All right, luvvies? I've been ill for about the past three weeks, either with one evolving cold or a series of different ones, rotating in and out like unwelcome lodgers. I hope all your Februarys were better!
One thing that pepped me up was seeing your favourite pieces of creative advice after my last letter – like this one:
"...in my first term of first year creative writing class [the lecturer] set us an assignment with a 1000 word limit and some asked if that was plus or minus 10% and he said 'if you're writing for a publication and they tell you to write 1000 words you're being paid by the word and they won't have space for more so you better write exactly the amount you've been told to.' ... I took away from that 'Work with the constraint, not against it' and I continue to believe that a constraint of any kind is the single greatest creative asset you can have"
Thank you so much for sharing! Now let's see what I can produce for you within the creative constraint of a stupid runny nose.
soliloquy: inside the writer's journal
asides: Interactive Soup imminent, guest appearances, what's new with Merely Roleplayers, what I'm making and enjoying, #pinspiration
fin: what do you use to organise and keep track of tasks and projects?
I use a bullet journal. Actually "use" might not be a strong enough word; I rely on a bullet journal, to keep track of multiple projects and day-to-day life tasks without getting overwhelmed or dropping threads. I'm not exaggerating when I say it's a system that's significantly changed how I work and live my life.
If you're raising a bit of an eyebrow at that, I wouldn't blame you. Because the culture around capital-initials Bullet Journalling can be ... well, at its worst it can get a bit Goop-esque. Which is not very me.
But underneath all the washi tape and pastel highlighters and calligraphy on Instagram, and the wellness and goal manifestation talk, the bullet journal technique is a really solid, functional system for managing time and workload. Which is an essential when you're balancing a day job with several strands of creative side hustle, and you don't want your flat becoming a pigsty, and you want a social life as well, oh and you have depression.
When I first heard of bullet journalling (I think from Kelly Sue Deconnick's newsletter) and went looking for more information, what I found was photos of the incredible spreads people share on Instagram and Pinterest. That put me off the technique for a while. Every spread was so meticulously shaded, illustrated, coloured and lettered. All I wanted was a way to organise my notebooks and stop my to-do list getting overwhelming. The journalling I was seeing in those spreads looked like it would add significantly to my workload, not help me manage it.
The bullet journal layouts I use today are fairly stark and utilitarian by comparison. I was sort of embarrassed by that for a while. But I've come to see – well, first off, that the spreads people share online are showpieces, deliberately beautified for public display. But also that there can be beauty in a utilitarian layout as well. So I'm going to share a few here. (Still not sure about putting them on the 'gram, though.)
Interactive Soup is this Tuesday 14 March, 6pm, Theatre Deli, London
Interactive Soup tickets cost £5 and get you entry to the event, a bowl or two of soup, and a vote. All the ticket money (usually about £200-£250) goes in a pot (separate from the soup), five different people pitch ideas for how the money could fund or improve an interactive performance, and everyone votes on which idea gets the money. There are still some tickets left – get yours and I'll see you there!
Let's start with the basic unit of the bullet journal: the weekly log.
This one's extra stark because it's mostly unfilled. Otherwise, it's representative of my usual weekly log – I haven't beautified this for the internet.
Top left: regular tasks I need to remember to do at least once a week.
Under that: space to note things I need/want to buy (groceries, books people recommend to me, etc.)
Bottom left: mood, sleep quality, and snooze time trackers. I've been tracking these factors a couple of years now and, while I don't actually do much with the information, I have found that I hit the snooze button less when I know I'm going to have to make a note of it. It's also good to remember to check in at the end of each day and ask myself if it was a high, middling or low mood day.
The rest of the left-hand page is a big blank space for to-do items and notes. When I set up the page for the week on a Sunday, I usually end up filling about a third of this space with to-do items carried over from the previous week or promoted from the monthly log. I then cross things off and add new things as the week goes on.
The left column of the right-hand page is for scheduling tasks or events that need doing at a specific time of day, like nights out or lunchtime errands. The right column is for tasks that need doing that day but not at a specific time, and for notes about the day. Once I've filled the big list on the left-hand page, I'll allocate items to the day-by-day planner on the right, so I can see what I actually have time for and what I might not be able to fit in that week.
That right-hand page has been the real lifesaver. I used to try to keep a big long running to-do list that just kept getting longer. Then I'd beat myself up about not getting through enough of it in a week. Now I spend a few minutes on a Sunday plotting out how much time I actually have to play with in the coming week, and working out what I can realistically get done with that time. Then I just follow the plan.
My latest guest appearance on the What Am I Rolling? podcast is out now! I play Gertrude, a trans teen runaway, in a two-part playthrough of Chapter 1 of Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast from Possum Creek Games. Yazeba's is an intensely delightful Ghibli-esque slice of life game about the inhabitants of a magical B&B who mess up, pick themselves up, and grow closer.
Our game also stars Merely Roleplayers regulars Alexander Pankhurst as Parish (a knight turned frog turned chef), Natalie Winter as Hey Kid! (a demon child) and Strat as Amelie (a robot housekeeper) – alongside What Am I Rolling? host Fiona as Sal, the B&B's night porter. Chapter 1 is all about the residents trying to throw a surprise birthday party for Gertrude, who hates surprises and her birthday. There is a strong chance you'll laugh and cry at this one. (If you do, please leave a review for What Am I Rolling? saying so!)
Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast Part 1 | Part 2 | What Am I Rolling? home
And if you enjoy that, you might also like the previous Merely Roleplayers/What Am I Rolling? crossover, where we played Sleepaway (also by Possum Creek Games):
Let's keep zooming out. From weekly log to monthly log:
Yes, you can see I do allow myself some fancy handwriting flourishes on this one. I only have to do one of these a month, after all.
Again, this is an unfilled example, but it's straightforward enough. The left page is for events – family visits, recording sessions, theatre trips, and so on. The right-hand page is just another to-do list, broken into:
Regular: stuff I need to do at least once a month, like reading the electricity meter and getting a haircut.
Priority: stuff that absolutely has to get done that specific month, like writing the next newsletter or producing upcoming podcast episodes.
Projects: other stuff related to creative projects, that isn't urgent for this month, but is still ongoing and I don't want to lose track of it.
To do: non-work to-do items, from replacing light bulbs to buying people's birthday presents.
Both the weekly and monthly logs are active at once. Someone says let's go out this Friday? It goes in the weekly log. Someone says let's go out next Friday? It goes in the monthly log, ready to be plotted into a weekly log when I get to that week.
Someone says let's go out two months from now?
That goes in the future log, right at the front of the journal. Each of these month grids has a column underneath listing out what's booked in on the circled days. Circles are events, squares are days off my day job.
Once upon a time I used Google Calendar for this stuff. But then there was a brief period where it was having issues syncing between my phone and laptop, and I missed one or two things because of it – that's when I went analogue and haven't looked back yet!
Now playing in the Studio: Falling Cadence, a soft-boiled noir mystery in 3 acts
Baby-faced private investigator Cadence’s first case threatens to tangle her in a deadly web of intrigue and corruption.
Backstage: Backstories
Also sort-of in the Studio, The Feed continues over on the Merely Roleplayers Instagram. Cliques are forming among the housemates, Big Brother's tasks are getting tougher, and wellness influencer Sterling Vandervibe (Quinn Majeski from Monster Hour) has had a horrifying glimpse behind the cameras...
Coming next
in the Main House: Vigil: The Great Fire, starring Ellie Pitkin as Persephone Byron, Strat as Brier, Dave as Mick Mason, and Chris MacLennan as Ed Kincaid
then in the Studio: an as-yet untitled production starring Fiona from What Am I Rolling? and Naomi, writer of The Secret of St Kilda, playing Court of the Lich Queen (beta) by Ursidice
then more Vigil in the Main House, followed by The Office Party, a heroic fantasy team-building exercise starring Natalie Winter, Strat, Starkey and Dave, compered by Josh Yard, playing Quest
The final major building block of the bullet journal as keeping-on-top-of-things tool is the index:
(Ooh, censor bars. I've been doing some work in this journal that's still eyes-only for now.)
The list on the left helps me find my monthly and weekly logs again quickly. The right-hand page is for projects, and for other lists that need a bit more space than the weekly/monthly logs allow.
Because I'm not just using these journals as planners. I do a lot of writing and things in them too.
I did try, at one point before starting bullet journalling, to assign different notebooks to different projects. The problem with that was, what if I was out and about and felt like working on a project, but didn't have the relevant notebook on me? It was too at risk of giving me excuses not to make progress on things.
My default has always been just having one notebook on the go at a time, and using it to work on anything and everything. Jotting down random observations on one page, drafting scenes or chapters of ongoing projects on the next few, switching back and forth. The problem with that, of course, is you have to hunt to find all the fragments of a particular project if you're trying to type it up or something.
Turns out the solution was as simple as:
number your pages (or buy notebooks with the pages already numbered)
use the index to note the first page you use for a particular project
always start a new thing on a fresh spread – no switching topics halfway down a page
if, for example, you do some work on I Need A Miracle on pp.33-34, then interrupt it for some notes on Merely Roleplayers on pp.35-36, then go back to I Need A Miracle on pp.37-38, make notes in the bottom corners of pp.34 and 37 that point to each other, to save yourself hunting later
Speaking of, here's a Merely Roleplayers production planning spread:
These are ever-evolving, as I work out the best order to do things in. Like all the spreads so far, it's really just a to-do list – but one laid out in a way that makes a complex, time-consuming process with lots of fiddly moving parts feel comprehensible and under control.
Writing: Despite what I said in the last letter, still I Need A Miracle! Some of the scripts needed a bit more polishing, and being ill has set me back this month. Plus, before I move on properly from this project, I want to put together a decent pitch deck for it.
Reading: Interzone issue 294 (back after a hiatus and looking better than ever in a new compact format); The Inheritance Trilogy by NK Jemisin (omnibus paperback – I'm on the third of the trilogy now!)
Listening: Worlds Beyond Number (Fortunate Horse), Mayfair Watchers Society (Bloody FM), One in a Thousand (Obey Robots)
These last two layouts are not 'layouts' exactly, not in the same way as the others I've shared. But all the structure and organisation of the index and the weekly, monthly and future logs are to give me the headspace for stuff like this:
(high-level notes on I Need A Miracle, with some spoilers blurred)
And this:
(an I Need A Miracle script draft, fully blurred for now!)
These spreads don't need structure. Imposing structure on them would constrain the thinking they're there to capture. Brainstorming and first drafts need to be allowed to be wild. Structure and function elsewhere mean I can let myself go wild on these pages, without worrying about whether something else should be a higher priority.
I like looking at other people's showpiece spreads on Instagram now. I don't think the big calligraphy and illustrations will ever be for me – I'm a word person! And I need all that page space for TASKS! But now that I've found some layouts that work for me, and found the beauty in them, I don't feel nearly so intimidated by other people's any more.
Left: a big button badge showing a tentacle and the words "WEIRD SCOUT" – a Welcome to Night Vale classic.
Right: a white button badge with blood spatter over the typewritten words "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", from the Design Museum's Kubrick exhibition. Because in among all this talk of staying on top of your to-do list, it's important not to fall prey to toxic productivity! Plan in some rest time on those weekly logs! (I'm talking to myself as much as anyone else here!)
Thanks for reading! Did I pique your interest in bullet journalling? If you actually want to start using the technique, I'm afraid I've probably given just enough information to be confusing, so let me know if you'd like more info (without having to pay $250 for the official course).
How do you keep track of your time, tasks and commitments? Are you digital, analogue or a hybrid? Is there a killer technique that's made your life a doddle? Tell me in an email (just hit reply) or tag your answer on the socials with #FoggyOutline.