A Focus on Focus…and Festivals
I’m sure I’m not the only one who goes through periods of being utterly unable to focus on anything other than a constantly-changing phone screen. The last month I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about focus. Here I focus on focus…and festivals. Click here if you want to skip to the Frontiers Rock Festival and here if you want to jump to this year’s Salone del Libro.
Focus and Attention Spans
I’ve noticed a recent proliferation of books on the subject of focus and attention spans, and the collective decrease we all seem to be experiencing related to both of these things. I think I mentioned Stolen Focus, by Johann Hari, in a recent newsletter. Scary, but quite useful. Attention Span, by Gloria Mark, PhD, is more research-based. Both are interesting.
Ben Shoushan has what might be the most envy-inducing and beautifully-described “in the zone” moment I’ve ever read. A fictional scribe in Tarragon, Spain, in 1492, he is an important character in People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks. He recounts:
“It was in the still of the early hours, when the stars blazed in the black sky, that it happened. His fasting, the chill, the brilliant flare of the lamp: suddenly the letters lifted and swirled into a glorious wheel. His hand flew across the parchment. Every letter was afire. Each character raised itself and danced spinning in the void. And then the letters merged into one great fire, out of which emerged just four, blazing with the glory of the Almighty’s holy name. The power and the sweetness of it were too much for Ben Shoushan, and he fainted.”
Wow! We can only hope for something like this (minus the fainting). According to Gloria Mark, though, those blissed-out times of being in the zone really aren’t all that common or even attainable. I found this comforting, since if that’s the case, you can save yourself a lot of stress by simply realizing it isn’t the norm. You also don’t have to worry about being overcome and concussing yourself on your desk.
Ingredients Include Time and Space
Many of you already know I’m a big fan of Rik Emmett’s. A Canadian guitarist and singer, he’s very prolific, having now written a memoir, a poetry collection, and a book on the stories behind one of his solo acoustic albums. One of the things Emmett says about fostering creativity (which I think goes hand-in-hand with focus, however you want to define focus) is that you need to give yourself time and space for things to happen. Like a fine wine, you and your creativity have to have some room to breathe.
Interruption Kills Creativity
Another person I admire greatly, and who I had the pleasure of seeing in concert last month at the Frontiers Rock Festival, is Kip Winger, of the band Winger. He, too, is someone who is multi-talented. He sings, plays bass and guitar, and for many years now has composed symphonic works (he just had a world premiere of his new violin concerto in Nashville about two weeks ago). You can read more about that below, but something I’ve heard him say more than once in interviews is that, in his opinion, interruption kills creativity. In particular, he has talked about touring, which equates to travel.
Interruption to Routine Kills Creativity
While I agree with this, I would take it a step further and say that interruption to routine kills creativity, although maybe Kip Winger and I are saying exactly the same thing. The problem is that there are so many routine-killers in our daily lives, many of which we bring on ourselves (being glued to a screen of some kind is a big one). But even bigger hurdles for me recently, are just being able to sit down and get something done.
Three Big Negatives
What I can say, as someone who tends to have her fingers in a lot of different pies, is that the fact that I have a lot of things going on at any given time is not, at least as far as I can tell, a negative. However, I do have three big negatives that affect my focus: not sleeping, getting in my own way with various distracting thoughts, and disruptions to routine. Below I also include fixes I’ve found that help a lot.
Get Your Sleep Right
Number one creativity killer and major roadblock to functioning, both with writing and with life in general: insomnia. A problem for me off and on for years, I’m still trying to figure it out. One thing I know for sure, though, is that you have to get your sleep right or you can’t get anything else right. Mind over matter works…sometimes, but that’s ultimately a losing game. One night of bad sleep and I feel it. Two nights in a row is a massive blow to even functioning normally, let alone trying to come up with anything useful or creative. And more than two nights in a row? I can pack everything up for the entire day.
What Helps
What helps? One of the best purchases I’ve ever made is a natural light wake-up lamp. This is a lamp that wakes you up slowly, with a light that comes on like the rising sun. It’s especially useful when you need to keep windows and shutters closed to block out city lights. You can also set it so that you can get in bed and read as the light dims gradually. Recently I have been strict about not using a screen for an hour before the time I want to be asleep. I have also taken up working on puzzles while listening to audiobooks. Really relaxing but with some mental engagement involved, it seems to lower stress levels.
Offload Distracting Thoughts
Sometimes we just get in our own way. You can’t shut off the thoughts that pop into your head, though. The second really useful thing I’ve learned to do is offload distracting thoughts. When I’m trying to focus on something and those annoying thoughts and things that I need to remember to do start popping up, I simply write them down on a piece of paper I have next to me. That way, I won’t forget what I was thinking about, but I don’t get pulled out of my project mindset.
Disruptions to Routine
The third big bugaboo for me, and the one I probably struggle with the most, aside from sleep issues, is overall disruptions to routine. As I said above, in my opinion, disruptions to routine are what kill creativity and focus. Since basically anything can be considered a disruption, from something minor like answering the door to get a package, to something major like taking a trip (including a vacation), we have to figure out ways to deal with these changes and still get things done and take care of ourselves.
I admire people who can work on their drafts anywhere, including in a moving vehicle, but that’s just not me. Some of the best advice I ever read about moving to Italy applies to disruptions to routine, though: make peace with the biorhythms of the place where you’re going to be. If you can’t do this, you will be in for a world of frustration. I try to go with the flow of wherever I am, while still carving out time to do things that are important to me. For example, when I’m traveling I make time to get out for a walk or do a short, intense indoor workout (check YouTube for apartment workouts).
Frontiers Rock Festival
Music is a great motivator and sometimes rather than focusing you just need to blow off steam. As subscribers to my newsletter already know, I listen to all kinds of music, but one of my favorites is hard rock/heavy metal. I grew up on Judas Priest, Dio, the Scorpions, and other rock groups. Another favorite is a band which started in the late Eighties, Winger, fronted by Kip Winger, who grew up in Colorado, like me. When I found out that they were going to be performing at the Frontiers Rock Festival near Milan, with all of the original members for what was being billed as their last show in Europe (no!), I had to be there.
A Looooooong Time Ago
The last time I saw Winger perform was a looooooong time ago. I was supposed to see them last summer in Santa Fe, but then this happened. Well-organized and in a nice venue (not too big and not too packed), my only regret is that we didn’t go for the entire day of the festival. Actually, I wish we had gone for all three days, because there were some great bands in the line-up. Asia headlined the first night and Ronnie Romero played the third night. Other than singing lead for Rainbow, he also fronts Elegant Weapons, a group I mentioned several months ago in a post about using your elegant weapons to help your creativity.
Interesting Artists
The festival is run by Frontiers Music, an Italian company that focuses on, unsurprisingly, hard rock and heavy metal. But they have a lot of interesting artists signed to the label, like Russ Ballard (Are you old enough to remember Voices? Love this song!), Don Felder (the Eagles), and Blue Öyster Cult. My best I-know-nothing-about-this-artist-but-I-have-a-good-feeling purchase at the Festival was of a CD by a Lithuanian-Swedish musician named Michael Palace. I loved the cover art of his new album, Reckless Heart, and the Eighties-nostalgia-heavy songs do not disappoint. You can find one example here, with the song The Widow’s Web, but I encourage you to support this artist if you like this style of music.
Side Note About Blue Öyster Cult
An interesting side note about Blue Öyster Cult: last month I read and really enjoyed the 1982 horror novel by John Shirley, Cellars. Turns out that Shirley, who is a creative polymath, has written at least 18 songs for Blue Öyster Cult. Talk about a small world! Great horror novel, by the way. Super creepy and extremely imaginative.
Bittersweet
In the end, Winger kicked ass and I was so happy to see them. But it was a bittersweet time, knowing that they will probably not play together again here in Europe, at least not in any kind of sustained way with a lot of touring. Kip Winger has different creative fish to fry now and his interests lie elsewhere, namely in the world of composing symphonic works. As I said above, for him the constant travel kills his creativity, and he’s interested in exploring these other musical worlds.
Salone del Libro 2025
Another decidedly creative atmosphere is the annual Salone del Libro here in Turin. As you may recall, last year I was somehow able to get in to see Salman Rushdie, even with all the pre-registration necessary and security at the event.
Michael Bible
Sadly, this year, thanks to a super non-user-friendly website, I wasn’t able to get into the events with Mircea Cărtărescu and Georgi Gospodinov, who are both riding the wave of their recent prize-winning books, Solenoid and Time Shelter. On top of that, Walter Mosley’s event was canceled (hope he’s feeling better; I understand he was ill). Nevertheless, I was able to get in to see North Carolina native Michael Bible, and I enjoyed that discussion immensely.
Goodbye Hotel
Michael Bible spoke with Italian writer Matteo B. Bianchi. Bianchi’s latest book, The Life of Those Left Behind, publishes in English next week. Described as an “autobiographical novel,” it tells the devastating story of a man who breaks up with his partner, only to have him kill himself shortly afterwards.
Bible, meanwhile, is the author of six novels. Most recent is Little Lazarus, published by indie press Clash Books last month. Seemingly approachable and laid back, I’m kicking myself that I didn’t order a copy of Little Lazarus in English for him to sign. Maybe next time. When asked about the Italian titles of his books, he said he loves them (Little Lazarus is Goodbye Hotel here in Italy). In writing the book, Bible said he wanted to think about a place where people are down on their luck, “someplace where people go to say goodbye” in some way. The book features an interesting pair of tortoises as narrators who bear witness to the goings-on of the humans around them.
Obsession with Achievement and A Compassion Machine
The conversation with Bible was rather short, but he packed in a lot of wisdom. Particularly interesting was that he said he feels there is such “an obsession with achievement, optimization, efficiency,” in society, meanwhile he’s “fascinated with desperation and failure.” For him, it’s our failures that connect us, not our triumphs. Naturally, as a reader (and writer), I was in full agreement with him when he said that literature “acts as a compassion machine,” and that “it’s the most important thing in the world.” Cue the cheers!
Samuel Beckett, Bible, and Internet Presence
Yes, Bible is his real surname, or rather his mother’s surname, and he uses it as a sign of respect for his maternal grandfather, a man he was close to. When asked why it’s so hard to find anything about him online (Bianchi joked that the first name that pops up is Michael Bublé), he said, “I’m not hiding, I’m just very obscure.” Made me laugh. His favorite author is Samuel Beckett, which may provide some indication as to his style of writing. I’ll have to do some investigating.
So…that’s a wrap on the Salone for another year. I only bought three books and two bookmarks, so that wasn’t too bad. Two of those books have fantastic drawings done by illustrators on the spot, which is so cool. I’m also looking forward to reading some of Bible’s novels. Have you read any of them? Do you feel failure connects us more than other things, like achievement?
Do You Struggle with Focus Issues?
What are your greatest barriers to focusing on projects? What do you do to get away from your phone? Do you know any of the bands I mentioned here, or have you read any of the authors I talked about? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
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