Advice from limyaael

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.