Sometimes I focus on details.
And sometimes I focus on a bigger picture.
Hi, I’m Ari. Welcome to my world. When I begin to write something, I have an idea in mind. As I develop this idea in writing, it grows and grows. Either it stays in the details of here and now, or it expands outwards to cover everything in a great big bear hug. Recently, I’ve noticed that my writing has begun to zoom out. I won’t be able to write about a detail without mentioning the entire picture as a by-the-way. Or just a bunch of good points without focusing on any one idea in particular.
Writing is scooping my brain out onto the paper. I try to arrange the goop so it looks nice. This seems to work quite well at times. But other times… not at all. The mess is simply too big.
For the past few days, I’ve been working on a specific post (not this one) for this blog. The more I tried to focus on a specific point, the more I felt the need to explain.
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I think that over-extension can be an All or Nothing endeavor. A person can either benefit enormously for their efforts, or fail spectacularly.
The common cure for the Writer’s Block is to write. And not the normal amount of writing either. You have to do extra. You have to sit down and bust out a few of the worst paragraphs you’ve ever written. It will break through the wall in your mind. With the barrier removed, the ideas come flooding back in. That’s the theory, anyway.
However, it doesn’t work that way for everything in life. I don’t know a lot about singing, but from what I understand, screaming at top volume for extended periods of time can’t be good. It won’t break through a wall in your mind. You won’t feel inspired. Although with a sore throat, you may have more quiet time to reflect on life.
Maxing out while lifting weights is a method of building muscle. However, it do much by way of endurance. And on the other hand, lifting light weight and taking excessive breaks won’t build any muscle.
It seems that over-extension varies by example. There’s no clear way when to know you should go all out or not. As a result, moderation is still the preferred route. It’s more reliable and far less risky to wait for the inspiration to refill in your mind, or to sing at even tones, or to lift medium weights.
I, however, find moderation to be extremely boring, so I’ll take the risk.
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Ari Kasowitz 