The Door You Willing to Shut

Stephen King provides us with his own vocabulary as well as methods for isolating one’s mind and unlocking it to its utmost potential. His blueprint for writing involves isolation from mundane life, from thinking too rationally or dogmatically in order to get in touch with our creative side. Using the terms “the room”, “the door” and “the determination to shut the door” he maps out an environment, which helps him concentrate on his writing.

Stephen points out that usually we need to find a comfortable place to write (in his case-his home). The next step is to get rid of all distractions (the shutting of the door) and then to set a certain goal, as well as to make sure that it is quite attainable. King believes, based on his own experience that the hardest part about writing is just to begin the task, writing “one word at a time”; once it starts its not overly difficult to maintain the flow of ideas and their transfer on paper.

Personally I find the environment of a small cozy cafe preferable to that of my home in terms of shutting the door to various distractions that King talks about. The room and the determination to shut the door are more important to me when I write, then the door itself. When I write in a cafe, I do not control the environment—the door — that is, I cannot shut it entirely, but I can control my focus on my work, in King’s own words it’s called the determination to shut the door.

I’m not sure if I would be able to write to Metallica or AC/DC as King apparently can, but music in general if it is soothing, would not distract me. Just like King, I find the hardest thing is to begin, once I get going I do not feel distracted by my surrounding environment, I can focus and be completely absorbed by the writing task, creating a piece “one word at a time”.