Friday 28th July 2017
I had a nightmare last night. I dreamt that I’d taken so long with the edits that I got dropped by my agent. This wasn’t helped by the fact that when I launched Facebook after I woke, I found today was the two year anniversary of my contract arriving.
I’ve not let it bother me too much today as my plan is to start at the weekend. I’m feeling refreshed and whilst I’ve got a lot of little tasks in the way, by the end of today I didn’t feel they were a roadblock to getting on with work.
I spent most of the day catching up with Game of Thrones. I stayed up late to watch the two episodes of the latest series, but then, I don’t need to be up early tomorrow.
I also played a bit of World of Warcraft as I watched, only to find that somehow, I’d gathered enough reputation to hit revered with the Armies of Legionfall faction and unlock flying. It came as a bit of a surprise. I’ve been working for it for so long that unlocking it was both a surprise and a simultaneous anti-climax.
Both watching TV Series and playing Warcraft are great tools for recharging my creativity. I like to think of it as a mana bar, like you find in many RPG games. The more creative I am, the more mana I use. And just like a spellcaster in Warcraft I can get to the stage where I can’t do what I want to do because I need to wait for my mana to recharge.
So it is with me and creativity. I sometimes need to binge, whether that be a box set, books or online gaming. I need to immerse myself in other people’s creations to ‘recharge’ myself and feel ready to tackle my own.
It sounds stupid but I always see great results. I make more creative decisions, I work better, and most of all, I have more fun.
This week has been a recharge week for me. I’ve been pretty shitty in the gym this week and have been annoyed that my progress has stalled due to Astolat. But then I reminded myself that I train in the gym to be ready for tournament. It’s perfectly OK to have a week like this week where I feel exhausted because all that work in the gym was so that I did leave everything on the tournament mats.
Likewise, it’s fine to have a week where I creatively recharge and watch entire series and play loads of games. It’s so easy to see it as a distraction technique, as something that gets in the way. But the reality is that this week serves future weeks. I’ll make tougher creative decisions. It’ll make for a better end product.
Over the course of this week my mind has slowly focused away from swordfighting and more and more to the novel. But it’s also used that transition as a way to recharge both mentally and physically. Yes, I have another tournament in a couple of weeks’ time but that one isn’t going to be ranked. The fact that I’ve now made quarter-final or better in the last 3 tournaments I’ve fought in has given me the confidence to feel assured that even if I get demolished in the pools at Fightcamp, I know I’m a good fighter.
In many ways, I’m going through a bit of a recharge with my swordfighting as well. Just as I’ve spent the week creatively recharging, I’ve also started a slightly longer re-evaluation of myself and my abilities as a swordsman.
Three decent tournament positions has left me with confidence. Far from being the frustrated I prophesised, I’m feeling very content. I feel I’m running with the pack rather than trying to catch up with the band of swordfighters who’ve recently started to enjoy tournament success. The big question now is how do I improve on that?
And so as I get ready to dive back into edits fully recharged, in the back of my head, there’s a process going on that’s asking what the new swordfighting goals are.
I worked out I have something like 10 tournaments before the end of the year (all going well). Swordfish saw me find my focus, Astolat saw me find some confidence. What do I need to work on now?
That’ll be going on subconsciously for the next month as I focus entirely on the book. I booked today for my next tournament on the 16th September. That’ll mean that as I (hopefully) finish the edits, it’ll be perfect timing to then focus back on tournaments.
And so, as I go to bed, finally up to date on Game of Thrones, I look back at this past week not as one where nothing happened, but where I stopped, took a breath and re-evaluated. Those weeks are essential and the benefits will be felt for a long time to come.
If you want to follow more of my journey, then be sure to check me on my social channels. Likewise, if you’d like me to expand on any point mentioned above, please say so in the comments.
- Twitter: @figures
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