Liz Argall

Almost at the end of week one!

Reflections

• People are amazing. I mean I know that already but
  • I’m so happy that people are enjoying Things Without Arms and Without Legs.
  • Wow my sponsors! Getting sponsored is wonderful and humbling and amazing. A quarter of a way towards my goal already! Every time I see a “You’ve got sponsorship” e-mail I feel a thrill of excitement, so many surprises. Big big love. You can see who’s sponsored me at the bottom of my writer page.
  • Wow other people’s sponsors! It’s been wonderful to poke around at other writer pages and see the lists of sponsors grow. In my mind it’s like a great big party and a family reunion. Sometimes my mind is a bit of an idiot, but sometimes it’s pretty good at celebrating.
  • Wow other writers! Look at all the cool projects bubbling around. Looking at other people’s pages is definitely one of my favorite ways to procrastinate. Process fascinates me and I kinda get to see snippets people’s process.
  • I love pledging to other writers… I’ve made a bunch of micro pledges, but I’ve lost track of how many! I need to go through my archives and look at how much I’ve promised… so I know how much I’m up for and can pledge some more!
• Big love to the website and big love to pledges
  • It’s amazing to see how the website has grown and changed from last year
  • Seeing the donations and pledges really kicks me in the butt and encourages me to keep creating. Most of my $20 sponsors (thanks Dad! ;-)) want me to make with the words and words are coming really slowly and with great difficulty right now. My pledges mean that if I don’t maintain a creative flow Clarion will miss our on money. The juxtaposition of these two forces means that I’m pushing myself in the areas of great difficulty (words) and great joy (those things!). Both things have value and I’m really pleased with how my goals are working out this year.
  • Right now, thanks to pledges, my units of creative awesome is worth $1.80. I’ve been drawing like a demon all the way down to Portland (Hello Portland!) and knowing that when I clean up the things and upload them to the website they will fulfill $1.80 worth of promises feels quite wonderful.
• Words are hard

  

  • Which means I must make the time and space for them and respect that time
• Finding something I want to explore with art is wonderful
  • And drawing on an iPad with a stylus is my favorite thing
• Clarion West has been going for two weeks and I haven’t made it to any of the readings and social events.
  • This makes me sad because they’re a great bunch and it’s one of the highlights of the year
  • But happy too, because right now creating and creating good spaces to create is more important to me than social activity.

So that’s my abuse of bullet points reflections on week 1. I hope you are having fun adventuring in the land of words, or watching other people adventure :-)

I’m having fun.

So yesterday I wrestled with technology and wrote 150 words on a collaborative universe and collaborative media fairytale (not many words, but edging towards my first priority, a thousand words, a priority that was set by terrific sponsor Shauna Roberts).

Today I wrestled with technology again and put up the first post for the Things Without Arms and Without Legs website. Yay for fresh art (spurred on by sponsorship from Kelly Lagor). If you wish to sponsor me you can do so here.

It’s been fascinating and terrible looking at all the interesting pages on the write-a-thon. My biggest problem is I want to sponsor so many people and I may have already busted my sponsoring budget, dagnammit to heck!

If you’re thinking ‘dammit Liz, why don’t you blog more!’ never fear, for I have written something for the Horrific Miscue blog. “Writing meets Derby – there’s no such thing as no impact.”

Best

Liz