The Trouble With Feedback

I had some good feedback on my own writing a couple of weeks ago. I learned how hard it is to hear positive comments about your work. My brain somehow turned every positive into a negative and assumed the worst. I was waiting for the 'but ....' to follow every positive comments. 

I had to consciously shake myself out of it because it wasn't getting me anywhere.

Am I the only one who finds good feedback harder to hear?

Back to Learning

I haven't been documenting my learning for the Learn  Something Project as much as I intended. At first, I thought that it was because I wasn't learning anything at all. Then, I realised that it was because I have been learning so much that it has been impossible to decide what to share.

Over the past few months, I have spent most of my time learning. I passed my PhD upgrade panel last week after submitting 40,000 words. Phew! That involved some serious concentration and, yep, quite a bit of learning. Running the Handmade Writer e-course has been a huge learning experience. It is a wonderful, challenging experience but, for me, it has been all about learning how to engage people with writing and support their creative development.

Oh, and I am learning about experimental art and am still trying to learn how to play the accordion.

So, now I am trying to slow down a bit. I want to pay attention to what I am learning. I want to find a bit more space for thinking. I plan to start documenting it again.

Today, I learned the sometimes I need to start with the most different thing first. Every single day, there is something on my to-do list that I don't want to do. It could be an email that I need to send or a phone call that I need to make but it scares me. I avoid it. Often I have no idea why that one particular task bothers me so much but it does. So, starting today, I am going to do that thing first. The difficult thing will be the first thing I cross off the list. I did it today and it feels great. 

What have you learned recently that might help you work better?

I Learned ... I am going to be published in Japan

I just learned that my first book 'DIY: The Rise of Lo-Fi Culture' is going to be published in Japan by Blues Interaction. I am very excited about this. I can't wait to see my words translated into Japanese, a language I can't speak.

I Learned How to Crochet

17. I Learned How to Crochet

I have tried to learn to crochet before, many times, but I can never get the hang of it. I get stuck at the stage where it feels like I'm wrapping fiddly knots around funny hooks. I suppose that's that it is really. 

So, today I tried again. It still feels like a mess of little knots but it's getting easier. I am progressing. Slowly.

Is there anything that you'd like to learn that you've been putting off? 

I Learned ...

16. I can climb a mountain if I want to.

I might not want to very often and it made my legs ache for days afterwards but I can climb a mountain. 

I climbed this amazing mountain in Wales last week. I didn't climb up the side in the photograph because I'm not sure I could have, I went round the side but it was still very steep. 

I didn't really believe that I could get to the top. I think I said, 'Sure, I'd quite like to see what it's like up there' without really thinking. We started walking and walking and it was steep and it got steeper. We walked until we got to the tip of the top, among the clouds. Now I know that I can climb a mountain if I want to. I never knew that before.

What have you learned about yourself recently?

I learned ...

 15. I am addicted to my laptop.

I love my laptop. There is no denying that. I love the internet too. But maybe I am addicted?

I am going away to spend a few days in the most beautiful house in the middle of nowhere. It's off grid, heated by a wood burning stove and the water comes from a spring.  All this wonderful eco stuff means no electricity and certainly no internet. I hope it will be relaxing but I worry a bit that I will miss my laptop. Is that really so terrible?

I Learned ...

14. I would like to live in a paint by numbers painting.

I am a bit of a fan of vintage paint by numbers paintings. Okay, I admit I do have a few of them hanging on the walls of my study. I like landscapes with trees, log cabins, farms, houses or the odd deer. I realised that when I look at these paintings I want to jump inside and live among those chunky blocks of colour. I'd like to see the world that way.

I Learned...

8. I would rather live in a deciduous forest than a pine forest.

I would rather live in a deciduous forest than a pine forest. I learned this today while walking my dogs in a pine forest. I prefer the jumbled chaos of deciduous forests. Pine just seemed too neat.

I daydream constantly about living in a log cabin in the woods, with gingham curtains and a wood burning stove. But it would have to have high speed broadband and be near a big city. That’s where the dream always falls apart for me.

I Learned...

 

5. I have too many books.

I never believed that you could have too many books. I thought that was just something people said. But I have recently got into a lovely habit of buying at least a book a week. Before that I worked in a bookshop for years and slowly tried to buy every book I thought I might need in the future using my staff discount. If books got damaged then we could have them for free so I ended up with loads of sad torn paperbacks. I used to write book reviews so all those free proof copies got added to the piles. 

Now, I think I finally have reached the point of having too many books. They are piling up around me. I looked round my study this afternoon and they are everywhere. All the bookshelves are full and there are books stacked on top of other books. There are stacks on my desk and piles on the floor. I need more bookshelves but I have run out of space. 

So, yes I learned this afternoon that I do have too many books but I also know that I can't get rid of any of them.

I Learned ...

5. I was accepted onto an amazing mentoring programme for writers.

This is some great news that I learned today. There are only ten places on the programme and I am really excited about getting in. It is a new programme set up by a university to work with professional writers. It will be 18 months of support while I finish my novel-in-progress. I believe in finding the best support you can for your writing and I think this will be perfect for me. Days like this make me want to write even more than ever.

I Learned...

4. It is easier to do something than worrying about about not doing it.

When I am about to start a piece of writing I start to worry. I worry about finishing it and realising it is terrible. I worry about what would happen if I didn't write it at all. Then I start writing and all the ideas swimming around in my head start to some together. The writing begins to take shape and I wonder what I was so scared of in the first place. 

So, today I learned to just write it and stop worrying so much. It can't be as bad as you think it will be.

I Learned ...

3. Sometimes the only way to get any work done is by hiding in a library in an unfamiliar part of town.

This is what I do. Alot. I get much more work done when I exile myself away from my comfortable chair in my study with the happy yellow walls and spend all day in a library. I prefer an obscure library, somewhere I would never usually go. I have just found one in a suburb a few miles from my house. I don't know anyone there so I can spend hours in silence, thinking and working. It sounds dull but really it is wonderful.

I Learned...

Yep, I learned that it is hard to eat soup from a huge silver spoon in a ladylike manner. Yep, tricky.

Learn Something

This my new blog project. Since launching the first Bring Yourself e-course, I have been thinking more and more about teaching. Learning is a huge part of teaching and I want to learn more. Admittedly, I do already fit a huge amount of learning into my days. I surround myself by stacks of books in academic libraries, read novels, research obscure subjects and spend an unimaginable amount of time on the Internet. But I am hungry to learn more.

This project is about learning in a different way. I want to learn different things. Instead of big, earth shattering things, I want to learn things that are important to me. I want to find things out about myself and the places I go. I want to explore and investigate the world. Even if that is just by taking my dogs for a walk in the woods or having a conversation with someone I don't know.

As soon as I learn something, I am going to write it down on the nearest scrap of paper. I will photograph it there and then and share it with you. The sharing will be a part of the learning.

I am going to try and learn as much as possible. It will involve walking around with my eyes wide open looking for opportunities to learn. I think that's a good thing.

If you want to join me on my learning experiment/ mission/ whatever you want to call it, I would love to have you along for the ride. Please share what you learn. Maybe you could write it in the comments or post what you learn on your own blog. I would be thrilled to work on this with other people. That's when the fun stuff happens.