Meditative Prose
Monday, 23 June 2008
The art of writing: staying focused on that mode of thought, resisting the temptation to find any conceivable distraction. The internet is the worst. I have a billion buttons I could click to show me something new, anything at all, anything to unfocus my mind because it is easier that way. The way to write is to let yourself fall into the page (or the screen, in my case) and stay there exploring the territory. Forget about the world outside. For our purposes, it does not exist. The only landscape is the stark whiteness of the blank screen, and by your words you choose how to fill it. The better you do your job, the more interesting — more complex, unpredictable, & lucid — the environment becomes. The best writers (& artists, & musicians, among others) are those who are able to forget themselves for a while.
I went to college to learn how to write, but they never offered a course in productivity. Unfortunately, that is one of those things I am having to figure out on my own. Time-management, organization, prioritization, discipline: these things are the hardest for me, but it is precisely these things that I’ll need to become the person I want to be.
So this is my daily work: to remain aware of my goals without obsessing, to remain aware of my flaws without despairing, and steadily and patiently to strive. This week has been a good one.
