Decluttering the Creative Mind

My last blog was about de-cluttering my work space in order to create an environment with the physical space and calm to be creative. This post is about the much more difficult task of decluttering the mind, in order to give you the headspace and clarity of mind to allow your mind to wonder and imagine, and be creative.

After I had decluttered and created a clam creatively freeing workspace, my productivity went up. I was able to concentre and not get distracted by the chaos around me, and actually sit down and create and write. It quickly became my heaven away from the uncertainty and madness of the outside world. This allowed me to develop, research and write the first draft of my new WIP.

However, increasingly despite my lovely workspace, I’ve been finding it difficult to focus, my mind wonders off, from the task in hand, to what’s on the to-do—list, to ‘I really must do the meter readings’ to ‘it’s soing-so’s Birthday coming up, I must get a gift sent’, to ‘ophs! Better clean out and freeze the snail eggs.’ But it’s not all mundane adulating stuff. But its book stuff too, like; ‘which cloning technique should I choose for the cloning of the mammoths in my books’, ‘what should an elephant-mammoth hybrid be called?’, ‘Oh NO I need to learn about permafrost’ and ‘what was that character’s name again?’

So my brain is whirling and getting distracted, plus my dyslexia means I have a terrible short term memory, so sometimes I start a task and instantly forget what I’m supposed to be doing. This phenomena, is much worse when my brain is busy and chaotic.

There was only one clear course of action to remedy but busy brain, and that was to declutter it. This means mostly being organised, and recording all the information somewhere so, that I can relax because I know it is safe.

MUNDANE ADULTING STUFF

Annual Stuff

To get all this boarding but essential stuff out my brain, I set about creating to-do-lists. I have annual (and longer intervals) recurring things to remember list – with all the yearly things, like taxes and insurances ,epi-pen renewals, passport renewals noted down. So this done of excel and all printed on one page, so it’s easy to check.

To-Do-Lists

I have seral to-do-lists, my main one covers everything personal and family related and is in the form of an excel spreadsheet, which I update and print out weekly. I then at the beginning of each day mark out which tasks off the to-do-list I’m going to do that day.

These things ensure that mostly I keep on top of the boarding day-to-day tasks and means they are not all clambering about in my mind shouting for attention.

WRITING STUFF

General Writing Tasks

For my general writing tasks, I have a specific writing to-do-list, which use in the manage competitions, submissions, blog posts, meeting and alike.

Keeping to task

I have an another spreadsheet called ‘Keeping to task’ this where I plan my daily tasks for my project, like the amount of words I’m going to write, or the chapters I’m going edit or what research I’m going to do, and where I can mentor if I’m track to get the tasks done and project finished by the deadline. This helps my brain from panicking about if I’m doing enough work and whether I can complete the project in time.

Research & World Building

Research and world building is imperative for writing, especially fantasy of science fiction, or STEM based books. You ned to ensure the rules of your world work, and that any facts are correct – they’ll always be someone who notices and get annoyed with you if they’re not correct!

One of my favourite parts of writing is feeding my brain, and nourishing my creativity with research. However sometime it overwhelms my mind and it becomes too full to work.

So in order to de-cutter my brain of all the details of my world, and all the research facts, I do three things.

Draw

I visualise characters and places my doodling them.

Visual display

So it is easy to access while I’m working I create a visual display of my WIP. I know many other writers use notice boards, but as we are in lockdown, and I don’t have a noticeboard, I was forced to be innovative, and I fashioned a display with paper and poster hangers (stolen from my teens room shush don’t tell!) and keep adding essential information to the board as I go along.

The Notebook

My current project probably has the most research of all my writing to date. This is largely as it is a stem book based on real science, which means I have to get it right! It also meant my brain was very quickly full to brim and having issues processing the information, and having enough space of latent thinking and actually committing words to paper. So I decided to create a book, a bible or encyclopaedia of my WIP.

In the book, I have the pitch, the note of where the inspiration came from for the story, and character profiles, reach and world building. I’ve also typed out everything and printed and then stuck it in, this is largely so I can read it , and much of the time I can’t read my own writing due to my dyslexia and dyspraxia

This has been a really positive activity. It’s meant that by organising the information, it has also filed it away nicely within my mind. Plus I’m reassured that all the information is safe, and I won’t forget anything, (quieting my brain) and also serves as a point of reference whenever I need to check anything about the world of my book.


All in all, downloading the information that was whirling in my brain screaming for attention, and therefore de-cluttering mu mind, has really helped. I’m much more relaxed, and I feel I have the mental space and capacity to think freely, be creative and crucially productive. I’m no longer so exhausted, or ending the day feeling that I’ve not achieved anything, as I can plan my actives and keep track of what I’m actually achieving.

So although the process of de-cluttering my brain as long and tiring, I feel invigorated as a result, as I’m back to writing which is what I love.

Preparing for Lockdown

Last lockdown I was pretty productive. I finished the edits and polishing of one manuscript and finished the first draft of another. Both projects were however crucially already started – the momentum already built up and concepts formed and plots planned. 

However the impending lockdown has me worried, about my writing productivity. I’m struggling to settle into which of half a dozen projects to work on. All of which are first draft stage. I must confess, new projects are always tricky to start. The indecision of which of a draw full of concepts to pick, and getting into the voice and building the creative excitement and momentum takes time. Once I’ve actually picked a project and started the words flow easily and quickly, but getting to that point is tricky especially in lockdown. 

Junk & laundry & spare room - usually it was messier than depicted

 

Usually at the beginning of a first draft I write a lot in coffee shops, where the ambiance and lack of distractions (think ironing pile) help me to focus. I also go out a lot to museums, or libraries or other towns to get a change of scenery to be surrounded by exterior stimulation and feed my brain and give my imagination a boost, none of which are possible in lockdown. in short I’m struggling to work from home without getting distracted or losing my focus.  

Writing in coffee shops.

So, my husband came up with a plan. You see he’s been working successfully from home since March, his key was making an area that was easy to work in. He arrange the shed into his office, making it suit his purpose, a clam environment with everything he need to work, without getting distracted or disturbed. He pointed out, he has a work space – and so do the children, as we reconfigured their rooms to have desks, noticeboards and even dusted off our old family PC and found an old laptop so the kids each had everything they needed to work from home. However I don’t.

Displaying my writery badge Collection.

I’ve been working on the family pc, in the spare room which was …

Part Spare room complete with bed. 

Part gym (health necessity but barely used - me bad). 

Part laundry room. 

Part Junk room 

Part office with filing cabinet and printer and the aforementioned family computer. 

The room was busy, but not in a good way – in a disorganised and chaotic way. So my husband suggested I make it into my writing place. That if I did then he believed I would find it easier to write there. 

Framing my writery pictures at last

So I set about reclaiming the room. First to go was the bed, (currently no one can stay anyway and it only get used a few time a year), then some of the gym equipment (that was only ever used for drying clothes.) Then I set about buying some second hand furniture which allowed me to bring all my writing stuff into one place, rather than it being spread across bookshelves and cupboard and boxes, in different rooms, the shed and attic. As so I’ve created what is definitely a calmer space and I hope will be a creative place too. 

Putting all my writery stuff in one place

Of course it doesn’t solve the issues of not being able to meet up in person with my critique group, or writer friends or attend socials, which also really helps reignite my imagination and enthusiasm. But I also tea-leafed a speaker from one of the kids room, so I can play coffee shop sounds, and will be meeting up with my critique group virtually.

So preparing for this coming lockdown has taught me something; that I always tend to compromise when it comes to my needs and my writing. And that sometimes, you just need to carve out a bit space for both.

Fingers crossed I manage to actually get a first draft of my new project done during NaNoWriMo!

A writery room of one's own

Future of Fiction; where do we go from here?

Today on the school run my kids were talking, the topic they were discussing was posed my daughter when she asked this question…

“Do you think our grandchildren will ask about 2020, like we asked our great-grandad and great-nanny about the war?”

The discussion went on with my son countering with…

“But if they don’t find a vaccine and life doesn’t return to normal, then they’ll probably ask; what was life like before 2020?”

For me the forgotten silent chauffeur this was fascinating, so I just listened.

For context, my daughter has just started her A-Levels and is studying English Literature, and her current subject is dystopian novels, and she added this nugget of wisdom…

“If someone from the past was to get a glimpse into the future and looked at 2020 – seeing our technology, our weapons, our surveillance and what we’ve already experienced this year; the threat of nuclear war, the world burning, and a global pandemic. They’d think it was a dystopian world. We are literally living our ancestor’s visions of dystopia. We are living through a dystopian novel.

So what will dystopia look like in the future?”

Here I think I should put a shout out to my daughters English literature teacher, who is working very hard to support all her students mental health as they study the now ‘scarily similar to reality’ dystopia novels.

It’s an interesting question, and one my children discussed at length. But it’s encapsulates the question that been on my mind…

“What is the future of fiction?”

I’m contemplating this question a lot, especially with regard to Teen and YA novels, as this is what I write. What is the new dystopia? What is indeed is the new fiction? When life is so dark, mirroring dystopian fiction, what do you write for teens and YA? How dark can you go that’s still age appropriate but still seems fantastical and well…fictional?

Or do we go the other way completely and go fluffy and feel-good? That may work for some readers but others do have a darker palate. I have heard on talks and read on blog articles that many agents are not wanting to take pandemic novels which means I have three novels that have pandemic elements (all written before 2020 that aren’t dystopian but have a plague or pandemic element) that are benched for the moment. One of which is a funny fluffy MG fairy tale- superhero mashup, but all the same the pandemic element means it’s gone into a draw.

So what is the future of fiction for teens and Young Adults? I don’t know what the answer. But what I do know is I’ll keep writing what I love, and keep submitting and hope that I get it right.