Planning is for Procrastinators

When we were in college, Sharon, Eric, and I loved playing light-gun games. The House of the Dead and Time Crisis series were our favorites. The thing was, aiming was difficult. The guns were sometimes off, and a clear, straight shot would be consistently off to the left by an inch.

After a while, I gave up lining up the top of the gun with the targets. Instead I aimed the gun in the general direction, shot, and calibrated. I would see how far off I missed in the first shot, and adjust accordingly. Shoot first, aim later. There was no time to think, with zombies lunging for our throats.

I pretty much do the same thing in any area of life. When I was into photography, I didn’t know what I shot, but I shot a lot of it. I kept shooting and slowly figured out what it was that caught my eye, rather than figuring out why I liked it first. One blink and the moment’s gone.

I’m doing the same thing with this my writing. Some days I have a clear idea of what to write. Other days I just start shooting. Bang! Bang! Bang! I start writing about my day, even if it’s disorganized, even if one tangent follows another. Eventually I hit something good. Or not. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

I tried the planning thing. It led to mental masturbation. “It sure would be nice if I…” No. Nowadays I jump straight into things. If I get the urge to do something, I do it. I don’t wonder, I do. And I learn from my mistakes and go again. And again.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” —Charles Darwin