November didn’t begin on a great note. I was assailed by a temporary writer’s block which led me to lose a few precious days. Having recovered from the above, I intend to give my fullest to this month. There are three main things that I need to focus on :
- Finish Proof Reading my 1st Manuscript
- Finish Writing the 2nd one
- Keeping my Academic Deadlines
The world comes with its ample share of distractions for the writer and each must tackle the same in a way that he or she deems fit. There is work and society and online distractions, not to mention buying groceries and completing other daily chores. The secret to focused and hard work is complete detachment from everything and everyone ! It is more like being in a perpetual state of zen. Having said that I have decided to “turn off” the world a bit.
- News must be filtered to the minimum. A writer has no need of the real world or this massive influx of information.
- So must the social media (if you do use any. I use none). And other modes of communication like the email, text messages, phones etc. Tell your family that you are working during a specific period of time. Friends can wait for you to get back to them.
- Cut down on social obligations too. Meet them next moth or maybe the next year. Society can wait !
- Finally, keep one day for every little chore that you do. 1 specific day for shopping groceries, 1 specific day for doing the laundry etc.
I am trying my best to acquire this zen feeling before I begin working in earnestness from tomorrow. The month cannot be lost. Nor can I lose out on my deadlines. I must write. No matter what !
Au Revoir !
“The secret to focused and hard work is complete detachment from everything and everyone!” — I fully agree. I like the internal processing you are doing here. It is necessary. And your conclusions are sound. The only thing I would add is: carry the same “zen feeling” you use when writing into the other areas of your life, such as when you do the laundry or shopping for groceries. Be as committed (mentally) to those tasks when doing them as you are to writing. And you will get satisfaction from them too.
Thank you so much for the tip. I will definitely remember to carry the zen feeling forward. Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that each day is more productive than the previous one 🙂
My philosophy is that writing is a blend of living (experiencing life fully which is the potential or fuel for writing) and the practicing of our craft (the writing itself) which is a constant, gradual learning process. In this way I process my life experience through the writing of stories. The more I know about life (all of life including Nature) the better my stories will be. Productivity is good, of course, but keeping my mind filled with life, for me, has been even more important.
One last comment: Remember, you have plenty of time to produce extraordinary work and to become an extraordinary author as long as you write when you can and live fully in between.
I agree with you completely on this. The importance is writing what you can and writing when you can. Living life to the fullest and experiencing the intricacies of life is what makes a writer worthy of the written word. 🙂