Today marks the end of three months of a year-long personal project. If you read my May and June blog, then I wholeheartedly thank you. They were, respectively and shockingly, 2000 and 3000 words each. I commend you (and me) for getting through those past blogs, and I promise this one is about 1200 words.
At the end of last month, I realized I wasn’t seeing the forest for the trees. I spent two months desperately building random parts of my project, without fully understanding why I was building any of it. So this month, I wanted to focus on the forest as a whole entity.
I started by asking my husband what he thought of my project. Well, truthfully, I followed him around our small condo, spoke out random ideas and asked him for his opinion. After a few days of grunts and nods, he admitted he had no idea what my project was about. Was it a video game? A novel? What?
My first instinct - to get frustrated with him - fizzled almost instantly. I realized I had built the story up in my head like a bouquet, randomized the flowers, taken some out, handed him the individual stems and petals, and then expected him to regurgitate the same bouquet back to me. All while giving me compliments, I suppose.
It’s a bit cruel when I think about it. So for his benefit, and yours, and mine, this is my project:
This topic is way too big for one person and one year. I chose to focus on the life cycle of food along the lakefront of a city like Toronto, Canada, and how by restoring and enhancing the waterfront, the cycle might become more sustainable at the community level.
image: Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash
I think it’s easier to understand complex topics like this through the eyes of engaging characters, and I’ve always wanted to try writing fiction. Thus, I’m writing a story about four women living on the lakefront in a city called “Watery Trees”, who share four meals over 15 years.
If you’re from Toronto, you’ll probably know the connection. If not this amazing lecture from Professor Bonnie Devine will explain. It's a fascinating tale that involves Indigenous fishing weirs along the water's edge.
Video: Tkaron:to & Turtle Island: The Remarkable Indigenous Trade Networks by Museum of Toronto
Anyway, as the 15 years go by, the story details how efforts to restore the local lakefront could impact something as simple as a shared meal. This story, while intended to be speculative sci-fi, is heavily data-driven. It requires a solid research foundation, which then needs to be organized.
I found three tools early on that made a world of difference: Milanote, Pomodoro, and Kishotenketsu. Obviously, I’m a small potato and nothing is sponsored. I just wanted to share these tools in case they help others.
Previously, all the 300+ links I’ve collected over the years on sustainability were hidden away in various desktop folders, playlists, and an Excel file. I was having trouble finding anything and couldn’t visualize gaps in knowledge.
I got an annual subscription (CAD 160) to Milanote - a creative project organizer. One can turn any media type (articles, podcasts, clips, pictures etc.) into cards with links, and then arrange these cards into a board.
Now all my 300+ links are in one place, organized into multiple Milanote boards via topic.
As an example, the board I created above depicts current and proposed solutions to problems within the food life cycle. It’s very clear how lopsided the research is. It was easy to find solutions for the right side - the production and distribution of foodstuff, but it was harder to find solutions for the packaging, retail, consumer and waste side of the cycle.
Last month, I pushed myself to work on this project as if someone was recording my work hours. It was exhausting, and the confused results showed how inefficient I was.
I decided to give Pomodoro a try after seeing these "clocks to music" on Youtube that enforced a rhythm of 25-50 minutes work, 5-15 minutes break, rinse and repeat.
Using Pomodoro helped me get into the habit of taking proper breaks. During the breaks, I reflected on what I had read and thought about what I had written. In a way, the breaks were also productive.
I also felt better about ending my days at a reasonable hour. I’m not sure why but perhaps I felt like I had used my time wisely.
The only creative writing I have done was in high school. When we learned about plot structure, conflict tended to bind the entire story together.
But when I did a proper analysis of stories that I tend to ingest again and again, most were slice-of-life stories that focused on character development and did not rely on conflict to drive the story forward.
Additionally, most of these stories originated in different parts of Asia, but in Japan particularly.
Eastern literature is often told in a four-part structure that doesn’t need to rely on conflict and focuses on emotion and character. In Japan, the structure is called ‘Kishotenketsu’: introduce, deepen, twist, resolve.
If you’d like to read more about Kishotenketsu, please read Hafiz Tajuddin’s very clear article here: https://medium.com/@hafiztajuddin/story-structure-kishotenketsu-260577efa49a
I spent this month largely in Milanote, organizing my research and mapping out Ki (character and setting introductions), Sho (deepen the development), Ten (a twist in the story), and Ketsu (the resolution), all while observing Pomodoro. Once I got my head around this structure, I took a crack at Ki and wrote about the four women visiting a lakefront market in the Summer of 2024. They source ingredients for a breakfast under a blazing sun that turns into torrential rain. Sound familiar, Torontonians?
The story accompanies this data viz I made in May. The story itself isn’t ready to be shared publicly. It’s too long at 9000 words and requires much restructuring. But thank you to one dear friend who read the entire story and gave very, very encouraging feedback.
Of course, there were many moments this month when I picked up my iPad, curled up on the couch with an Orange Pekoe, and opened Nomad to do some sculpting and painting. Just for fun. But as always, I ended up sculpting dishes I’d eaten or recipes I wanted to try. So I’ll likely use all of these models in my food-centric story. Waste not, want not, right?
Before I take a picture and add filters, this is what my painted sculptures look like. Created in Nomad on iPad Pro (4th gen, 11 inches)
Overall this month was amazing compared to last month. Exactly what I thought a sabbatical should feel like: restful and insightful.
There was a point where I went into analysis paralysis, but a quick chat with friends and family helped. I also became very insecure once I finished writing, so in addition to the friend I mentioned above, thank you to the two wonderful souls I sent this blog. Your feedback was bang on and I know the subsequent edits made this piece more readable.
Next month I want to continue to research, write, and sculpt. But I think I feel more confident building a bit now that I have better foundational knowledge, so I’ll attempt a mockup of the project website, which I plan to build with 3JS.
Whatever happens with this sustainability project next month, I hope I continue at this good pace, make good progress, learn more, and get better.
Thank you kindly,
Saachi
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