Advice from limyaael

[packbat]

I was just reading some of the old posts in limyaael's journal, and I found one giving advice on writing. There were many good pointers in there, but the very first one struck me quite hard.

Avoid things that dull your brain. Yes, I've heard about writing from your soul or your heart, too. I'm not one of those writers, or at least not a writer who can tell clearly what writing comes from my "heart" and what from my "head." I tend to think the brain has a great deal to do with good writing in the purely physical sense, at least, given how drastically the smallest occurrence there can affect someone's mood.

I find that I don't feel much like writing after watching TV or playing video games. In fact, I find it much less easy to do anything that I normally find fun after those two. They exhaust me in an odd way, cloud my thoughts, or make me have to give up a whole lot of arguments with the plotline in order to enjoy whatever entertainment they can provide.

Thing is, I need my mind to write. I want to be able to know that a plot twist wouldn't make sense, that a character wouldn't say that, that I really shouldn't write that scene because it would contradict something I said two hundred pages earlier. So I avoid playing video games altogether, and watch TV only when I absolutely cannot get out of it or when (for those rare shows I enjoy on their own merits) I've finished my writing for the day.

Other people might get incredibly stimulated by television, though I don't actually know anyone like that. Other people may find that contact with other people tires them out, or that reading through Internet flamewars dulls their thoughts and makes them rabid. So avoid them. Ultimately, this comes down to self-discipline on your part. If those things have that kind of effect on your mind, you are the only one who will realize it, and the only one who can grab your own arm and frog-march you away from that thing before you hurt yourself.

I don't think this is just writing advice. I remember feeling lethargic after playing videogames for hours. I remember having a hard time concentrating on homework after surfing the web all day.

Avoid things that dull your brain. Hmm.

Comments

Habit Number Seven, etc.

[(Anonymous)]

good idea ... reminds me of the distinction between "recreation" as wasting time, versus "recreation" as re-creation, renewing internal energy ... good remarks on that theme by Steven Covey in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, as summarized on http://www.dmreview.com/article_sub.cfm?articleId=1016324:

Habit 7 is about taking care of the most important resource you have - yourself. This habit is a quadrant II activity that I call "re-creation" - not just "recreation" of play or frenetic vacation as an interlude to work, but as time and activity that truly rejuvenates us. These re-creation activities are important, but rarely urgent until we become ill and must address it. Habit 7 is about increasing your PC (production capability) by taking care of yourself.

Also reminiscent of the excellent advice in the 1907 book The Use of the Margin by Edward Howard Griggs, wherein he describes two great "open secrets": concentration and variety in intellectual activity --- focus on one thing intensely, and then when tired rest not by passive inactivity but rather by shifting the focus to something else ...

- ^z -

Re: Habit Number Seven, etc.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess I see that. I suppose that these three quotes are supposed to be talking about similar things – how to best spend your not-technically-productive time – but the limyaael quote resonates with me in a way that the others just don't.

Seriously. The Seven Habits one? It's ... pithy, and not in a good way; it makes a fundamentally good idea sound like the punchline of a bad joke. As for Griggs' "open secrets", they sound wise, but what do they mean in a day-to-day sense? No clue. Whereas I know exactly what limyaael means.

I guess my point is that "avoid things that dull your brain" is more useful to me that "re-creation" or "concentration and variety". It's obviously good advice, and it's obvious how to follow it.