Distraction
I came across the title of a book called, Never Check E-mail in the Morning, by Julie Morgenstern. After reading the reviews I decided that this wasn’t the book for me. However, the title offers quite a challenge for avioding distraction.
Of course, the bold and the brave can get down to it and will be able to ignore the phone, and email. I do both of these things when I’m engaged on a commercial writing project because I’ve sold time to someone else who gets my full attention. So why is self-discipline for my own writing more difficult to honor?
The work of creation is work. It’s about regular action. It’s a habit, a custom. But habits, like obsessive email checking, can be mindless and monstrous as Shakespeare says (I do believe he refrained from checking his email or he wouldn’t have been so prolific.):
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock or livery,
That aptly is put on.Hamlet Act III, Scene IV
Getting the habit to block out uninterrupted time is necessary for concentrated work. Sales managers understand that salespeople can’t make customers buy. The results are not in the salesperson’s control, but her actions are. It’s the same with any creative discipline. You show up and do it. Sometimes the results are appalling. Sometimes they are mediocre. Sometimes, just sometimes, they are wonderful.
Steven Pressfield’s inspiring and insightful little book, The War of Art, is about battling resistance, although he spells it with a capital R. Resistance takes many forms and certainly one of them is to check email in the morning. The act of checking email is an invitation to be distracted. For me, the morning time sacred. It’s when I can write at my best. Or at least that’s the story I tell myself.
I am susceptible to the stories I tell myself too (more about this later). And right now I’m going to tell myself that I shall not check my email until mid-morning. Let’s see…
Thanks for the book title–I have put a hold on it through my library catalog! Sounds good…
You know, it’s funny, I’ve read many a book on creative writing (well, a few), which has counselled the virtue in “setting aside time to write”… and, as much as this is probably necessary if one is – like yourself, Chris – a *professional* writer, it has just never really worked for me. If I sit in front of a computer or a blank sheet of paper and say to myself, “I’m going to write something now,” my brain has a tendency to freeze and any thoughts of a potentially creative nature to rapidly disperse, as per a shoal of fish in the presence of a shark. Perhaps this is why I will never be a *professional* writer!
I do, however, recognise the need to have, in some sense or another, “mind-clearing” time. For me, this tends to occur when I am washing up, having a bath, waiting for or sitting on a train, queuing at a till or engaged in other such activities which are somewhat lacking for mental stimulation. My best, most creative thoughts tend to materialise during these times… The trick is then to get oneself in a position where one can write them down! (I find writing draft texts on my mobile phone is good for this, when one is, as they say, “on the go”)
I find that distractions, as long as they are not too distracting, often actually stimulate my mental/creative activity… but maybe that’s just me!
Dan,
Thanks for the comment. Instead of saying to yourself you are *going* to write something when you stare at the frightening blank sheet, you just do write something—anything at all, even if it is the most banal rubbish. When it comes to writing (or many other artistic activities) I believe it is better to do something horribly than do nothing at all, hence the action part of creativity and action.
Aldous Huxley said, “A bad book is as much of a labour to write as a good one; it comes as sincerely from the author’s soul.”
No one need see the awfulness of our writing. But the act itself has meaning. If nothing else, it is a lesson in being non-judgmental (or would that be a lesson in non-judgmentality?) An infant doesn’t give up on language just because he makes a few mistakes.
Your brain freezing is a great example of Claxton’s D-mode (deliberate-mode thinking). And talking about horrible writing, I’ve been doing my fair share lately. But out of this muck I hope will grow a few reasonable stories. It may be muck but some of it is good muck.
Only by putting pen to paper will other ideas come into being. Think about having a chat. We don’t think up the word order first and then speak those words. They happen spontaneously. I know this to be true, because I spent some time with a public speaking organization that was hell bent on the value of memorization.
Sadly, I can remember nothing. I forget everything. I am better off at improvising. Improvising, like many activities: tennis, badminton, golf, drawing, and dance requires you to be actively relaxed. When I learned to drive a car, I gripped that steering wheel much tighter than I needed to. You see, this active relaxation is part of the minimal effort ethic I’ve embraced. Of course, getting to minimal effort requires more than minimal effort, but minimal effort is the mark of success.
As I see it, discipline in terms of making time, not getting performance anxiety, tolerating whatever comes from your writing, will help you be kinder to yourself, your work, and other people. Creative work has ramifications on other areas of experience (more to come on this topic).
Of course I agree with slowing down as being a necessary (and for many) a difficult achievement. Like Alan Greenspan, you know about the benefits of the bathtub, or sitting on the train and being still. Whether it’s a notebook, mobile phone, or tablet of clay you carry around with you, you do need to carry *something* around to get these things down.
Wasn’t it Julia Cameron who said creativity isn’t about thinking things up, it is about getting things down?
I can’t remember who said that time is not wasted to the person who thinks it isn’t. Perhaps distraction is the same way. If stimulus is rewarding and it doesn’t detract from what you are trying to do, then it isn’t distraction.
Some good points there, Chris! Particularly the Just Writing Vs *Thinking About* Writing. You speak of non-judgmentality – I think it’s also about being non-censorial (non-censoriality?). In fact, from the very start of my blog, it’s never been about writing “perfect” pieces, but rather having an outlet for writing about whatever comes to mind… hence my prolificness (prolificality?) in this context. The Art of Tea is kind of my “blank page.” Much of the content thereon has been of the “Now there’s a thought” variety. And yes, there most definitely *is* a value in writing non-judgmentally, as I have learnt a lot about myself and what I think, and I think my non-fiction writing style has improved, since starting The Art of Tea. That said, I’d be lying if I said all of my non-censored “Now there’s a thought” thoughts have found their way onto The Art of Tea – I wouldn’t want to inflict *that* on my potential readership!
Regarding your comment on the sponteniety of chatting, that…
“We don’t think up the word order first and then speak those words”
…I’m afraid I have to confess, on account of being someone who doesn’t have the most natural of rapports with actual physical humans, that I often *do* think up the word order first and then speak those words! But I will concede that this is not the normal way of things…
Anyway…
Thank you for your considered and lengthy response to my response!
Yes, just writing is the key–turning off the judging mental comments, and writing–Natalie Goldberg talks about “writing practice.” We have to write a lot of bad writing in order for the good stuff to come. Ray Bradbury says, “WORK. RELAX. DON’T THINK.” I read somewhere that showing up at a particular time to write (whether you write or not) is important, because your mind begins to habituate itself to that as your writing time, which means eventually it will come up with something worthwhile. Keep at it!
Christopher,
You write: “Once the “half-baked” idea surfaces, she mulls it over. This stage is necessarily purposeless: it’s discovery, not goal orientation.” I have found this to be very true with regard to creativity which is all about freeing the mind from the shackles of goal-setting and goal- achieving. One needs to be truly rid of goals to be creative, because only an unfettered imagination will roam free, venture into new worlds, keep reaching out towards the horizon, will go where fancy takes one, and then come to roost for a brief respite in some enchanting space, only to move one yet again.
Creativity is all about discovery and one cannot have discovery if one sets up boundaries. As a teacher of writing, I always tell my students to devote much time to “freewriting” which is just keeping the pen moving on the page, or fingers moving on keyboard. After a page or two of feverish scribbling or frenetic typing one may come across one or two good ideas worth pursuing and that’s all that’s needed to get going on a voyage of further discovery.
You also mentioned the process of writing and of drafting, but I think drafting comes later, after the span of time in which one can be truly unfettered, wild, and illogical. Writing is a process, as is everything else, and creativity is all about joy in the process—enjoying the doing of it and getting totally immersed in the process of doing in a zen way. All we need to barter in order to untap our creative potential is time and time is an ingredient that is very much on our side, although it may not seem so. For don’t we always make the time for what we like doing and never find time to do the things we dislike? So, flipping the creativity/ time coin, all we may need to do to unleash our creativity is to make a pact with ourselves that we will enjoy the time we have and the time we spend. Oh-ho, the ticking clock tells me this ought to be my bedtime, so I do have to sign off and take some time off for mindless repose. :- )