[WoD] Build Yourself Some Form and Structure

For this post in the series on my War on Distraction, I want to talk about giving your project, whatever it may be, some form and structure. Why do I want to do that? Because what I've learned from my own experience. Do you ever feel like your ideas are just floating around in an obliquitous pool of goo somewhere in the depths of your mind? I feel like that all the time. If you haven't noticed from my writing, my thoughts are all over the place. But what they need most is some form of focus. It may not make them real, but it will aid in giving them some form to better look at them.


But how do we go about giving our thoughts form? I'm not talking about physical form, but doing something so that it's easier to see and think through an idea thoroughly. Something so simple as writing down your thoughts should suffice. Write down new thoughts every day. Try to find at least ten new ideas each day starting now. Write them down in a journal. If you already have it down, don't pen it to paper again. Just new ideas. But be sure to look back at old ideas. Old ideas spark new ideas. They seem to be very organic in that matter.


So now you have a bunch of ideas, and you keep accumulating more every day. What to do with all of these ideas, you ask? Simple. Now that you have given them some form, it's time to give them a little structure. What do you want to do with those ideas? Probably start a project of some sort. For me it's writing a novel in November for NaNoWriMo, but for you it might be building a computer or traveling to Europe. But do you know how to get started? What steps do you have to go through to prepare for the initial kick-off? Are trying to find inspiration for your novel? Researching hard-drives, RAM, and motherboards for you computer? Looking for ways to scratch up for some money to travel to Europe? It all starts with the little stuff. The tender to get the fire burning. This is the beginning of the journey. You don't necessarily have to thoroughly plan it out, just know that this is the area where you need to get started.


And we should know where we want to end up, too. I want to finish up at the end of November. That that only gives me a time. I want to have a place, or more like a place setting in the novel. Yes, I can always come back and fix it later, but I want to have a general idea how it ends. Much like if you're building a computer, you kind of want to know how it should run when you're done. You don't necessarily need to have a deadline for finishing a computer, but if you don't, you could possibly procrastinate it off to the end of eternity. For the novel, it may be more akin to the Euro-trip. You have the date you're going home, especially if you bought round-trip tickets. Yes, you can always change them (much like I can change the novel). But you have one better than that, you know the place where you need to be to board the plane at your journey's end. And that i feel is also important in all of our projects. We should all know the point ahead of time when we can stand up and say, "I'm done."


No more layout is needed than this, but if you feel like you must, some other points in the journey would be the halfway point, first quarter point, and third quarter point. I want to implement them for my NaNo-journey, but I don't know if I will actually get around to it. 


Are you done doing all your research? Got all the money for your trip? Have a place for all that extra inspiration? And most important: Do you have an ending in mind? Yes? Then you're ready for the next step. Just jump in already! Start writing (when the time begins of course!), order the parts for your computer, enjoy Europe when you get there! Your journey begins here and now. Make it the best you can. Though it may not be the last, you should always try to make it the best you can and keep building towards greatness from there. Good luck!