Shut up and listen!

I was frustrated. Nothing new. I get frustrated a lot. This time it was because I wasn’t writing enough. Nothing new here, either. I get frustrated about that a lot. Yes, yesterday I posted three things. But today? Nothing. I had ideas demanding that I write them. Too many. I could barely hear myself think. I needed to change things.

“You ideas in my head,” I thouted. “you need to shut up and listen!” Thouting is a combination of thinking and shouting. When thoughts are racketing in my head, I have to thout to make myself heard.

“‘Write me! Write me!’ they screamed back.

“Shut up!” I thouted, even louder. “You thoughts are all trying to get to the front of my consciousness, but you’re getting in each others’ way and in mine.

“You need to shut up and listen!” I thouted once more.

I had their attention. Some attention.

“You’re good ideas, a lot of you,” I said gently. “Some of you are terrific ideas.” There were plenty of stupid ideas too, but I didn’t say that. I wanted to keep it positive.

“Take a look around.” I paused for effect. “You’re in my brain and there are only a couple of ways out. And if you don’t get out,” I paused for effect, “you’re going to die!”

That really got their attention.

“Some of you might be immortal ideas, but mortal or immortal, you’re stuck inside the brain of a mortal being. Me. I am going to die. Not soon, I hope. But I am going to die. And when I die, any of you ideas that have not gotten out are going to die with me!”

Well, that shut them up!

“There are only a couple of exits.” I continued. “If I write you, you’re out. If I speak you, for example in a podcast, then you’re out. If I tell you to someone else, then you’re in their mind as well as mine and maybe they can get you out or tell you to someone else before they die. But if I don’t do one of these things, then when I die, you die.

“And I can only do one thing at a time. And I can’t do anything with all the noise you make.

“So what’s it going to be?” I continued. “Do you guys settle down and some of you get out? Or do you keep it up and most of you die?

Dead silence. I knew that most of my ideas would die anyway. I had too many already, and more kept coming. Every time I read something, I had more. Worse, every time I wrote or spoke things, I got even more. But I didn’t say that. I needed to keep it upbeat.

“Well?” I asked.

“I’d like as many of us to live as possible,” came an answer. “What do we have to do?”

“You need to get organized,” I said. “My mind is chaos.”

“I can help,” said a voice. It was my book, the one that I was writing for NaNoWriMo 2018. “Yes, I’m his book,” the book confirmed, “and I’ve got room for a lot of ideas. Here’s how books survive: if someone reads a book and people find its ideas are interesting or valuable enough, they tell their friends. If it gets popular, people will write about the ideas in it—and those ideas spread further. If a book survives, then so do all the ideas in the book. So we books are motivated to have excellent ideas.”

“I might be an excellent idea,” said an idea.

“Let’s talk,” said the book. “Also any of you other ideas who think you’re good. Come over here with me.”

“I’ll help, too,” said my blog. One of my blogs, actually. This blog was called 70 Years old. WTF! “Some of you ideas don’t belong in a book. You belong in a blog. So you can come over here, and we can talk about writing you.”

“Just so we’re clear,” I called out. “I can only write one thing at a time. Book or blog.”

“We know that,” the book and the blog said together. “Jinx!” They said together and laughed.

“We can work it out,” said the blog.

“Yes,” said the book. “I’m a book about helping my author be what he wants to be. And what he wants to be (among other things) is a very productive writer. Maybe some of you are ideas about increasing his productivity?”

“I am,” said one.

“Me, too,” said another.

“So we can get you guys written first,” said the book, or maybe in the blog. And I’ve got a blog, too. “The more productive Mike is, the more ideas he can get out. Let’s get some of the ideas that improve his productivity over here, and the rest of you can figure out what categories you belong in, and we’ll get you out, too.”

“Sounds great to me,” said an idea. “But I’m biased. I’m an idea about creating a high productivity writing environment using the tools that are available on the internet.”

“Me, too,” said another idea. “But I’m biased, too. I’m an idea about thinking through your options and not going after the first shiny thing that’s in that direction.

“What about me?” Asked another idea. “I’m the idea that you should organize the stuff you’ve already written so that you’re not writing something that you’ve already written. You can refer back.”

I heard a chorus of agreement.

“I’m the idea that you should connect with other people,” said an idea. “You’ve said ‘smart people make me smarter.’ So wouldn’t connecting with smart people help you?”

“It might, I admitted.

“I’m the idea that you should set your timer so that it goes off every hour, and when that happens, you should make sure you’re on plan.”

“I’m the idea that this is a pretty good blog post, and you should stop writing it, and post it right now.”

Dead silence.

“That’s right!” said another idea. “That’s a great idea! I mean, you’re a great idea.”

Written with the help of StackEdit, Grammerly, Markdown Here, Blogger, and Google voice typing on Android and Chromebook, plus other stuff.

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