Dorkus Malorkus Alert 2: The Search for More Nerdiness

Hey there, Open Book reader. Good to see you again. Can you believe February is over 70% done? (I can’t, and it’s keeping me up at night.) I know my previous post went pretty heavy on the nerd factor as I wrote about my writing space…and this post is going to be a continuation of that when I go into gory detail about how I write and how my writing system became a thing.

The word for it today is gamification, and it happened gradually, over several years. Now it's my thing. That's...pretty much it. Roll credits!

...you're right, I agree, that’s not much to go on. No worries, I will explain!

“Gamification” is kind of like adding a game or reward element to any given task. For example, when I was in high school, I got into the habit of forcing myself to do a certain number of assignments before feeling like I earned my Majora’s Mask time. I kept this up until I finished university but didn’t really come back to it until a couple of months into the JET Programme, when someone introduced me to National Novel Writing Month. It had been years since I’d given up on a potential writing career, so at the time I thought, “sure, I miss writing, why not give this a shot?” And since I was figured I’d get nothing out of NaNoWriMo except a fun new way to fill up my free time, I returned to my gamification habit. I think it was my local supermarket that inspired me – they had a point card system where you got a significant discount on your eleventh purchase. (And yes, I did get lots of free groceries for a number of years.)

That first November, I pretty much just wrote whenever I felt confident that I had something worthy to write. (And naturally, I did not “win” NaNo that year.) The second time I tried it, my weekly schedule was comparatively busier. I was convinced I had this great idea to write about things a BIPOC teacher in Japan goes through on a daily basis, but I only had so much time during the day that I had to maximize whenever I could. I would block off a chunk of time – maybe 30 minutes or longer, depending on my schedule that day – and I’d write for five minutes straight. If I kept focused and wrote the whole five minutes, I broke out one of my many adorable stamps and gave myself a “point.” Then I’d make myself get up and stretch, then go back to writing. On weekends, I’d take a longer break after three writing sessions before repeating. In my first phase, I treated myself to something if I got enough stamps on my chart – maybe I’d rent something from Tsutaya or grab something from Mister Donut on the way home, which incidentally, also have amazing point systems! It was nice to think that even if nothing came of what I was writing, I had something entertaining or yummy to make up for it. Life is so fascinating, isn’t it?

I later learned that NaNoWriMos employ something similar to my on-and-off writing sessions, but they’re referred to as “sprints.”  They’re typically based on the popular Pomodoro method: think 25-ish minutes of focused, concentrated work, then a 5-minute break, then repeat a couple more times and take a longer break. Over the years my tracking changed depending on how much time I had that month, or what I was working on – sometimes I get stamps for writing, sometimes I get stamps for completing a scene (and a completed chapter gets a reward). Over time, just seeing the rows of adorable stamps became my reward, but now and then I’ll draw a motivational-looking thermometer to feel like I’m achieving something.

(So pretty…so accomplished...)

The current plan is to return to Pomodoro writing, whenever I can…you know…break through the surface of the zillion things I’m currently wading through. These days I haven’t been writing much (*cough cough at all cough cough*), so I’ve been using my gamification habit more for health-related activities. But it still plays a big role in my everyday life, even in my recent teaching jobs. Apparently, gamification is all the rage with educators these days…well, at least the open-minded ones. How weird that people in teachers’ college gave me stink-eye when I said I still played video games and now there’s all these “Minecraft for Millennials” tutorial videos everywhere. Mm-hmm... (눈_눈)

Anyhoo, yeah, if you look around you’ll see gamification popping up everywhere. I learned a few years back that someone even created a whole fitness enterprise from it, and it’s based on gaming itself. (And yes, of course I signed up and I’ve been having a blast ever since – thanks *Nerd Fitness, no more gyms for me!) So if you’re looking for ways to spice up your writing, consider gamifying your routine. Wow, I hope that’s an actual word. For my next post…you know what, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t nerd-related. If it helps, I’ll stick to (mostly) one game. Well, one game series. But it’s one of the best. Try to guess which one! I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. (Hint: you can just make out some stickers in one of my desk shots. That wasn't even planned. So fascinating... ^__^)

Okay, now roll credits.

*For the record, every month I have to come up with somewhat creative titles for Nerd Fitness challenges and no, as you can see, I'm still not good at it. ^_^"