Distractions Abound!

I figured this was an appropriate time of year to talk about distractions, as the holidays bring plenty along with them. In fact, the GIF above is incredibly distracting to ME right NOW as I try to write this blog post, which means that it is probably also distracting to you as the reader! This probably goes against the grain of what I should want as a writer, but it serves as a very accurate representation of what writers (or ANYONE for that matter) deal with on a regular basis.

Creating, and maintaining, a seamless plot, timeline, and web of characters takes a lot of focus and eats up a lot of gigabytes in our heads. Those of us who maintain day jobs, have families and a slew of other responsibilities on top of our creative aspirations understand the struggle this creates to maintain that level of focus and stay motivated to reach our goals. During this time of year specifically, holiday gatherings take up a lot of weekends and many weeknights. People take vacation days from work, which means that their work days are spent trying to get a bunch of important tasks done so that they don't spend their hard-earned free time worrying about the stack of docs that they didn't get to, or how many emails will be waiting for them upon their return.

Add on top of that your every day distractions that have nothing to do with the holidays: Kids, School, Homework, Bills, that new season of your favorite show that was just release on Netflix (It's not going to watch itself!), the neighbor who likes to re-live his punk rock days at 2am in his garage, etc. The bottom line is that time is valuable, and often sparse. So how do we find time to practice our craft without losing sight of our physical and emotional well being? I'll give a few tips that might take a bit of the stress off:

1. Be Realistic with your Goals

This might sound like something that would make you go "DUH", but that doesn't make it less valid. Think about the upcoming week. What appointments do you have? When do you think you will be able to get to bed? When you are setting deadlines for yourself, make sure it fits in with the rest of your life. We all want to crank out as many words as possible within a short period of time, but if you set yourself up for failure then you won't be happy with the result. Your ideas will not get proper attention and development, you might be half asleep when trying to write them, errors and typos increase and create additional editing time down the pipeline. Dial back the expectations a bit, and if you exceed them then you have all the more reason to celebrate!

2. Don't Over-commit

You already know how important your creative goals are to you. Don't think of your writing, and your life, as two completely separate realms of existence. Don't make a bunch of plans with friends and family, and set a ton of appointments, and sign up for a bunch of focus groups, and volunteer with seventeen organizations to pad your resume, and agree to coach your son's little league team, and plan a three course dinner each night for your family, and then wonder WHY THE HELL DON'T I HAVE ANY TIME TO WRITE?! Consider your goals when planning your week. Maybe you need to turn down an invitation or two. Not only will this open up your schedule a bit, but it will solidify the reality of your commitment as more than just a hobby that can be skipped when it is inconvenient. Prioritize. Prioritize. Prioritize.

3. Miss a day? Yeah, that is OKAY!

Don't beat yourself up if you find you are just too dog tired to get it done today. I know, I know. Writing Blasphemy has just been spoken. Word-heads of the world have all just cried out in unison at the implication that you don't have to write EVERY SINGLE DAY to be a successful writer! The day I start getting a regular paycheck for being a writer is the day I start getting down on myself if I just don't have it in me. Don't stay up until 3am just to get another five hundred words in. As I've said above, the product will be forced crap. Better to attack it again tomorrow with a refreshed right brain and maybe a cool idea from that night's R.E.M. screening of Happy Nightmare #3,573. I said it, bring on the criticism.

How do you fight distractions? Leave your thoughts in the comments. You never know when your simple thought could turn on a light bulb in someone else's mind. Just make sure to finish the comment. Don't get distra...

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