focus

I remember someone saying that focus was the key to success in anything. It certainly rings true for any cerebral task, no matter how boring. Difficult things to write, while they do fry my brain, at least challenge me to completion. Routine things to write, like white papers, actually take more effort on my part and slow me down.

And I hate being slow.

Is it too easy? Not necessarily, but it is humdrum mundane, repetitive and some things are so obvious that they really do not bear definition – and yet, they must all be set down.

Sometimes, when faced with something like a long form, I find myself making mistakes because my mind tries to race through it, and by doing so I overlook items that are painfully obvious.

I immensely dislike having to write routine things down, like my street or office address or names and birthdates of family members. Oddly enough, when I slow down to think, I sometimes experience a momentary knowledge blackout, unable to remember my current address, but able to remember the place I lived in 8 years ago.

It is particularly taxing for me to write long form proposals, because I have to prevent myself from just stating the project title and the cost. All the little details wear me down. Gah.

This is perhaps why I haven’t been able to complete a novel. Not because it’s easy, but because I lack the necessary focus (and patience) to concentrate on a single body of work for an extended period of time. The longest thing I’ve done is a 2 ½ to 3 hour long musical. Other than that, I’m good for short stories, essays, one-act plays, TV scripts no longer than a hour’s air-time and poetry (yes, I have written a couple of long form movies but I’m not particularly happy about those).