h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Don't you think we all have limits to the number of things to which we can pay attention at any one time?

So, if, before we sat down to write, we had to find a chair, clear all the plates off the table, find a pen and ink (or a computer with some battery power left) perhaps we wouldn't get round to writing at all.

To refer to my mom's method, which is mine, too - if you don't obsess about order, but put things back where you found them, you can usually muddle through, I've found... or, why there was a rule about keeping scissors in the scissors drawer, and doing the dishes after meals, etc, and nobody ever said, 'I have to do x, why can't I find y, or a space to do it in?'

Although she DID say, 'Okay, you kids. There will be company for dinner, so I need the dining room table for eating on. Please remove homework, typing, and art projects NOW.'

Left to myself, I'm fairly organised but my husband and son aren't.

" 'I always cut off one end of the ham and place it sideways because otherwise, it wouldn't fit in the pan. You kids are idiots.'"



People tend to remember the moral, but not the context in which it is effective. I like to look at things from a variety of perspectives. If I need to find my way back there, I'm not stuck knowing how something looks from just one angle.

About the only thing that consistently fuels my creativity is the desire to do anything but what I'm, supposed to be doing. Maybe this activates the part of my brain that imagines alternatives.

Very thought provoking, as ever

"If you impose extraneous conditions on an activity, you may experience existential panic when all of those conditions aren't met, even the ones that are totally unnecessary to the task."

This made me ponder obsessive compulsive disorders, and 'chicken and egg' scenarios... Your mom's method is a good technique, to take a variety of routes to the same destination so that the association with extraneous conditions is lessened.

Doesn't quite work with one of my obsessions, though - I have more than one route to the metaphorical destination, but I often find myself going along each route in turn to see which one 'wins' on a particular day...

Writer's Block is not one of them, though, as I get inspiration from paying attention to what's around me I also enjoy testing processes, checking each step and seeing if there is a slicker way of doing things - I take after my dad in that regard A87924856

True. You have the inspiration before you.