The Mindset… or lack there of

The Mindset is the state of mind I need to be in to actually accomplish anything. I have to be in the right mood, I have to have it planned out in my head, and I can’t be distracted. Now this perfect Nirvana like state very rarely if ever happens, which makes me wonder how I’ve ever gotten anything written at all…ever. But somehow I do, and I think the only way that happens is to set aside the time to write. I set a time, usually Saturday, and I go into my office, I get highly caffeinated, I turn on loud music, and I stare at the screen until I actually start writing. And when I do it feels really good to empty my mind of the backlog of thoughts, emotions, and words that get clogged up in there when I don’t write. I feel freer, and bouncier, and I get full of the enthusiasm that writing can provide, and I start planning to get that feeling every day, and start planning blocks for each day, and I get a head of steam thinking it’s going to be awesome to get so much done. And the life happens! Clients call, dogs need to be walked, a girlfriend needs to be talked to, paperwork needs to be filled out, food needs to be eaten, and then when all of that has me so fed up I can barely keep from beating brick walls till my fists bleed, I need to relax, which means I watch TV to decompress. But even as I’m watching TV I’m feeling this ever growing, ever grating, ever sinking feeling like I should be writing, so I stop the DVR and I try to write. Which last about five minutes until I figure out that after all the life that has happened to me in a day there is just nothing left in my head that translates to anything on paper, so I give up. Now I give up with the full intention of making it up the next day, instead of a three hour block, I’m going to do a six hour block, and I’m really going to get something done. But then the next day the real work that actually pays the bills rears it’s overwhelming, all consuming head and the next thing I know it’s time to decompress or start breaking things. The TV starts, guilt begins eating the gut, the attempt is made, and then I’m back to the promise of nine hours of writing the next day. This process goes on until the next Saturday when the writing actually gets done, the enthusiasm gets fired up again, the plans get made to write every day, and come monday I’m right back where I was the week before.

The moral of this story? I like to rant. I’m sure I’m not the only one. And I really am trying to finish my next book… hopefully someday, when I have millions of readers, the only thing I’ll have to worry about on a daily basis is writing, and that’ll make me happy….but then again I am more than a little bit distractible… so I think what I’m trying to say is that we all need to be less distractible, set aside blocks, stick to them, and then we’ll all write a lot more books.