Avoiding or Eliminating Writing Distractions

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)

Writing well usually means writing in an uninterrupted fashion – without distractions. Avoiding or eliminating distractions when you’re writing takes some thought and planning.

Distractions come in two flavors, if you will. The most obvious are the interruptions that come from the outside. If you work at home these may include your kids, your spouse, the phone, the door bell, friends dropping in, email, the fax machine, instant messages, etc. At times the list seems endless. Even if you write in an office away from the home, many of these apply.

The other types of distractions are the internal ones. You know what I mean – the sudden need to wash the dishes or bake a cake, switching from writing to reading email or playing solitaire or petting a cat that shows near my keyboard. This list can go on and on as well, and often morphs into including the interruptions that come from outside.

Here’s what I do about the external distractions:

• Turn off the phone
• Turn off the radio
• Ignore the door bell or tell whomever is there now is not the time.
• Train friends not to expect me to respond before noon.
• Train my kids not to interrupt unless the house was on fire – I made this work some of the time as they got older. Same thing with a spouse and/or other adults in the household.

Probably the best way to sum up how to avoid external distractions is to take a strong stand for my writing. Others will only respect my writing time if I do. Once they understand how serious I am and how important it truly is to me, most will work to support my efforts by leaving me alone during stated times.

Internal distractions are another matter altogether. Here the culprit is me. This is a matter of practice and self-discipline. Years ago, I started that discipline by going to a restaurant from 9-11 a.m. every weekday. Then came the time when I knew I could trust myself not to go back to bed. It’s helped to discover I write best in the morning.

But mostly it’s a matter of just not allowing myself to read the email, play the game, pet the cat, bake the cake, clean the house… at least until I get a stint of writing done. That might be a blog entry completed, or an hour spent editing or 1,000 words written. It does help to have something specific in mind. I also make good use of book ending.

These days I trust my writing process. I know I’ll get it done. That wasn’t true in the beginning and may not yet be true for you. You can get there though, I know it!

Write well and often,

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