For a week, I’ve sat here staring at a chapter I haven’t
looked at since 2011. I’ve got notes all
over it. “Need to expand this.” “What does this mean?” “Move this somewhere else.”
Expand to what? What does that bit mean? Move it where?
A whole goddamned week. What is the deal here?
Today I’ve read the same sentence over and over and my brain has
turned to guacamole. Guacamole is mush. Awful-tasting mush. That being said, I’d really like some Mexican
food tonight for dinner. No, I have
spaghetti to make…or I could just go to Wegman’s to get some Chinese. Oooh, egg rolls.
FOCUS, dammit! See
what I mean? Get back to the stupid
chapter!
Sigh. Okay, this isn’t that hard.
It’s only 6 pages, for cripe’s sake.
I flex my fingers, look out the window, and…oh, look, the bird feeder’s
empty. Is that pileated woodpecker back
again?! Hot damn, I need more peanuts
down there! Did I buy any today…? Dammit, I didn’t get woodpecker nuts. Nuts.
Do I have any more peanut M&Ms over there?
Shit. There I go
again.
There are three things I need in order to get myself into what I call "The Zone." The Zone is my place of motivation, the push-button combination to unlock the Swiss Bank Account vault that is my wealthy stash of imagination. It is sometimes a bitch of a place to find, but I do know how to look for it. I need these objects, and a little bit of luck.
1.
FOOD
I keep talking about food, so I must need a snack. That’s one way to keep your mind motivated,
people – feed it. So excuse me while I
go grab a nibble…
(minutes pass)
Okay, I’m back with a cup of hot tea (with lots of Jack
Daniels, natch), and a bowl of grapes and tangerine sections. (I don't have any more M&Ms, so let's settle for Healthy Eating.)
Back to work.
(taps fingers on keyboard) Okay, we’ve got dragons in an alternate realm. Dragons falling from the sky and becoming…ow,
is this a seed in this tangerine? (taps
some more)
Nothing. I’ve got
nothing. But I do notice I’m tapping my
fingers a lot.
2.
MUSIC
When you’re as easily distracted as I am, you need two
things from the musical realm:
An awesome set of headphones. Mine are the wonderful Bose QuietComfort 15 AcousticNoise-Canceling variety, terrific for blotting out screaming neighbors, ringing
telephones, and my husband's TV show, and allowing me to turn up my music to stratospheric heights without
disturbing people on the West Coast.
A magnificent playlist. Nothing to sing; all instrumental. I can’t sing and type at the same time because I’ll type out all the song lyrics instead and King Arthur will be belting out “Y.M.C.A.” by the Village People and Rya will wonder what the fuck I’m smoking when I turn these chapters over to her to read.
 |
| The Knights of the Round Table can't be doing this...it would be hilarious though... |
So for me, it’s soundtrack music. Inspirational and awesome. I have a 95-track list full of Hans Zimmer, John Williams, and John Barry – masters all, the jewels in my triple crown of imagination-filled tunes. Oh, I have others, but nothing inspires quite like these guys.
3.
QUIET.
No texting. No
phones. I’m so easily diverted from the task at hand
that the simple noise of a cat running down the hall with a toy will break me out
of concentration and I’ll be left staring stupidly at the screen wondering what
the hell I was trying to say. Hence my side
notes like “What does this mean?” Fuck
if I know…(hits delete button). Knowing my luck I'll remember around midnight or 2am, but it'll be too late by then.
Sometimes, I enter The Zone without knowing about it, and my
fingers develop a life of their own; 20 minutes later, I sit back and rub the
ache out of my overheated, twisted digits, and stare at my cerebral vomit on the screen. My response is always the
same: “Where the hell did that come from?” And unlike real vomit, the chunks are pure magic - at least they are in our little world.
I really need to be there right now. I’m fortified with natural sugar and enough alcohol to send my neural net tripping into the void,
my headset is in place and switched on, Hans Zimmer’s score to “Inception” is cued. “Need to expand this,” eh? Fine. One
way ticket to The Zone, please, Maestro.
--Rebecca
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