When ideas flutter around like butterflies

And a deceptively simple strategy that will help you focus on your writing, and art

I’ve been mulling over a number of ideas this last week, trying to pick one to focus on. But ideas can be difficult to pin down sometimes.

I have 5 articles on the go, some with just a few snatched lines. And just when I feel like I may be hitting my stride, my mind presents me with a shiny new idea, and I’m off on a completely different tangent, trying to tease out what it is that I want to say.

Some days, this is my superpower, as my brain synapses fire up to present me with a number of different ideas that seamlessly fuse together into a glittering whole.

Other times, it is my kryptonite, leaving me with a trail of disjointed ideas that lead absolutely nowhere and make me question if I will have anything interesting to say ever again.

After many years of swinging between the highest highs and lowest lows of this weird and wonderful brain of mine, I have a few coping strategies that help me to focus long enough to get something written.

A simple writing strategy to help you focus

I wanted to share one of them with you today. It’s based on the 5-4-3-2-1 technique to deal with an anxiety flare-up¹.

Close your eyes, if that feels comfortable, or soften your gaze. Take a few deep breaths — I find that helps to immediately quieten down my overactive mind.

Now simply start writing using your senses:

• What do you see around you?

• What sounds filter through to your room?

• How are you feeling in your body — warm, cold, exhausted, restless?

• What are you doing while you write?

I’ve started many a writing session using this technique, and it’s always led me down an interesting, sometimes meandering path, without pulling me off on a wildly different tangent.

This is a strategy that helps me at the art table too.

When I’m unsure of what to do next, I just take a few deep breaths, look at the supplies around me, and choose one. And then I decide what I’m going to do with it. That’s it. Those two decisions make the anxiety of the blank page — or of a page that seems to be going nowhere — manageable.

From that point on, it’s just one choice on top of the next and the next and the next, with the painting itself sparking the next decision.

Do you sometimes struggle with too many ideas that pull you in different directions? What coping strategies do you use to focus long enough to finish what needs to be done?

I’d love to hear your thoughts here in the comments, or simply reply to this e-mail and let’s get the conversation rolling!

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1. The 5-4-3-2-1 technique to deal with an anxiety flare-up: Take a look around you and make a note of five things that you can see, four things that you can hear, three things that you can feel, two things that you can smell, and one thing that you can taste.