In which we make plans.

So I’ve noticed something.

Wait, let me back up.

I’m in one of those ‘twitchy’ creative stages right now – not a downswing, definitely not a low point, but also not one of those flurries of creative activity — in the vast, unending sine-wave of my life, the creative moon is waxing, but hasn’t quite hit the zenith. I feel like I’m about one ounce of inspiration short of super-saturation, at which point in time, DOING something with said energy will become a self-fulfilling prediction.

The problem is, there aren’t ‘good’ gaps in which I can use this energy right now, so rather than allowing myself to hit that super-saturation point, I’m bleeding off some of the energy in drips and drabs in various ways.

(Yes, I know; if I REALLY wanted to do something seriously substantive with this energy, I’d clear the distractions and get to it. I’m not at that stage yet, and believe me when I say that when I am, distractions get cleared. For now, just accept that’s not happening and move along.)

Some of it gets used on gaming. I call that a win. Some gets used on mini-stories that I jot into my notebook – another win.

Some of it’s getting used on Planning. I’m not sure if that’s a win.

What I mean is that, when I’m cooped up, can’t write, and don’t have another creative outlet immediately handy, I start planning stuff. This can be kind of frustrating, because such planning starts to fill up my calendar, perpetuating the situation in which I continue to not have blocks of time in which to do proper creative work (especially when some of my planning is for stuff to do in an MMO, where there’s ALWAYS something more to do). What shall we do on Monday night? Tuesday? And let’s figure out what we’re doing on the Wednesday game night. And THAT thing won’t work on a weeknight, so how about we put that in for a big six-hour block on Sunday? And we need to finish up the deck painting, so let’s do that on Saturday. Date night, we should go see that new movie… and Friday night we’ll do something with our friends whom we haven’t seen for weeks.

And the week is gone.

I’m not complaining — it’s enough that I (finally) notice that I’m doing it; it’s the first step to curtailing the activity — but does anyone else do this? When you can’t actually create something, do you reach for your daytimer?