This series of posts addresses those nasty phenomena that block us from experiencing the Zone—and the wonderful space of clarity, freedom, creativity, and unselfconscious ease that we feel when we write from the Zone.
The Grey Fuzz is my Zone-Blocker #2. It is a cousin of The Big Miasma, Zone-Blocker #1, a looming sense of dread that I’m not writing what is mine to write. The Grey Fuzz is a floating, unconscious, sleepwalk-y state of mind that settles in after The Big Miasma has done its work and my brain has gone on overload with information and worry. It is diffuse, grey, and yes…
FUZZY!
It’s as if my cerebral cortex goes numb, and my thinking sinks to the level of a gerbil—except that just beneath the surface, I feel a terrible anxiety. Somewhere deep in my lizard brain, I fear that if I un-fuzz, that terrible anxiety will come crashing to the surface. So I dig a little deeper into the greyness. The result, of course, is procrastination. Sometimes even paralysis. That produces more anxiety, then more Grey Fuzz, then more procrastination and paralysis, and so on.
Oddly, the Grey Fuzz only extends to my writing project. I am crystal clear about all the tasks I might do instead of writing: alphabetizing the spice rack, defragging my computer, calling my niece, grooming the kitties, even housework! In fact, I feel a desperate need to do these things and a crisp clarity about how to get them done.
THE BLOCK-BUSTER
When the Grey Fuzz strikes, my first line of defense is recognizing that I’ve been Fuzzed! If I don’t recognize that I’m in the fog, I will wander in it endlessly. Here are the steps I take to bust this Zone-Blocker:
1. Send out the Grey Fuzz Alert. I gently say to myself, “You’ve been Fuzzed, you poor thing! Have a seat. Take a piece of paper or open a file. That’s it. You’re doing great.”
2. Write down everything that’s going on. It might sound something like, “Yikes! I’ve been Fuzzed. I’m walking around without a cerebral cortex, with an obsession to change the dust bag on my vacuum cleaner. I feel slow, dim-witted, lazy, and I will do anything—anything!—to avoid the writing task before me. I’m afraid of the blank file, and not being able to write well. And procrastinating has made it worse!” Just writing about where I am does two things:
* It gets me writing.
* It puts the Grey Fuzz outside of me. I see it, so I don’t have to be it. It is an object of my observation, not me.
3. Do some very small part of the writing project. If I’m writing about my main character visiting her mother in the hospital, I only have to write about her getting out of the car. Doing even the smallest task usually blows away some of the Fuzz and I’m back on track, synapses beginning to spark and my brain waking up from its grey sleep.
Do you get The Grey Fuzz, and what do you do about it?