If I couldn't concentrate...

Hey, guys, go read a fancier version of this post over at H2NHePub.com, now!





I wouldn't be a writer.



I'd be some sort of "day labourer", and then where would the world be? Labouring with me, I expect.



And that would be sad.



So let's write. It all comes down to the aptly named "Three AlliterativeMs", so named because there are three of them and they all start with the letter M. I've capitalized them so you don't miss them.



MOOD



You've got to feel pretty OK to be able to write this much and so fast too! It's a matter of focus, concentration, zen harmony with the universe. No, I tell a lie. It's a matter of being crazy, in that special manic-depressive way that I do.



Up

I'm not manic right now, but when I am shucks!howdy! do I write fast. I love it, but the problem, as referred in the post title, is that when I'm manic I have to be very self-disciplined or I'll start a hundred projects, many of which linger around to This Very Day. (cf: twenty-two short stories lying around the house). One of the side benefits of mania is that I really shouldn't be around people anyways during these times, as I will talk faster and faster and faster because I can finally keep up with my thoughts but they can't understand me and then they run away and I'm all alone and eat too much and am fat oh gods—



Down

That's what I am now. No...now. Now. Yes: then. In this state, I think about a great many things, and connect them, and read carefully and clearly. I may have mentioned I'm a genius, but I'm not just saying that. I am.



(and you're not.)



Some of my best non-fiction (including blog posts) gets written at this time, and some of my more contemplative fiction. And I still write fast.



I don't know any other way.



But sometimes, sometimes...I lay in bed all day, listening to the audiobook of Lamb (Christopher Moore) while watching — on two screens simultaneously — The Princess Bride and Secretary, the screens set on both sides of the room so I can focus on whichever one I happen to roll over to look at.



If I lose the remote, it's Hell.



All Around

When I walk and walk and walk, no writing gets done. This is why I can't drive.



Downtown

everything's waiting for you



MINDSET

You're going to be rich, get excited! You're doing what you love, man! Get in the spirit of things! No...let's be more honest: Running a small business is more fun than getting a real job, right? You've got freedom and joy and nobody can take that away from you.



Nobody.



Except you.



But you're an idiot. You can easily outsmart yourself.



More important to your mindset, but only included here because DRUGS ruins the alliteration scheme I've got going, is CAFFEINE. Drink your tea, coffee, and delicate mix of tea'n'coffee, or, as I call it, TOFFEE*. I drink four caraaaaafes of coffee every day, poured gently over ice. It's sometimes caf and sometimnes decaf. I never can tell, as I'm usually too twitchy to read the side of the box by then. At the end of the day I moderate my caffeine buzz with delicious weak tea, then summon the WRITING MUSE with some absinthe on the rocks.



Which is — don't look it up — an actual drink.



MUSIC

This is the most important part, and the true secret to my success. Buy these four tracks, load them up on your phone, press shuffle'n'repeat...then Just Write:



Tron: Legacy

Derezzed

Daft Punk



The Dark Knight

Introduce A Little Anarchy

Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard



Sherlock Holmes

Discombobulate

Hans Zimmer



The Avengers

The Avengers

Alan Silvestri



all links to Amazon



This blog post was written under the influence of these four songs, just as an example of the kind of quality sh*t you can expect if you try it!



MORE?



There is nothing else. I wrote myself into a corner by calling it the "Three AllitereMs"***

Complaints?

Tough nougat,

Get back to work.



Thanks for reading!

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feel free to comment



*Actual toffee is disgusting. I'm taking the word back.

**Got any more awesome tracks I should add to my playlist?

***I'm too lazy to scroll up and check what I actually called it.Available Stories