I’ve heard so many successful people say that one needs Focus to create their dreams and goals. I’ve heard one needs to eat, live and breathe what it is their heart desires to accomplish. Focus. That magic word that implies a hundred percent of one’s attention and aim going toward a result, or end product.
And then there is the phenomenon of losing oneself in a project. Is that the same thing as Focus?
I think it is. I’ve noticed those times when I’ve lost myself in my writing, where nothing else enters my mind but the story and the characters, where I am transported to the world of the story and it is all so very real that time vanishes and it’s as though I’ve broken through into another dimension. During those times I can create freely and easily reach my writing goals.
Actually I think of it more as a possession. The writing possesses me. The story possesses me. I keep the story in my mind through the day. It is always churning and growing in my head like a living thing that’s trying to be born. It shows up in my dreams, it’s the first thing I think about when I wake up, it nags at me until I throw the words at the paper. It is with me while I’m driving, shopping, working, running errands, doing dishes.
When a story possesses me , that is how I Focus. It becomes very important and won’t just go away. Focus for me, is what my mind dwells upon throughout the day and night. Sometimes I don’t even know the story is talking to me until I sit down and start to type.
How many times have you sat down to write and thought: I don’t know what I’m going to write about? Suddenly the first word comes, then the second and pretty soon you’ve written a page and can go on and on for hours? I think that is Focus. How do you Focus?
Nancy A. Niles is the author of: Vendetta: A Deadly Win and Lethal Echoes.
I focus at my drawing table with watercolor pencils and brushes as I illustrate my next children’s book. I look at the details and blending of color. I generally paint at night and my first thought in the morning is to run to my table and see from a distance what I drew in close detail the night before.
I admit that when I get involved in writing a story I have a tendency to keep at it just to find out how the story ends. The ending I usually start with at the beginning of the project isn’t the one I generally end up with. This is a good thing. I develop the characters and the characters invigorate the story. They also take it in directions I may not have contemplated taking it in the first place. If the story can have the reader on the edge of his or her seat wondering what will happen next and at the same time have its own sense of logical development then I know I’m on to a winner.
I like the way you put it–possessed. I think of myself as becoming obsessed, but possessed is more accurate–thank you!