Tag Archives: distractions

8 Distractoxins and Their Antidotes

Distractions are like poison to writers, interrupting word flow and reducing productivity. They come in various forms, so let’s call them ‘Distractoxins.’ Are there any cures?

First, I must give credit to author Dan Blank, who inspired this post with his hilarious list of writer distraction. Well worth reading.

I came up with my own list of distractoxins likely to interrupt a writer’s work. For each one I’ve got an antidote. You may experience distractions that aren’t on my list, and I’d love to hear about yours. Also, my antidotes aren’t guaranteed for everyone, so please let me know if you have different cures that work for you.

  1. Decorations. By this I mean other items in your writing room. They include bookshelves, clocks, furniture, lamps, knickknacks, wall pictures, etc. While considering your next sentence, you may fix your eyes on any of these items and your thoughts may drift away from the writing task at hand.

Antidote: Minimize the number of these items in your writing room. Avoid bringing new items in, since your eye will be attracted to any change.

  1. Fatigue. This needs no explanation. It happens.

Antidote: Stand up, walk around, swing your arms. You could try coffee, tea, or an energy drink but don’t overdo those.

  1. Internet. This includes social media, videos, email, and all the other attractions of our marvelous internet. Everything there seems so urgent and attention-grabbing, as if designed to distract us.

Antidote: Find a method of writing that limits your contact with the internet. This can include writing with ink on paper or using a typewriter, single-function word processor (like AlphaSmart or FreeWrite), or one of the various distraction-minimizing apps. The latter include Calmly Writer, FocusWriter, Ommwriter, Q10, WriteMonkey, and WriteRoom.

  1. People. There may be other people in your house, or neighbors, and it seems their mission in life is to interrupt you.

Antidote: There may be little you can do about this, since you may care about these people almost as much as you care about your writing. Still, you can close the door, hang a do-not-disturb sign, and hope for the best.

  1. Phone. The trouble is, you never know in advance if a call is important or not, but the ringing makes it seem urgent.

Antidote: Yes, you can turn off a phone, and you might have to resort to that. If you don’t want to go that far, then let it ring. Important people leave messages.

  1. Television. I like to joke that the inventors of TV in the 1920s had nothing to watch; now we have hundreds of channels, yet we suffer from the same problem they did. Not really true—there’s plenty to watch, and your friends and coworkers expect you to talk about favorite shows tomorrow.

Antidote: Every remote has an ‘off’ button. There’s no such thing as must-see-TV.

  1. To-Do Lists. There’s more to your life than writing, with many tasks to be done. While writing, thoughts of those undone tasks can nag you.

Antidote: This is a time management problem. Schedule time for writing, and for life’s other tasks. Work on higher priority things first, but leave some time for things you enjoy, like writing.

  1. Windows. Here I’m talking about actual windows, through which you can see the alluring outside world.

Antidote: Curtains or blinds.

The best antidote for any of these distractoxins is to note the signs of onset. You can feel yourself getting sidelined. You can realize it’s a choice you make, not an inevitable happening. Remember: you control your attention. Learn to recognize the moment a distractoxin takes over and, in that instant, make a conscious effort to recall why your writing task was important and imagine how good you’ll feel when you’re done.

Ooh. Excuse me. Shiny object over there. Wait…no…must focus on writing…must apply antidote…must save—

Poseidon’s Scribe

November 1, 2020Permalink

6 Ways Your Brain Kills Your Stories

How is it that your brain can think of wonderful stories, and then actively thwart your efforts to write them down? Let’s discuss some ways this happens, and what you can do about them.

In this post, I’m building on a previous (and inspiring) post by Courtney Seiter. Her article dealt with writing in general, but mine focuses on fiction writing.

When I think of an idea for a story, I jot down the idea in a file so I can write the story later. Over the years, the file has grown to over 160 ideas. However, I’ve written stories for only about 25 of these ideas, about 15%. Why not the other 85%? At one time, I was enthusiastic enough about all the ideas to write them down. What happened?

As I see it, one or more of the following six reasons explains my inaction. Many of these match the ones on Courtney Seiter’s list, but I’ve altered her list to conform to my experience. My methods of fixing the problems differ from hers to some extent.

Here are the ways my own brain works against me, and how I counter each of them:

  1. It tells me the idea is no good. Maybe it once seemed good, but it no longer excites, or it’s obsolete, or there’s too little there from which to build a story. Sometimes my brain is right about that. When it’s not, the cure is to think more deeply about the idea, to brainstorm and mind-map, and to flesh it out.
  2. It tells me the story is too hard to write. This most often occurs with stories worthy of being novels. It’s true that a novel is a bigger project than a short story. However, you don’t tackle big projects by worrying about how hard they are. You break them down into bite-sized tasks, and go after the tasks, one by one.
  3. It tells me I’m too busy with other work. There will always be other things to do, so this ever-present excuse can prevent you from writing anything. The cure is to decide how important the story is to you. Can you adjust your priorities? Can you exercise better time management?
  4. It gets distracted. Really, brain? This is your most pitiful excuse of all. My cure for this is to write a first draft with only a pad of paper, no computer. That helps eliminate many distractions. Setting a deadline—even an artificial one—can help me focus as well.  
  5. It tells me the story idea is outside my lane, and someone else should write it. My muse has come up with some crazy ideas, many of them far outside my usual genres. Sometimes I’ve given such ideas to other writer friends for whom the story would be a better fit. Often I’ve gone ahead, written the story, and hoped for the best.
  6. It’s afraid. As Courtney Seiter observed, this is the biggest reason of all. It’s the root cause of the previous five reasons. There’s no sure-fire cure for this. I have to ask myself why I’m afraid, and look for ways to counter that cause. Often this involves asking myself, “What if I weren’t afraid? How would I tackle this?” Then I mind-map ideas about how I’d go about it.

Next time your brain tries to kill one of your stories, try these techniques. They’ve worked for the brain of—

                                                Poseidon’s Scribe

February 17, 2019Permalink

Distraction-Free Writing

As a fiction writer, you know distractions happen. You’re living a life, after all. But so what? Distractions are frustrating, but they don’t actually hurt the quality of your writing, do they?

Yes. According to a George Mason University research team led by Cyrus K. Foroughi, even short interruptions to creative work can worsen the output. As reported in the newsletter Fast Company, the GMU team conducted experiments involving subjects writing essays. Researchers didn’t interrupt Group 1, the control group, but did interrupt Group 2’s planning and outlining time, and interrupted Group 3’s writing time.

Independent graders judged the resulting essays. Graders rated Group 1’s essays best, Group 2’s essays second best, and Group 3’s essays worst.

This study considered only nonfiction essays. I’m unaware of any similar studies of the effects of distraction on fiction writers, but I suspect the effects would be similar.

For our purposes here, let’s assume the more you’re distracted during the writing of your first and subsequent drafts, the worse your story will be. If that’s the case, what can you do about it?

First, let’s divide distractions into two types: external and internal. External distractions are initiated by outside entities—other people, pets, or things. Internal distractions are initiated by you.

External Distractions

By definition, these are largely out of your control. But you can do some things to lessen the chances, frequency, and duration of them:

  • Write in a quiet place.
  • Tell others this is your writing time and ask them to leave you alone.
  • Either abandon your phone, or put it in “airplane mode” thus stopping it from ringing or vibrating.

Internal Distractions

These are completely within your span of control, but paradoxically may be more difficult to reduce. Here are some ideas to consider:

  • Buy a smart typewriter, such as FreeWrite or HemingWrite. These devices only let you write and save your work, not access the internet.
  • Buy and use uninterrupted writing software (such as Writer, Draft, or Calmly Writer). These include features to help you focus on writing.
  • Write longhand.
  • Write in a clutter-free place, with no windows, clocks, phones, TV, etc. Perhaps you have access to a bare room, or large closet, (or even the bathroom).
  • If working on a computer, resist the impulse to open new tabs, do research, check email or social media, etc.

Your Attitude Toward Distractions

Perhaps just the knowledge that distractions are killing your stories will make you more aware of them and less tolerant of them. Distractions are the enemy of good writing. Recognize what harm they’re doing; detect the onset of a distraction and refocus on your writing, if that’s possible.

And when he’s writing, never, never distract—

Poseidon’ Scribe

 

October 28, 2018Permalink

4 Strategies for Coping with a Distracted Muse

Your muse gives you a great story idea. You just started writing the story and your muse arrives again and whispers about a second, completely different, story. “But I’m not done with the first one,” you say. Actually, forget both of those,” the muse says, “I’ve got a third story for you…”

Your muse, like all of them, isn’t the most focused entity around. Easily distracted by new and shiny objects, she comes up with fresh ideas all the time.

However, she never sticks around to help write the stories. She leaves that task to you. Moreover, her rate of creating ideas is far faster than your rate of story writing. As a writer, how do you handle this backlog problem?

Before I list various coping strategies, be aware that WIP is a term writers use meaning Work in Progress, the story you’re actively working on. Here, now, are some ways to deal with the idea backlog problem. You could:

  1. Start each story as your muse suggests it, and deal with having several WIPs at once.
  2. Make a list of all story ideas as your muse suggests them, and come back to that list as you finish each WIP.
  3. Ignore your muse while working on your WIP, accepting that you’ll lose some ideas.
  4. Restrict your stories to a series about a single set of characters or a single genre, and ignore your muse’s ideas that don’t fit those restrictions.

There may be other techniques as well, and I’d love to hear you tell me about them.

Many writers opt for the first strategy of writing several WIPs at once. They shift from story to story, progressing as their enthusiasm and focus allow. This has the advantage of starting each story when the idea is fresh, but the potential disadvantages of mixing up stories or never finishing any.

Others maintain a lengthening list of story ideas, updated each time the muse whispers. They work on a single story until it’s finished, then pick the next WIP from the list. This keeps the writer focused on one WIP without losing any ideas, but the writer might return to the listed story idea and not recall the muse’s enthusiasm that made it a good idea.

Some simply ignore the muse while writing a single WIP. This is probably more common among novelists than among short story writers. Novelists must maintain total focus for the long term to finish their WIP. This allows that focus, but risks losing some good ideas.

If you can restrict your writing to one genre or setting or a set of characters, then you can disregard any ideas from your muse that don’t fit. This certainly works as long as you remain enthusiastic about your chosen niche.

Your chosen strategy will depend on your particular circumstances, including the persuasiveness and creativity of your muse, and your ability to focus or willingness to work on several WIPs at once. If one strategy doesn’t work for you, try a different one, or combine them.

Gotta go. My muse just whispered a great story idea to—

Poseidon’s Scribe

March 25, 2018Permalink

Defeating Distraction, Finding Focus

You’re writing at a good pace, but then get distracted, torn away from your story. You hate when that happens, but sometimes the diversion is irresistible. What causes that, and how can you prevent it?

We live in a distraction-rich environment. Even before the Internet, there were rooms to clean, library books to return, lawns to mow, desk items to straighten, and windows to gaze through. Today, there are Facebook posts to like, tweets to retweet, texts to answer, online stores to shop in, blog posts to read, and new sites to explore.

Still, this tendency to get distracted doesn’t make sense, does it? You sat down fully intending to write your story. Then things went awry; that best-laid plan went askew, you diverted to a tangent. Why does that happen?

Let’s separate two types of distraction—external and internal—and tackle each separately.

External Distractions

These attack you from outside and appeal to one or more senses. A funny show comes on TV, a favorite song blares from the radio, the cat snuggles against you, a pleasant aroma wafts from the kitchen.

The cure for these might seem simple; just eliminate external sources of distraction. Write in a bare, soundproof room with the door shut, on a computer disconnected from the net.

That might work for some, but for many of us it’s not practical. It’s better to start by eliminating your most common, most alluring distractions if you can. As for the others, learn to become aware when a distractor is pulling you away. At the onset of each distraction, make a conscious decision to allow it or not.

Consider setting up a “focus object,” an inspirational something to redirect you toward your story, akin to the busts of Beethoven atop pianos. I made a framed picture of Jules Verne with the caption “Keep writing, Steve,” and mounted it above my desk. Pick a focus object specific to you and glance at it when you feel the tug of some external interruption.

Internal Distractions

The internal ones are worse, since your own mind assails you and there’s no one else to blame. Your mind wanders away from your story and suddenly there’s something else needing your attention. You have a bill due today; this story idea needs additional research; you’re wondering what that old high school friend is up to.

These generally occur when you’re stuck and need to solve an unexpected story problem. You feel you have to pause and think before writing further. That’s the moment when your brain takes a meandering walk.

As with external distractions, part of the cure is learning to recognize the distraction at the moment it occurs. If you were truly stuck just before that instant, maybe a short break is just the thing you need. Your subconscious can work on the problem while you’re engaged in the distracting activity.

If you were making progress right before that moment, ask yourself this question: “Is this the best use of my time right now?” On occasion, the distraction will be the best answer. Most times, you’ll realize you should return to your story.

Final Thoughts

Visualization is another technique for dealing with distractions. Keep a vision of you finishing your story, admiring it, and submitting it for publication. Think of how good that will feel. Use that vision to get you focused back on writing.

Recognize, too, that you can’t stay focused forever. You need to give your brain a rest. The Pomodoro Technique can be a way to promote both proper focusing and reasonable breaks.

You’ll find more great advice on dealing with distractions at this post by Leo Babauta and this one by Margarita Tartakovsky.

I hope you enjoyed… Sorry, I’ve got to go. Something else has attracted the attention of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 24, 2017Permalink