Back Brain Stuff – The Climb #753

Tuesday 16^th March 2021

Today was the start of a new Fortnite season and I have to admit that I didn’t get a lot of written work done. I did, however, work out that when you are outlining, having a lay-in and thinking about some plot problems can constitute work.

I woke early and spent an hour naturally mulling over a plot issue with a novel idea. I basically came to the conclusion that the climax I had planned for this novel maybe needs to be the thing that kicks it all off. That seems to work, but leaves me a HUGE problem of what this novel is actually about.

I’m moving a lot of pieces around right now. I liken it to having pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and trying each piece together to see what fits. Except, what I have is 5 different jigsaw puzzles where all the pieces have been mixed together.

It’s not that I’m trying to be particularly clever, I just have a few ideas for different novels, so even if all I do is sort the pieces into their relevant jigsaw box, it’s a help. But as I’ve said, I’d also like to get a bunch of outlines done, so if a particularly novel idea grabs me when I wake early, I’m just going to ride it as long as I can.

So much of this work is what I call back brain stuff. I find consciously thinking about it can focus the mind, but in the long term, it’s not particularly faster. Instead, you just make yourself aware of it, carry on with other things and wait for your back brain to pop ideas up. When they do, that’s when you need to grab that and run with it. I know VE Schwab describes this has having several pots slow cooking that you occasionally stir, but this element of it feels more like a toaster you’re waiting for, knowing that when the toast does pop you only have so long to spread on butter before it’s too dry to properly melt into the toast.

So perhaps the reason I’ve been playing so many games these past few days is to feed my back brain. Or perhaps it’s just that I have gaming deadlines as new patches get released and I progress onto harder content.

Either way, the new Fortnite season rocks and I’ll probably play a bunch of it before getting bored and then realising that I have a week left to get 40 or so levels. Such is the way with Fortnite. I always start out strong with noble goals, and then I somehow lose interest in the middle and have to catch up at the end.