Juho Pohjalainen's Blog: Pankarp - Posts Tagged "drifting-mind"
Focus
Keeping my mind in the thing I want to do, keeping it from wandering to other things and getting unrelated ideas, is a regular problem.
I've talked about music before, how I should only listen to things that relate to my current project, but that's only the beginning. There's also movies (I think I named a few that helped with this pirate story I wrote), video games, books and comics, even conversation with friends. I need to essentially overload my brain with related things. They not only help me keep focused, but also give me more ideas on what to do, story elements and arrangements, and insight on how other people handled stuff like this, what they did better than me, and how I could improve.
The real problem is that it works both ways.
I have several video games I've been wanting to play, that people have recommended for me, and that I'm fairly sure I would like - but they've got nothing to do with my projects, and would end up with occupying my mind with unrelated and frankly harmful thoughts and loves and obsessions, making me want to abandon the thing I'm doing now and going off to something entirely different. It's happened before: the short story Loot, which I posted a couple months ago, came from a stray news article and completely killed all progress with Ivar Stormling of Skar. I haven't written a word of that story since then.
Just now - and this is why I'm writing this whole thing now - a friend of mine brought forth the subject of Artificial Intelligence, which made me want to return to that robot story I've been working on for years. Problem is, I'm currently trying to edit a couple short stories for publication, and also heading off abroad in about a week. I can't spare the mind on a major project now, no matter how much I'd want to.
At best, this is probably the reason I can vomit out a doorstopper novel in about two months. At worst, it can completely scramble up my brain and halt all progress.
I've been doing a lot of short stories lately. They need much less time and focus, and are therefore a lot easier for me to manage. But every once in a while, the desire for greater things comes up.
I've talked about music before, how I should only listen to things that relate to my current project, but that's only the beginning. There's also movies (I think I named a few that helped with this pirate story I wrote), video games, books and comics, even conversation with friends. I need to essentially overload my brain with related things. They not only help me keep focused, but also give me more ideas on what to do, story elements and arrangements, and insight on how other people handled stuff like this, what they did better than me, and how I could improve.
The real problem is that it works both ways.
I have several video games I've been wanting to play, that people have recommended for me, and that I'm fairly sure I would like - but they've got nothing to do with my projects, and would end up with occupying my mind with unrelated and frankly harmful thoughts and loves and obsessions, making me want to abandon the thing I'm doing now and going off to something entirely different. It's happened before: the short story Loot, which I posted a couple months ago, came from a stray news article and completely killed all progress with Ivar Stormling of Skar. I haven't written a word of that story since then.
Just now - and this is why I'm writing this whole thing now - a friend of mine brought forth the subject of Artificial Intelligence, which made me want to return to that robot story I've been working on for years. Problem is, I'm currently trying to edit a couple short stories for publication, and also heading off abroad in about a week. I can't spare the mind on a major project now, no matter how much I'd want to.
At best, this is probably the reason I can vomit out a doorstopper novel in about two months. At worst, it can completely scramble up my brain and halt all progress.
I've been doing a lot of short stories lately. They need much less time and focus, and are therefore a lot easier for me to manage. But every once in a while, the desire for greater things comes up.
Pankarp
Pages fallen out of Straggler's journal, and others.
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