You hear this sort of thing all the time in regular sports. “We have to work on our fundamentals.” For the most part, this refers to striking, catching or otherwise working with a ball. Things like overarching strategy and specific on-field composition will matter, sure, but they matter a lot less if you’re not getting the ball to its intended target.
I’ve had to implement a similar policy in StarCraft 2. Once again I found myself overthinking my gameplay and tactics and letting such things distract me from the fact that I need to work on my most basic competitive skills. I’ve started keeping things at their most basic, and lo and behold I’ve started winning again.
League of Legends also finds me drilling on the fundamentals. Specifically, staying alive in the early game is something I’m finding difficult. I can be greedy, chasing the enemy far more often than I should. I’m working with a champion named Vladimir, who becomes very strong in the mid to late game but is squishy early on. If I can learn through him to stay alive more, and apply those lessons to carry-type heroes and the likes of Garen, I’ll be even more successful.
It’s highly likely the same goes for my writing.
Pursuant to yesterday’s post I find myself wondering if, in the process of thinking about rewrites, edits, pitches and projects, I’ve lost sight of some of the fundamentals of what I want to do. Hopefully making time to write the short due by the end of the week will help me recapture some of that, but I’m still reluctant to (as I see it) abandon my works in progress. I guess it all depends on how many irons I want in the fire at any given time.
What do you do when you need to drill fundamentals?
