On Choosing a Topic

If we take another look at the subheading above, we will see a lack of focus. Perhaps you didn't need to look at it again but saw it the first time. I wrote it in a hurried attempt to begin my first Hub. For too long -- three weeks now -- I put off writing a Hub because I wanted to "plan better". Well I've been doing quite enough planning, thank you very much; strategic planning can all all too easily degenerate into outright procrastination. Therefore I have seen an opportunity to begin within the problem itself.

Rather than editing the title I have let it stand, since it expresses the initial conditions forming the start of my Hubchallenge. I want this disorganization to be an example to procrastinators everywhere that one simply should not wait for perfection to come a'barkin at the door before they begin! Believe me, it would be a long wait if they did.

Choosing a topic isn't necessarily the hard part for people. It is follow through that prickles the lazy-hairs. Everyone has interests, even the bored teen who shrugs & mumbles "I dunno" when asked what holds their attention. The challenge is to articulate the streams of memory into a coherently expressed verbal picture.

Some beginning Hubbers will be experts in their professional fields. Some will be previously published authors. Some may even have the opposite trouble -- choosing what not to write about. Either way, these Hubbers probably won't have much trouble with procrastination simply because of the force of habit.

Then there are folks who don't have a field of expertise. Or maybe, maybe they just think they don't have expertise. Quite often a person may be unaware of their own talents, both in writing and in other fields. Sometimes it takes a little initiated pressure and a set of outside mirrors to see one's own diamond in the rough.

Both of these groups may at times exhibit Writer's Block. The former tend to indulge in it as an evasion, while the latter occasionally hesitate with fear, having bewitched themselves into suffering therein. Another evasion.

Those of us suffering from (or indulging in) Writer's Block may do well just to start from wherever they are.

One does not need to wear their heart upon their sleeve to write from the heart. One need only be genuine -- sincere -- and allow the natural course of their own inner starlight to emerge through the stories of their experience. The sought after topic will often seemingly present itself if the seeker take a quiet moment to reflect upon where have I been? Where am I now? Where am I going?

Once one gets over the initial hump of choosing the topic momentum can feedback and contribute towards increased velocity of efforts without losing their structural integrity; difficult to start the train, but once it starts chuggin' there it goes... as long as steady steam is applied and the track is clear!

Committing to and executing the first efforts doesn't mean one must immediately publish their initial efforts. I choose to publish these initial idea-drafts to illustrate the process, The point of starting wherever you are means start a wellspring of effort even if it is only brainstorming lists of associations. From these one may see the pattern to work into a story, essay, or article.

Momentum is key here, and momentum is generated in small but steady quanta or discreet packets. These packets of effort form aggregates, and before you know it you're moving out of the phase of initial effort into the next step.

And so one moves from Topic to Tale!