Impulse Inspiration

Day 14 of Writing Marathon

Today marks the 12th blog of the month, which is officially more than I've blogged with the Muses in the entire year 2011. What does this mean?

Well, the most apparent reason is that I've decided to blog more, whether or not it's related to my writing. And that is certainly true. Even though I've written (sporadically) in the last 10 months, it was mostly in small chunks as I tried to juggle my writing responsibilities with my searching for IT work. That didn't pan out so well, because not only did I not get any further with developing my IT portfolio and updating my website (both of which are half finished as I write this), but I also didn't have the 'Flow' I was looking for in redrafting Aelemental. This resulted in my Writing Marathon - stay in the Flow and remain consistent with plot, character development and story rhythm. 

The most clandestine of reasons is that my philosophy has shifted over the course of this year. I've tried to dump a lot of the garbage mentalities I've collected over the years. I have streamlined my work ethics so to speak. Up until now I have tried to incorporate every impulse of a good idea into my writing, my work ethics and my execution. I'm kind of like that: a collector. A pack rat of the brain so to speak. So, not only did much of this hoarding of methods influence my actual work - to a point where I ended up having to do some serious weed-whacking, it also was forming some dangerous conditioning in my personality.

And being a Pragmatic Buddhist, I knew (theoretically) that a cluttered mind is an unfocused one. A clean mind however is a clear and peaceful one.

So I needed to institute a clean desk policy. Professionals in all walks of life actively and unconsciouly apply this technique. It involves getting rid of the clutter. Clearing out your physical stuff to free up your mind. This saves tons of time in the near future of having to sort through your junk in order to get your creative mojo going. In the long run it develops a positive conditioning, one where you clean up after yourself in all manners and ways of daily life.

Take this diagram for example:

Plot Junk Management

I call it Plot Junk Management, because it was a visualization of the convoluted character motivations, moves and plot developments of several mid-book chapters in Draft 3 of Aelemental, Book 1. If you look closely in the bottom right corner you will even find a 'Before' section that describes how the junk manifested itself in Draft 2! Mind-boggling. Not only did this whole maze of plot-moves, laid out over time and space, clearly lack any character development (it was pure plot and events), it also took so much time away from just writing the damn piece, that there was no way this would transform to a narrative that would feel natural to a reader.

I am glad to say that I am passed that now. Stuff like this makes no sense to me anymore. I clean up all my notes, materials and research regularly and with a clear mind I focus on characters, flow and natural narrative, allowing the reader to fill in any gaps he or she may find missing. After all, you can micro-manage the heck out of something and end up seeing it implode upon itself under the weight of all the overhead.

Blogging is a nice way to clear the mind as well. Put a point behind all the brainstorming and move on. Moving on: that's what's important in a story, whether you're knitting together a young adult novel or developing your career. Stagnation is death.