When I have a piece of writing in mind, what I have, in fact, is a mental bucket: an attractor for and generator of thought. It’s like a thematic gravity well, a magnet for what would otherwise be a mess of iron filings. I’ll read books differently and listen differently in conversations. In particular I’ll remember everything better; everything will mean more to me. That’s because everything I perceive will unconsciously engage on its way in with the substance of my preoccupation. A preoccupation, in that sense, is a hell of a useful thing for a mind.

James Somers • More People Should Write

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The Art of Noticing for Writers: From The Art of Noticing (A Vintage Short)

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In his 2012 essay, “More people should write,” writer and programmer James Somers described this process as creating a mental bucket for an idea, thereby unleashing a magnetic force between that idea and the world:

When I have a piece of writing in mind, what I have, in fact, is a mental bucket: an attractor for and generator of thought. It’s like a

always have a broad mission or direction, and everything I learn gets mapped onto it. My brain has sort of a single-threaded worldview, which is a funny thing to say because you might think I hop around a lot. But it all has context. If I can’t fit something in, I tend to not remember it. I have this mental “clothesline” where I hang ideas among ea

Eric Jorgenson • The Anthology of Balaji: A Guide to Technology, Truth, and Building the Future

James Somers • JamesSomers – More people should write

“Trust your obsessions. This is one I learned more or less accidentally. People sometimes ask whether the research or the idea for the story comes first for me. And I tell them, normally the first thing that turns up is the obsession: for example, all of a sudden I notice that I’m reading nothing but English 17th century metaphysical verse. And I k