Revving the engine in the creative sense. I’m trying to move back into writer mode and be productive on a daily basis once again. I fell out of it for any number of reasons (video games come to mind), and I need to fall back into this mode of writing at length every day in order to be productive. So, I’m starting with a SoC blog, which is a fairly useless acronym for Stream of Consciousness writing. The point of it is to keep typing nonstop for ten minutes. This was the original form of the ten minute rule before I became bogged down by thinking (and short posts as a result). Instead I’m going to let whatever is in my brain flow through my fingers for ten minutes and that will be the warmup.
The warmup is oft overlooked by writers. They (WE) don’t see ourselves in the same light as athletes who, at the professional level, recognize the need and value of the warm up. Our bodies get tight. Likewise, our minds get overwhelmed or distracted. If we don’t get loose then we lose the ability to hone in on what we need or are trying to accomplish. Shake out the cobwebs or smack aside all the stray thoughts, or whatever clever phrasing you choose for the activity.
Right now I’m worrying over money. I know, I ought to be thinking about the worlds I’m populating with my words, but instead I’m on the finance tip and that is problematic. This is where the SoC comes in handy, because I can get this finance stuff out of my head–I can stop thinking about paying these four to seven bills off and whether or not that requires a dip into the savings, because I am working that out on paper (yeah, I gotta dip in but I can replace the cash fairly quickly–thus is the cost of travel and spending).
So, with these mental hiccups resolved to the best of your ability you can move forward with your day and get more good words on the page. I know I certainly benefit from more writing and less thinking–this is the most words I’ve put out in one of these blogs in several weeks. This is what a mind simply flowing looks like. This is how Stephen King or even Steven Eriksen looks when he’s writing about all those worlds and all those troubles just a shadow’s throw away. Having so much on paper gives you much to work with when it comes time to filter out the bad from the good…