A while ago I wrote about discovering that I was a geographer: “One of the things I loved immediately when I discovered Geography was that we got to learn about many different topics: we didn’t have to decide! … It was the interconnection between things that we got to focus on, rather than a deep dive into one thing.”
That eclectic—ohh look, another shiny thing over there, maybe I should try that pretty embroidery pattern, what’s for dinner tonight—flitting habit persists. Honestly, as I was typing the previous sentence, I stopped to take a sip of tea, looked out the window at my neighbours garden and started wondering how could I get our buddleia bush to grow like theirs, so nice and neat in a container and was about to get up and then...WAIT! STOP! Get back to what you were doing, I reminded myself.
ANYWAY, as I was aiming to tell you (!), I was skimming through one of my favourite Substack reads today, and this quotation jumped out at me:
“I don’t have a particular favourite ‘style’, that’s part of what I love about decoration, it’s the mix that excites me. Putting the unexpected together. If it’s all of one period or aesthetic I find it a bit dull! I do admire people who can do this and stick to it, but it’s not for me! The trouble is… I see the point of too many things.”
- Lucinda Chambers, co-founder of Collagerie, and Colville from an interview with Kate Watson-Smyth, excerpted from Kate’s Substack, Mad About the House, one of my favourite and most useful Substack reads.
So, not just me then! My ‘problem’ is that I get distracted by so much more than geographically-related landscapes and travel and people. I also love interior design and colour and patterns and ALL THE PRETTY THINGS: fluffy throws, woven table runners, intricate ceramic patterns on plates and tiles, floral wallpaper, heritage rugs and jewel-toned glass. Oh my indeed! And let’s not even get started on all the lovely soft Fair Isle sweaters, leopard-print shoes and cashmere wraps that are flitting through my Instagram feed. Gah!
Sometimes I freeze with a kind of ecstasy and rapture at all the beauty in the world when I try to take it all in. Did you see the movie Contact starring Jodie Foster? There’s a scene after she has rocketed into space when she exclaims: “Some celestial event. No... no words. No words to describe it. Poetry! They should've sent a poet. So beautiful. So beautiful... I had no idea.”1
I feel like that ^^. Just pure awe.
Of course I am not saying that enjoying beauty is a problem: it the opposite of a problem. However, I can get distracted by so many lovely things that I have trouble maintaining my focus.
I see the point of too many things.
As writers we are encouraged to notice things, to pay attention, to give our all to observation. Which is wonderful, and a practice I work on all the time, but noticing doesn’t always help me settle and focus on one thing at a time.
So my discovery that writing during the London Writers Salon Writers Hour, a one hour focused session each weekday, has helped me develop a TINY smidgeon of focus has been a huge relief. I show up for a one hour session five days a week, and have now even committed to a second hour in the afternoon until the end of the year to focus on another project.
By showing up and writing, and only writing, for that one hour a day, I have found a way to focus again. Once I got in the habit, it became something to look forward to. And the relevant bonus: for that one hour, I still my mind, pay attention to only one thing (usually) and put words on a page.
Confession: Sometimes I have to bribe myself to sit still that hour by promising myself a walk afterwards, or a snack, or a short burst of Instagram scrolling. Today, I have to post this before I can watch a presentation by one of my writing teachers. But whatever it takes is fine with me.
More delightful, perhaps, is realising that even at my older age, I am still learning new tricks. Perhaps these tools are the secret to channelling my geographer’s magpie brain to focus more like an owl. :)
Do any of you have a similar problem of settling down to just do the thing? How do you trick yourself encourage yourself to focus? Or is it not a problem? What are your favourite distractions? I’d love to hear! Still learning here, don’t forget!
Thanks again for reading friends! See you next week, which will be October! 🍁🎃🍁
xoxo Sabrina
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https://www.moviequotes.com/quote/some-celestial-event-no-no-words-no-words-to/
Constantly diverted. It's what gets my step count up as I divert from one thing to another. And while it might take longer to complete a task, just think of what creative delights have lit the path along the way.
Substack is a debatable point. In the beginning, showing up with a completed piece every week was such good discipline after I'd finished writing another novel a couple of years ago. I actually thought I might leave writing there - done! After Covid, my view on what was left of my own personal life had changed.
But no, there were more book ideas in my head. I just needed the discipline. However, over time, Substack is demanding more and more of my reading and writing time, so must be controlled so that I can get back to being what I set out to be 14 books ago - a novelist. That's a hard thing to do.
In any case, back to diversion - a birthday cake to make, but oh wait, I need castor sugar from the village shop so maybe the dog and I can walk the beach on the way. Oh, 18 degrees - where's my favourite polo shirt? Gosh, the pink one's got a mark on it, laundry. Might as well put the washing on. But just half an hour to read emails first... You get the drift.
I am constantly distracted by my idiotic compulsion to concentrate 100% on every single thing that's happening in any given moment. It's exhausting and deeply counterproductive.
In my previous life, every time I ground to an inevitable halt I would make a lasagne - and oh boy, a LOT of lasagne came out of that kitchen. In fact, still now, every time I feel overwhelmed - multiple times a day - I find myself in the kitchen. This week, the freezer is bursting with soup, with more in the fridge which didn't fit. 🙄
Thank you so, so much for the link to Writers' Hour. What an awesome set-up! Am thinking of joining. xxx