P-A-S-S-I-O-N and Confidence And Publication Part 2 of 11
Writing with passiona nd being published is an awesome thing indeed. This powerful emotion is one that oftentimes people both fear and enjoy. I think it is because for the new writer, the passion is all they have, and sometimes it can be too much. There is the danger that it will increase a form of fake confidence, and not allow the writer to grow. it can be both a healer and a poison to use her analogy, poison if not careful and a healer if you know how to manage it.
I think in a way this is true for all writers, we become too confident in our abilities and allow our pride to take over, and lose a passion that is needed. However, there is one other thing that confidence has that passion has as well: focus. Focus is the key to passion.
I think I got you on that one. At this point you’re possibly think I’ve gone nuts, and am writing to be funny, but I’m not, I do believe in focused passion. Follow my thought line, when you are passionate about a thing, such as writing, you spend a large chuck of your time writing. There are days when if I didn’t have all the extra things in my life I would be doing more writing. Even when I’m in the middle of something that I don’t enjoy doing, I think of writing.
It’s my passion, it’s my enjoyment, but I also want to focus more on the business end of writing. I become focused on what I need to do: I have a list write and then edit in the evening. Of course, for some reason editing in the evening is easier for me, I’m more focused on mistakes then and possibly because I have fewer interruptions.
On the other hand, I should wake up at 5 in the morning and I can’t seem to bring myself to do that. Excessive coffee consumption then. For those in the know you’re all probably laughing, as I enjoy tea more than coffee. I’m also passionate about sleep, as I have a little one who likes to find nicer places to sleep. The rec room, the floor by her bed, or best of all beside mine snoring.
Nevertheless, Focus is an important thing to passion I can say that without it, you can tell the writer who doesn’t have it or too much of it. We all know the ones, they start something and are so very excited about it, far too excited about it, and about four days later they aren’t so much, and a few more days after that the writing is in the recycling bin, and they are one to their next big writing adventure. They are passionate about that, but by this time, an experienced writer can say they aren’t passionate about it.
I love writing; I know that I need to focus on one thing at a time, not on so many that it stops my joy and value of what I am working on. I focus and commit to at least for me one hour of pure writing a day. That means 60 minutes of writing, I can write on the computer or long hand on paper. That’s right 60 minutes or for the more second minded, 3600 seconds.
I focus and then my passion increases and so does my confidence, which increases my passion. Well off to editing.
My Question for you today is this: Do you think that it’s possible to have passion without focus and still write well? Why or why not?
3 Comments
Alissa
I don't think passion and focus always go hand in hand. Sometimes I find that I am driven by passion and am very unfocused, but in order to do something with that passionate drive, I do need to focus. So, yes I suppose that you probably need both to get anywhere, but they don't always show up together.
JS
If you write on something you are passionate about, the words will come through with consummate ease. You won't have to put the other end of pen in your mouth to recall the words. In other words, it just flows…your pen is unstoppable.
No doubt focus is required but sometimes you got to set yourself free when expressing something with passion…just like the free brush-strokes of a painter that reveal several facets of life in one stroke.
Writing with or without focus are two different forms of writing for me. A good write-up can be an offspring of both the forms.
PrettySiren
That's a loaded question, Rebecca, to which I would have to respond: yes and no.
Some of my best writing comes when I'm barely focused. Tonight, I've written some paragraphs that I'm very proud of; tonight, I'm also completely unable to actually focus, because I have a lung infection and I'm on strong cold medicine. And I'm rather proud of my unfocused paragraphs. They move me, and hopefully, will do the same to others.
But, at the same time, if I was able to focus tonight, I might've written a larger quantity of paragraphs. I can't say whether or not the quality would be better, but focus definitely helps you pound out the chapters a lot quicker.
Not to mention, my lack of focused has caused me to stare at a Mitchell/Annie (from Being Human) animated icon for minutes at a time, wondering how the icon artist managed to do it, if I could ever figure out to do the same, and internally squeeing over my Mitchie fangirlishness. (True story: I'm one of the first people who used that word. I may be the creator, or at the very least, the first to use it widely on the internet.)
And I think my tangent perfectly illustrates what a lack of focus does to writers, don't you? 😉