Ahhhhhh. I am sitting here in my cozy little library cubicle, secluded from the chaos of the world for the next three hours, while my noise cancelling headphones (I'll share more later as to why these are such a big deal.) grace my eardrums with the soothing sounds of Metallica, Tool, and Loreena McKennit. WHAT?!? You can't fathom having such raucous melodic mania distracting you while you are creating your next masterpiece?
Welcome to my next point in this ongoing menagerie of madness! In my last post, I went into the importance of ensuring your needs are met in all respects before agreeing to timelines and expectations that may be outside of your reach at this time. I stand firmly behind what I said, but the fact of the matter is that sooner or later you are going to be forced to agree to said expectations which will leave you with one of two options.
- Option 1: You could say, "Okay, this is too much at this time and I need to focus on ME before I can safely move forward." If this is your decision, I totally support you and applaud the fact that you are able to recognize the breadth and scope of the tasks you are faced with. Take your time and come back when you are ready.
- Option 2: You take stock of where you are at and determine that, even though some things may be challenging and will likely push you outside of your comfort zone, you have the resources and bandwidth to safely overcome them.
Essentially, it comes down to the immortal words of Yoda, "Do or do not, there is no try." That statement may seem a little brutal relative to this phase of writing, but I truly believe it is an appropriate way to think about the binary decision of pausing or moving forward.
Sooooo, we have amped ourselves up and are totally gonna kick this book's ass! Right?!? But what tools and resources should we focus on before kicking said buttocks? When we arrived at this point, we discovered that we SERIOUSLY needed a calendar / planner that we could access anywhere, at anytime, to make sure we were staying on track and holding ourselves accountable. Fortunately, Steve Jobs helped address this years ago with the creation of the iPhone!
Yup, you can use any old calendar app to set all sorts of reminders and prompts to help keep track of things. Personally, I am a fan of the Google Calendar, but the format is entirely up to you and your individual preferences. Once you have decided on the format, it is time to actually "Git 'er done." Set some reasonable long-term goals and then start breaking them down into bite sized short-term milestones that you will be able to achieve and celebrate. And the whole self-celebration thing... YEAH, it's a big freaking deal.
We also found that sharing our calendar with someone we trust was extremely helpful, even if it was irritating when we would get that friendly reminder to keep on keeping on. It is important to remember that, while the physical act of writing the book is a solitary endeavor, the process doesn't have to isolate us. Having someone to share your expectations, setbacks, and successes with will prove invaluable along the way.
Next, I want to talk about some real tools that will make writing and focusing immensely easier. Cue the noise cancelling headphones. In our opinion, the importance of creating your own personal soundstage cannot be stressed enough. Whether, the internal environment you are going for is completely silent, cloaked in the sounds of falling rain, or growling and screaming along with a guitar solo, it will help you get in the "zone".
There is nothing more irritating than feeling inspired to write, only to have your creative locomotive derailed by the jerk next door that decided it was a good idea to mow his lawn at 10:00 at night or the FREAKING TICKING CLOCK on the wall as it mockingly ticks seconds away while driving a metronomic spike into your brain! (Oops, sorry about that. 😁) If you get some good headphones and plan ahead with something that builds a wall between you and those distractions, you will be much happier, trust us.
HOLY CRAP!
I just realized how long I have been rambling on here 😮. I do have more to say regarding physical resources, books, and websites but in the interest of keeping this to a reasonable length (too late for that) I will have to share the rest in the next post.
Alright, I'm going to grab a glass of lemonade, a word find puzzle book, and we are gonna get out there and enjoy the outdoors before it gets too dang hot to do so. I recommend you do the same if you can. Take care our friends and we wish you the very best on your creative journey.
Ciao!
Add comment
Comments