I eventually started to concept some of the characters for the story I just wrote, and they’re rubbish. I mean, my-three-year-old-daughter-could-do-it-while-on-a-rollercoaster-and-possibly-even-on-drugs kind of rubbish. So I decided to give up for a while and go into Multitasking Mode. Multitasking Mode implies that you completely forget about what you are supposed to be doing and start doing something completely different, hoping that Karma, the Fairy of Good Ideas or possibly Yoda’s astral projection will eventually come and sort out the stuff you left in the background of your mind. Someone would call it Play-Videogames-Until You’re-Stricken-By-The-Idea-Of-Your-Life mode, but there’s more to it than that.

Multitasking Mode is a tricky thing if you tend to get distracted by shiny things as I do. It has to be mastered or you’ll end up doing random stuff for years (as I did before), leaving you with a constant undefined “I should be doing something but can’t remember what” feeling, and an endless line of unfinished projects behind you.
So, the first thing to remember if you’re playing the MM card is that you need to set some kind of alarm to remind you that there are things that need doing. Don’t use post-its if your conscious mind registers them as visual background noise, like mine. iCal is fine, though. This is what I did on this occasion.
Once you’re done setting those reminders for the greater things awaiting, you can start putting your energy into all those activities that will somehow trigger the background solving of your problem.
My list for the moment includes the following:

– stare intently at something visibly dull. A blank wall would do but – err- Win98’s defrag screen is the best. I could spend days watching those little blue squares jumping into place. However, if you don’t want to dedicate one of your hard drive’s partitions to observe one of the highest products of human wit, the closest alternative is a good old lava lamp. Just buy one and watch those bubbles going up and down.

– prepare a bunch of good excuses. Claiming you need to knit a real size woolly version of Chewbacca (assuming that’s your source of inspiration) instead of doing your yard chores might be frown upon by most. Just do what you need to do and get ready to deliver a well-rehearsed line such as “shush, I’m intensely concentrating on an urgent matter you wouldn’t understand”.

– feast lavishly on chocolate. I read on the Internet that it’s the best food for thought, and the Internet is never wrong. Ten times your average monthly consumption will be enough; in my case a few bags of delicacies found by afriend in a place that in my imagination looks exactly like this.

– as I might have mentioned, play videogames, but avoid addictive ones. When I was younger I skipped work for a week to finish Baldur’s Gate and that’s not something you can do when you have a family or when you’d like some energy left. Intense and senseless violence is perfect though. The ancient, animal part of your mind can have some fun, leaving the part that matters free to wander into Fairyland.

-read the Internet: other people’s experiences can help, although if you live in Europe it might be impractical to take a trip to the Grand Canyon for inspiration.

– listen to *the right kind of music*. Lately I’ve been alternating between Mastodon and Italian opera but anything will do. What I recently discovered is that music that doesn’t demand your attention works best. A couple of days ago I was listening to this album, which is about the worst recording ever made since humans began recording anything. I mean, worse than any bootleg ever made with a ten-year-old cassette Walkman on a reused tape. What you hear is José Carreras from a distance trying to make himself heard over a crowd of people coughing at the top of their lungs. Why is it that people can’t help coughing the hell out of themselves in a situation that requires silence? I bet that if I showed a sign reading QUIET PLEASE in a room full of silent people, everyone would start coughing. Anyway, don’t buy that cd, it sounds like a concert in a sanatorium.

As part of my Multitasking Mode I also had another quick look at the (tenth?) draft of my manuscript, and although I’m still quite happy with it there’s something that doesn’t work with the rhythm.
I read an interesting article about this matter a few days ago linked fromhere. I never thought of including Shakespeare in the list of must-reads for picture book making, but I found it to be good advice and I think I will follow it.

My great 2010 discovery is Stanza, which I think I was the last one on the planet to find out about. But hey, just in case there’s some kid brought up in the jungle by a pack of wolves who only just discovered the internet yesterday, Stanza is the best way to read classics on an iPhone, and it’s free. Just install it and download every classic you can think of, there’s no copyright you need to bother with.
At the moment I’m being delighted by a collection of short stories by LeFanu, but Shakespeare is next. And this, above all other considerations, is the awesomest thing in history, no kidding. I mean, having the chance to access human kind’s highest literary creations while you are – let’s face it – sitting on the toilet is something that makes me come to terms with the fact that I will never be employed on a Federation Spaceship commanded by Captain Picard.
 And this sets off a stream of completely random and useless thoughts, which means my Multitasking Mode is sort of working, but still needs a little tweaking.