Sun Tzu and Project Weariness

Image from Wikipedia;
image author vlasta2

Long ago on another blog, I started an elit campaign: one public domain ebook for every letter of the alphabet.  For A, I was doing Art of War by Sun Tzu.  As I've been trying to get into it again, I am reminded of  an interesting quote:

When you engage in  actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their  ardor will be dampened. [When] your ardor [is] dampened, your strength exhausted and treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. (Sun Tzu 36)

This works with projects today, too.  No matter how passionate a person is about a  project, he or she can experience "project  weariness."  Then "other chieftains" or rather distractions will spring up and pull the person away.  In fact, I'm suffering from all this now, on my first ebook-to-be.

The easiest cure for project weariness is not to get into the situation in the first place.  How?  By following other Sun Tzu advice:

The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. (35) 

Lots of writers set up deadlines and goal dates based on what they think they can do or other  external pressures.  But something else should be included in that deadline:

• how long the writer can stand working on a project before he or she gets "project weary" and
• what activities cause the weariness.

Everyone's answer will be different.  As for me, the gal with the attention span of a flea on ADHD?  I tend to super-focus on one project.  So, that means three or four months of obsession is as much as I can bear on a novel before I need a sizeable break from it (read:  a  year or so).  However, I don't count prewriting in that time frame.  That tells me I should be doing as much work possible upfront while keeping in mind that too much might produce its own form of project weariness.

And thinking over past novels, I realize that the revision phase is a major, major area of project weariness for me.  That means I need  to continue developing my ideas on rolling edits so I have one month of edits instead of a three-month block of them. 

So in the end, it's a fine balance.  But when setting a deadline on a writing project, it is important to keep personal stick-to-it-ness in mind.  This will help guide the writer's actions, so the writer is doing most of the work when passion is high and before other distractions set in.


Cites:  Sun Tzu. The Art of War. Trans. Lionel Giles. 1910. Project Gutenberg, 1994. Epub Edition.

Author, Lead Yourself

No one can tell you what to write.  No one ever should.  But you have to realize your choices comes with disadvantages.   Sun Tzu wrote in Art of War:

[In] the wise leader's plans, considerations of advantage and of disadvantage will be blended together.

As a writer, you are you own boss--your own leader.  You must know both the disadvantages and advantages of your choices to succeed as a writer. 

In my case, I choose to write what I like.  Which means, I choose a smaller audience that fantasy allows.  Of that genre, I choose a smaller subgenre.  Finally, I choose a smaller audience that non-traditional publishing allows.  But with self-epublishing, you can get your books into the hands of the readers faster.  It means I can write them to the length that fits the story--and my ever falling attention span.  It means that I can choose to write the books I want, when I want to write, and not be told I shouldn't write them because not enough quantity can be sold to make them viable.  It means I can experiment with them, as well.

There are advantages and disadvantages to every choice you make.  So I ask, what are you choices?  What advantages do they give you?  What disadvantages do they give you?  Do you write with both in mind?  Do you lead yourself?

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Links or Items of Interest:

• My Campaign for E-literacy (first up Art of War by Sun Tzu) 
• Art of War by Sun Tzu (free at Project Gutenberg)
• The Art Of War (Paperback on Amazon - Amazon Affiliates)
• The Art of War (Kindle ebook version on Amazon - Amazon Affliates)   

Tough Slog Through the Salt-Marshes of Art of War

I have been reading on Art of War.  Honest, I have.  But I picked a bad time to adopt a new study technique.  Not to say the area I'm studying isn't helpful . . . if I were to find myself in need of fighting in a salt marsh . . . but in relation to modern day?  Not finding much to relate to.  But I will take Sun Tzu's advice on getting past this tough part, taken from the salt-marsh section itself:

"In crossing the salt-marshes, your sole concern should be to get over them quickly, without any delay."

Hmm, perhaps I found a way to relate this part of AoW to the modern day after all.
 

Journal of Self-EducationTechniques

I have begun reading a one-of-a-kind book that came too late to help me on my first elit campaigner book.  But I will read and adapt its methods as I go, in preparation for second and third choices in the campaign.  Especially, I seek to adjust it for someone with ADHD on the brain.  What book of coolness am I talking about?

This one:
 
It is about starting your own classical education, but it gave me an idea to become more engaged with this blog.  How?  By adopting and adapting the journal of self-education Ms. Bauer speaks of:

[The journal of self-education] is the place where the reader takes external information and records it (through the use of quotes, as in the commonplace book); appropriates it through a summary, written in the reader's own words; and then evaluates it through reflection and personal thought. ~ Page 36.

Most of my journal will be offline and personal, but this blog will hold clips I want to share.  The likely format will be as follows:

1. Quote or focus
2. Summary
3. Rumination

It is worth a shot anyway, and will likely lead to better implementation of the study material--which is half of what I'm shooting for in the first place.  Action, not just studying.

We'll see how it goes.  Expect the first post tomorrow.

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• Hardback version of The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had (the version I have)
• Paperback version of  The Well Educated Mind
• Kindle version of  The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had (for those who want to stay true to "e" part of this lit campaign)

Prolonged Campaign on Art of War

Photo by vlasta2, found on Wikipedia,

under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

The halfway point of Sun Tzu's Art of War is not just in sight, it has been passed.  I am on nook page 72 out 135.  Thank goodness.  But that reminds me of something.  So, so long ago, I wrote about a key point in the manual.  It was relevant then; it is relevant now. 

"When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be dampened." ~   From Page 36, Part II, Number 2

The reading and studying of AoW has threatened to become the much dreaded prolonged campaign.  But Sun Tzu also pointed out:

"Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays." ~ Same page, Same part, Number 5.

Though the last part is a downer due to my procrastination, the first part is a pick-me-upper.  Haste does not make great.  The way I read it is:  if a war is not won in a day, why should I expect to the study thereof to be accomplished any faster?  You see, there is much of Sun Tzu's advice to digest.  I'll get dyspepsia of the mind if I try to consume too fast.

That reminds me of a fresher source of advice.  A Science Daily article covered a study on complex decisions and thinking with the following result:

"the volunteers who were told to consciously think about the decision for a specific amount of time performed poorly in both experiments [conducted in the study]."  (emphasis mine)

And that: 

"although unconscious thought may help us make the right decision in some instances, it is often better to rely on self-paced conscious thought and really focus on the problem at hand."

Basically, the study showed that putting a time frame on the decision resulted in poorer decision-making results than letting your unconscious decide or letting yourself decide at your own pace.  This involved complex decisions, however.  But it made me wonder:  can it be applied elsewhere in our lives?  Namely, are we wrong to set a specific time-limit on our goals?  So, I began to think, what's the harm in testing my theory out by choosing to read and study at my own pace?--as long as their is an actual pace involved.  Non-existent or when I get to it doesn't quite count, I'm afraid.  Let's see, shall we?

A is For . . .

Introduction:  On Happiness Spotter, my self-help blog, I wrote about challenging your fears to get what you want in life.  My first program to do just that is this blog, Campaign for E-Literacy.  What is Campaign for E-Literacy?  In a nutshell it is:  Studying twenty-six non-fiction ebooks from Project Gutenberg.  I will select the books by using a title from each letter of the alphabet.  I also must read all ebooks on my nook e-reader.  I am doing this all in the name of increasing my knowledge and competency in life.  And I am starting today.

Book choice:  What is first up in the Campaign for E-Literacy?  The letter A.  In this case A is for . . . Art of War by Sun Tzu.

Book reasoning:  It is a classic that survived millennia, and by that reason alone is worth listening too.

Conclusion:  That's it.  Consider joining me in reading the Art of War or starting your own literacy program.  I would love to know your thoughts on all this.

Introduction to Campaign for E-Literacy

Introduction:  On Happiness Spotter, my self-help blog, I wrote about challenging your fears to get what you want in life.  My first program to do just that is this blog, Campaign for E-Literacy.  What is Campaign for E-Literacy?  In a nutshell it is:  Studying twenty-six non-fiction ebooks from Project Gutenberg.  I will select the books by using a title from each letter of the alphabet.  I also must read all ebooks on my nook e-reader.  I am doing this all in the name of increasing my knowledge and competency in life.  And I am starting today.

My reasoning:  I will enjoy this challenge immensely--reading, learning.  I love both.  If one could make a living by reading, I would be a millionaire already. 

If that were not enough, here is a quote by John Kieran, an American journalist.  He once said, "I am a part of all that I have read."  I believe that.  So, if I read about knowledgeable, competent people writing about their area of competence, then I become competent, bit by bit, piece by piece, book by book.

A win-win.

Format of the program:  I will post updates on my progress, interesting outside material I have read or learned about the subject/author/work, related books I want to read eventually, and the knowledge acquired thus far.  These will mostly be weekly and at milestones as I read through the book--i.e., the beginning of it, the quarter mark, the half-way point, the three-quarters mark, and the ending.  All of this will be posted on this blog.

Conclusion:  That's it.  Consider joining me in reading my A book or starting your own literacy program.  I would love to know your thoughts on all this.