In my Medium ‘stories’ section, I have a list of topics I would like to write on… These have emerged from experiences, interactions, observations etc…generally ideas I think will make for interesting reading.
But you know what — many still remain titles, waiting to be expounded upon, finished and published.
So it made me wonder is this a tech issue or a mind issue?
Are all these features on websites making us conveniently lazy — where we don’t feel the need to finish what we started — or is it just our mind — with shrinking attention spans, flitting from one topic to the next without much focus.
As much as I love technology, and believe it hugely enhances the creative and thinking process, I sometimes feel I’m moving from one thought/idea to the other, like I would in a buffet counter at a wedding… I seem to be taking a bit of each dish onto my plate, but not really tasting any.
The act of creation, thanks to our many devices, is now becoming more an act of consumption…
We are lured by this duty-free store to keep moving from one open tab to another, to read more, watch more, correspond more…all eventually stalling the creative process.
What’s more the devices too have increased, you can now move between conversations on your phone, to working on your laptop, to reading more on your reader.
The only way out then is a digital detox…
To actively shut down open windows that you are not reading, to delete ideas that you will not take to completion… To essentially create more white space in your mind and gadget.
If you’re a design enthusiast, you know the importance of ‘white space’ — that space on the page/canvas that actually highlights the other colours. It’s also referred to as ‘blank space’ or ‘negative space’, the need to leave some space empty so as to contrast it with the other elements of design.
It’s essential that as human beings and creators, we end what we start…
Or else, we will feel a sense of incompleteness, of having some unfinished business, of coming back to something…but knowing it’s no longer the same, as it doesn’t hold our interest anymore.
As writers, the biggest strength is to be able to take an idea to finish when you think of it… Because that’s when it flows best, that’s when your pen moves faster than it ever would, and that’s the only time it will be unique.
At the most your story won’t be that great, but at least it would have got out of your system… And it will be out there, for the world to interpret in any which way it likes.
Anything creative is essentially spontaneous…
A momentary spurt that emerges from the mind of the creator… Thus, to capture its essence you have to be quick, like the camera waiting for that perfect moment when the animal goes in for the kill, or when the sunset gets that perfect shade of orange…
It’s not going to come back to you again — definitely not in the same form — so focus on it till you finish.
Also, let technology enable your creative process, not disable it…Use it’s features to help you draft and save, but don’t allow it to make you a sluggish slave, one who depends on it do the work.
Those titles sitting in my unpublished folder are definitely not going to write themselves… I’m going to have to work on them and take them to their rightful conclusions…like I did today with this blog.
As writers and creators, our creative licences are many, but our excuses can be none… Thus, no matter what technology gives us or doesn’t, our primary motive is to express, and express ourselves to the fullest.
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