I have been wondering if I'm the only person that this happens to; you get a precious couple of hours to yourself to sit down and actually get those ideas that have been running around in your head for so long into format, but as soon as you do those niggling little voices start..............shouldn't you be dusting, hoovering, washing up, weeding the garden? Ok, easy solution to that - do all that stuff first! The trouble with this is then those precious couple of hours you had to yourself have suddenly disappeared and you haven't written a word!
My biggest niggle is the one that insists after a full day at work, and all that entails that I am then too tired to write. I've been looking forward to coming home to do just that and then as soon as I sit down at my laptop the little niggle insists that nah, you're way too tired to concentrate, just give it up.
Too often I give in to the niggle and end up falling asleep. I then wake up the next morning really frustrated with myself that I've let another evening slip by without doing anything and am determined to not do it again................right?
So, I've been experimenting with a few things to get my focus back and banish the niggle. Here are some of the things that seem to be working for now:
1. Reading - if I loose myself in a good book, preferably something along the same lines as the stuff I'm writing this seems to silence the niggle. At the moment I'm re-reading the Harry Potter books to help me get into the fantasy mind-set that I need for Prudence.
2. Listening to some suitable music. Depending on what is happening in your narrative the right kind of music can be so inspiring. Music has always been one of the biggest sources of inspiration for me as I believe I may have mentioned in a previous post, and it never fails to stir the creative juices! Of course, it has to be the right kind of music in order to create the right mood. For instance, at the moment Prudence is in a particularly tight spot and is about to face a fierce battle to defend the capital city of Ealdhun, so listening to something light and frivolous is hardly going to create the right atmosphere for the tension and drama I am trying to portray.
3. Going for a walk. It's summer, which means nice, light, long evenings, so sometimes it's just nice to switch off and get out in the fresh air - particularly when you've been stuck indoors at work all day. This is not something I have tried for a while as at the moment nos. 1 and 2 seem to be working pretty well, but it is something I've done in the past to get my focus back.
As you have probably gathered by now if you have read my previous posts, discipline is not one of my greatest features. Writing can be a terrible series of highs and lows. It can also be a tad lonely; it's not a 'team sport' and when you hit one of those lows and the niggles start to take over and hold you down it's hard sometimes to talk yourself back into a more positive frame of mind and get you back on track with your writing.
So on that somewhat depressing note (sorry!) I would love to hear your ideas for keeping your focus whilst writing.
Kim
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