Michael Mitchell: Archive

Someone asked me the following question: Should you have all your ideas thought out before you begin the first draft, or can you learn as you are writing? And my answer is that you can sometimes do the second accidentally -- but God help you if you attempt to do it deliberately. Do not try to do your thinking and your writing at the same time. A clear outline helps you avoid this problem. While you are writing, it allows you to focus your attention exclusively on conveying your thoughts in an objective, grammatical form.

These are two separate jobs: the job of thinking and the job of expressing your thoughts. And they cannot be done together. If you try, it will take you much longer, and be much more painful, than if you did each one separately -- because you are giving your subconscious contradictory orders. You are saying: "I have to express something -- but I do not know what."

The Art Of Nonfiction

Ayn Rand

----------

This used to happen to me when I was younger. Someone like a parent, teacher or boss would be telling me to do something and I'd be thinking of not forgetting it and doing a good job and sometimes just fucking daydreaming (LOL) rather than only listening.

Someone: Do this, this and this.

Me: (Don't forget. Don't forget. Don't forget.)

It took me a long time to trust my subconscious and just be present in the moment. I figured it out on my own, thanks to playing sports, when fucking up is simply not rewarded, but I didn't really understand it until I read this passage. You can't learn how to do something and actually do it well at the same time.