 For Authors: May 14, 2014 Issue [#6321] |
  For Authors
This week: The Lie (and Importance) of Multitasking Edited by: Jeff  
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"Some writers enjoy writing, I am told. Not me. I enjoy having written.
-- George R.R. Martin
Trivia of the Week: When Irish writer Maeve Binchy passed away in 2012, her native Ireland acknowledge the passing as that of their best-loved and most recognizable writer. In fact, Binchy's books have outsold a great many renowned Irish authors, including Samuel Beckett, Roddy Doyle, Seamus Heaney, James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, and Oscar Wilde.
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THE LIE (AND IMPORTANCE) OF MULTITASKING
Multitasking (i.e. completing two or more unrelated tasks simultaneously) is one of those buzzwords that you hear a lot. Everybody wants an employee that can "multitask," a busy working parent might have to multitask to make sure breakfast gets made while preparing for a meeting later that day. It's understandable; at any given time, most of us probably have more than one different duty, responsibility, or item on our to-do list. We want to complete these tasks quickly and efficiently, preferably more than one of them at a time. Here's the problem though; the concept of multitasking is a lie. What we're actually doing is just switching our focus between those multiple responsibilities very, very quickly, sometimes back and forth dozens or hundreds of times over the span of a few minutes.
The thing is, though, people have actually been proven to perform tasks worse when they're "multitasking." Sometimes called "context switching," the transition from focusing on one thing to another (and back again) requires a significant amount of mental energy and can ultimately lead to exhaustion, inefficiency, and a decrease in the quality of output.
Everyone has a saturation point where the number of tasks is simply too numerous and trying to juggle them all will result in a breakdown somewhere along the way. For some of us, that's two tasks... for others, it might be ten. Some people are naturally better at changing gears than other people, and that's often what employers, for example, are really looking for when they say they want a "multitasker;" not someone who can literally do multiple things at once, but someone who can quickly switch contexts and re-prioritize in response to external changes. And one of the benefits of context switching can be maintaining a level of interest and energy that is more difficult to sustain when you're just working on the same singular task day in and day out.
How does this affect our writing, though?
We first have to be aware of our limitations. We have to acknowledge how many projects are too many projects; the point at which we have so many different irons in the fire that we can't keep track of them all, or so many that we start making mistakes. We shouldn't be afraid to take on multiple projects at the same time, so long as the number of projects isn't so numerous that it adversely affects us. Everyone will have their own comfort zone, but it should be somewhere between the extremes of "enough to keep me interested and always moving" and "not so many that I feel anxiety or stress bearing down on me."  With some trial and error, we should all be able to find the number of concurrent projects that keep us engaged but don't overwhelm us.
If you're interested in multitasking to maintain your enthusiasm and interest in the difficult process of writing something, here are two of the best tips for how to manage your diverse projects:
1. Have projects in different stages of the process. Rewriting is different than brainstorming, which is different than writing that first draft. Each uses a different skill set and slightly different parts of the brain. If you can juggle brainstorming a new project with the writing of a first draft on another, with a set of revisions on a third project, that's three things you've got going on, but which allow you to change gears in a way that utilizes different strengths. Going from first draft to first draft to first draft will just be exhausting because you're exercising the same muscles. It's like going to the gym and only working out your arms every day. Even if you switch it up and use free weights one day, and weight machines the next, you're still only exercising one part of your body and neglecting the others. Going from first draft to rewriting to brainstorming is like working out your arms, then your legs, then your core in a circuit training fashion. You're giving certain muscle groups the opportunity to recover and grow while you're working out a different one.
2. Have drastically different types of projects. Maybe for you that's different genres. Or maybe it's even different types of writing. The important thing with this technique is to have diversity in the types of things you're doing. In the same way you don't want to be doing the same type of activity all the time, don't make your subject matter or character archetypes or story structure the same thing all the time or you risk getting confused and burned out. If you're juggling three fantasy novels with similar characters, you might get your characters or storylines confused between the different projects. But if you juggle a fantasy and a romance and a drama... or a novel, a blog, and a poem, those are drastically different projects varied enough from one another that they're easier to differentiate.
True multitasking (i.e. two or more tasks completed simultaneously) is a lie, at least for humans. Let's leave that up to the computers for now and instead focus on how we can be better context switchers; how we can more effectively change gears between a sufficient number of projects to keep us interested an actively engaged, but not so many that they become overwhelming.
Until next time,
-- Jeff
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I encourage you to check out the following Writing.Com items:
"Tell me a story." She picks up her glass and heads into the living room to warm herself by the fire.
The place is a rented cabin in the mountains and their worries were languishing somewhere hundreds of miles away. The falling snow outside had dampened their plans for the evening. Rather than brave the treacherous roads, the two had opted for dinner in.
"A story, hmm." He raises his eyebrows and takes a long sip of his whiskey, the remnants of the ice cubes clinking softly against the heavy crystal glass. He doesn't respond immediately, instead he follows her and stokes the fire, sending crackles of soot and glowing embers in a furious puff up the chimney.
I hardly ever fell in love with Mortals. I am far beyond their reach, far ahead than their capacity to comprehend, control or love. Yet, there have been some exceptions.
I hurried toward the sidewalk flanked by organized brick columns. Just as I approached my destination, an unassuming woman stepped from between the opening onto the sidewalk. I lined up to intersect the woman without breaking my hurried stride.
While I knew intimate details about her medical health, and that her first name was Grace, I tended to think of her by her nickname, Amazing Grace.
Somewhere below, yet another metallic groan of the hull shattered the monotonous silence. He grimaced and attempted to change positions, his lower limbs now numb from hours of inactivity. Aunt Beatrice would have a field day if she were to see him this way. Why, she'd waste no time admonishing him for being such an impolite cad. Her sharp tongue would pierce through his usual veil of disinterest, her afternoon tea long forgotten as she would take muted pleasure at her ability to peg him in his place. Perhaps the lecture would end with a rap of her umbrella on his head and a verbal promise never, ever, ever again to act that way in her presence.
"What is in an idea?"
There was a pause, and no one in the room answered. An AC fan kicked on, blowing cold air into the room. A ceiling light flickered. A guard by the door fidgeted with his gun.
"Is it a belief? A principle? An ideology? A freedom that enhances one's truest potential? Or a law by which one uses to trap themselves in and uses as an escape?"
Sam’s screaming woke everyone at 3 a.m. Mom scrambled down the hall and found him hiding under a blanket with a flashlight.
She flipped the light switch. “What is it, Sam?”
His tiny arm emerged from under the blanket as he pointed toward the closet.
Gabe Kotter's head turned slightly to observe his students as he entered the room. One teen's face was hidden in his arms as he rested down on the desk. Kotter assumed he was asleep. Several other students gazed, transfixed, in one direction or another. Kotter himself had attended this very high school many years ago. He knew what it was like to have a class at eight o'clock on a Monday morning.
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Feedback on my last newsletter about the importance of keeping momentum with your writing:
Quick-Quill  writes, "You newsletter hit me as I have too many irons in my fire. I have 3 novels in different stages. I had to push the other irons to one side to smolder a bit until I could get one complete and ready to publish. I spent my time dancing between all the partners and I felt if I didn't focus, they might all leave the dance floor with me alone and no one to go home with."
Hopefully this week's topic was also illuminating!
monty31802 writes, "A fine News Letter. I think getting it right is what most us try to do. I am a retired engineer and at 73 and writing since I was in the second grade I am still trying."
That's great that you've been writing all this time and still strive to improve. My hat's off to you! 
patrickryan writes, "Hi. It's been a long while since reading any newsletter, and I'm excited to see the story excerpts below the submissions that you included with this newsletter. I do hope this idea has already or will catch on with all of our newsletters. It's thanks to these excerpts that I am making it a point to read the stories whose excerpts interest me. Great idea to whoever thought of it! Patrick"
Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying the newsletters and the featured items!
mblank writes, "Excellent, excellent newsletter. This one struck a chord with me because I often feel guilty about spending so much of my time on short stories and about letting much of what I write fall by the wayside, when "real" writers write novels and revise everything to death (at least this seems to be the general consensus). Keeping it brief and moving on when I'm not feeling a piece has taught me a lot about what I like to write about, though, and helped me to learn to write without feeling all of the pressure and stress of a larger or "serious" project. Someday, I'm going to have to commit to something bigger, I'm sure, but right now, I just want to keep swimming."
I think it's important to not get down on yourself for not writing longer works too. If you want to write novels, that's one thing... but if you're happy writing short stories and the like, there's nothing that says you have to branch into novels if you don't want. Especially with self-publishing options these days, choosing to be a short story writer or a poet doesn't mean you any less "real" of a writer than someone who focuses on novels!
BIG BAD WOLF is Howling  writes, "We all have something to work on." (Submitted item: "Monsters Versus Aliens Sequel" [13+] by BIG BAD WOLF is Howling )
Indeed we do. 
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