You know, I used to have a problem maintaining focus while writing. It’s true!
In the past, I’d begin writing with a clear focus on what I wanted to accomplish, a beginning idea that was solid and had a chance to be developed. But as I moved forward, my mind would keep spinning ideas around and taking me in new directions.
Before I knew it, I had over-burdened my writing with too many topics.
I’d even try to force connections between varying subjects and arguments (or, in the case of fiction, themes and story-lines) just to have them, because they seemed good and relevant at the time.
In the end, however, the paper would lose its original focus, as well as its integrity, and I’d drop it and move on to something else.
Well that’s lame, you’re saying, how do you prevent that?
Well, when writing anything, I think its important to formulate an idea or focus in the beginning and stick to it. Switching gears halfway through an article is never a good idea unless it’s completely necessary.
That doesn’t mean you should ignore those conflicting ideas, the ones that are good but don’t serve the work at hand. Write them down in a notebook or in a word file and keep them for a future project.
It’s something I’ve started to do recently that has helped. It’s like telling yourself, “That’s a good idea, just not here, not right now.” You’ll also be building a repository of article ideas that you might want to use in the future.
Now, I could go on and talk about the problem of having so many ideas to work with that it’s impossible to choose, but that’s a whole different monster. Instead, check out Creativity: Overcoming Too Many Ideas Syndrome. It’s a good read.
