Sunday, February 10, 2013

I'm going away to Story World

I have come to the point where I can really make something of my writing. Can.
But I have not as of yet done that. I have to ask myself why that is? When I go through all the factors, reasons and possible solutions, I come to only one conclusion.
I just need to get away from it all. What is "it"?
It is the total immersion that media has become in our lives. When you add the internet to the rest of the media distractions we all grew up with, it is extremely tough to just stay in your story world and do what is necessary to make that what you want it to become. I certainly fall into that category of those who become trapped into the lure that is TV, The Internet, Social Media and the total mind luring attention all that brings. Social media certainly being the worst (best, most alluring) of that. 
In the real world most cannot avoid it. Most have a day job and have to go to work. That means listening to the radio in the car. Even if you don't do that, there are billboards designed to focus your attention on whatever they are selling or trying to distract you in some way from your thoughts. Most still have cable and watch any number of TV shows. Or, they have e-mail and they correspond with many that way. As well, almost everyone has a cell phone they take everywhere, which keeps them "connected" 24/7. For a story writer, it is just very tough to stay in the right frame of mind and lost in your story. 
I am lucky enough that I don't have to work a day job. We don't have cable anymore. I don't carry a cell phone around everywhere, and when I do carry one it is off. When it is on it is not connected to any media or moving internet. That just leaves the internet and social media when I am at home to take my mind away from where it should be: Completely on my story. I have to live it. Be it. Live in it. It has to be my life. My existence. Much like those that have a cottage or cabin and go away and write for a week or month at a time. I don't have that option or I would take it. I have to find another way to gain that "zone" that good writers get in that is reflected in their story.
So, I have decided I am going to live in my story world. No internet or any form of media for at least a week at a time. I will live in that world 24/7.
That means I will obviously not be anywhere near Facebook. I will not look at or answer my e-mail. I wont watch any TV, read any news of any kind. 
I have the luxury to do all of this and I am going to take advantage of it.     
No blogs. No short stories. No game playing. Instead of multitasking, I am going to single task. Instead of engaging in multiple stimulus that will help me create the story world I want, I will not engage in any stimulus. I have already done that part. I have enough stimulus. I am in fact overstimulated to the point of paralyzation.
I will just take all the materials I have gathered for that particular story and work with that. Much like The Professor on Gilligans Island. I have only what I came with and will be available to me and I must take those and find my way off the not finished story island. My island will be my isolation from the media world that takes me away from what I want and need to do to become what I want to be. 
My tools will be my skills and my creative brain. I have all the research I have done and it is more than enough to work with. Maybe I will have to go back and edit my story when I become connected again, but that will be after I have immersed myself in that story, like I was there, lived it and became it.
Because almost all my material was linked to something connected to the internet, I have taken some time to remove them from that and transfer them to a program that doesn't need any internet connection. It won't even be plugged in to my computer, so even if I had the temptation I wont have the means to succumb. 
For now it will be a about a week. In the future, it might be longer. I see it as the only way for me to get where I want to be.  
That all starts at midnight tonight. I am officially off the grid. Not reachable and really not of this world. I will live in my story world. At least try to anyway.  
I hope by the end of the week to have completed my first piece of work and then move on to the next one and do it exactly the same way. That might be two weeks the next time. Whatever it takes. I am surrendering myself to story world. If that doesn't work, either I am not good enough or don't want it bad enough. I will find that out if I fail.  
The last time I did this for a few days back in the 90s there was no internet. But I also didn't have a job, and I recall that the Oklahoma City bombing happened and Howard Cosell died. One I found out about right away when I reconnected, the other I didn't realize until months later. Either way life goes on no matter what happens in the world. I think many of us have a hard time remembering that, but it does. Other than food to eat, a place to sleep and the other essentials of life, the rest is just entertainment and distraction that can be lived without. This is despite what the media machine has convinced us of otherwise. 
For me, I have convinced myself that I can't live with it. I have to live without it to be what I want to be. It might not be for everyone, but it is the right thing to do for me. 







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