by Chris McGinty
I was writing about my need to use multiple formats to get to different thoughts when it occurred to me that it’s really hard to explain my overall creative process, because I approach things from so many different directions. I’m pretty convinced this isn’t a good thing. My deepest flaw as an artist is that I don’t know how to focus. I hate to think about how successful I might have been if I had ever focused on one project at a time. I also wonder if I would enjoy the work near as much.
There are times when I seem to get into a reasonable state of focus on something for a while, and I do believe that I produce some reasonably good material sometimes when I do. I even enjoy the process at times when I do. I just know that some of my more interesting ideas have come from being all over the place. These are usually accompanied by lots of terrible ideas, so it’s still not an argument against focus.
The thing that I keep coming back to when I consider all of this is that even if I would just focus on one project for a set amount of time each day that maybe it would be better. It would have to be for real though. It would have to be a piece of paper tacked above my desk that says, “”The Watch” is your primary project.” And for that set amount of time that would be all that I could work on, and I could never switch until it was done. I could do all of the creativity exercises and development of other projects after that work was done.
Chris McGinty is a blogger who’s not really going to focus, but I play one on TV. I’m not sure why I like that punchline so much. It’s actually a bit outdated, not too many people will remember it anyway, and I overuse it. Maybe I do focus after all.