I'm easily distracted. This is no doubt a modern problem. With everything there is to do, it's hard to focus on just one thing. We could be writing that awful twelfth chapter, but we could also: tweet our friends, look at the latest fashion week pictures, watch another episode of Downton Abbey, or listen to Richard Armitage read Georgette Heyer. Sadly for the 21st century novelist, the research is plain about what this does to us - multitasking is rarely efficient.Personally, I struggle with this a lot. It's not just the internet that distracts me, it's everything. I'm much more productive during wee hours - after midnight or before dawn - precisely because there's nothing else going on. There's no little sister calling for help on her math homework or a car inspection that just has to get done or an adorable white puppy insisting you to throw her toy. This would be fine, if I was the kind of person who could do without sleep. I'm not. Without a full 8 hours, I turn into a Disney villain. Namely, one who can shoot fire from her eyes.
These past few weeks have been worse than normal. Exciting things are happening for me, in seemingly every area of life. Which not only makes it hard to carve out time to write, it makes it hard to do the actual writing. I'm not thinking about the GMC of my heroine, I'm instead replaying that phone call I just had. This had to stop. If I get out of rhythm with writing, I'll wake up three months later with barely 1200 words written. So what did I do?
I turned to books. Of course.
Last night, I drew myself a bubble path, brewed some tea, and amassed some of my favorite writing books. The theory? Reading about writing would get me more excited about writing. This is something that happens to me all the time -the more I research a topic, the more enthusiastic I become about it. If I'm looking at gorgeous fabric, I want to sew a dress. If I'm reading about character archetypes, I want to write my own characters!Does anyone else find this to be true? I know craft books can burn some people out, but there's nothing that rejuvenates my writing mojo like reading a good one. We all get distracted from our goals from time to time, but what do you do to counteract that?
The books in question:
- The Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes and Heroines by Tami D. Cowden, Caro LaFever and Sue Viders.
- Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell
- Beginnings, Middles, and Ends by Nancy Kress
5 comments:
The dreaded deadly distractions! They are the worst and you know I struggle with them a great deal. Checking blogs for new post, washing the dishes, putting in a load of laundry, and organizing my never-ending stacks of papers all get much more attention than my writing and that's a total shame. I wish it had been at an earlier age that I learned multi-tasking is not a good thing for me.
Craft books do a good job of pulling me back. Allowing myself to stare off into space also does the trick. I put a thought about my story into my head and just zone out from all other things and it's amazing how much I can work out in a short period of time.
Oh, that's another excellent way to spark creativity, Steph. It's funny how just being silent and still can put things into focus, isn't it? When I have trouble with a scene, I've been known to just lie on my floor and muse about it for awhile. Invariably, some great first line or bit of dialogue will come, if I just be zen about it for a bit.
Great blog! I've missed these but can't complain because I can't get myself to sit and write one.
I usually take a nap when I need ideas. In that woozy place right before sleep takes me lots of stuff flows into my head. Some of that stuff is good and goes in...some of it is bad and goes in!lol. But Ialways take something away. And it gives me a great reason to nap: Never a bad thing!!
PS: Heard the new Clueless movie is going to be about Amber falling in love with a little from Cher. I heard this on the radio and it is entirely possible that this info is false...But they also said Paul Rudd had agreed to a sequel.
I read this the other day and can't remember why I didn't comment. Huh. It's not likely me to keep my mouth (keyboard?) shut.
I haven't totally conquered the distractions, but I've gotten better. Turns out I get motivation from accomplishing things. The more I write or revise, the more I want to keep going or get back to it.
Still way too distracted with emails and facebook. I could never be one of those writers who turned off her internet connection to write. HOW do people do that? It would be like deciding not breathe until I finished another chapter.
Ha, I have all three of those books. *LOL*
I esp love the first one. Another book I'd recommend is Story Structure by Victoria Schmidt (she wrote the BIAM 30 Days to Your Novel, big yellow/orange binder book--it's cool too.)
Story structure gives you scenarios similar to what you're writing and you can look at the scenario and see the questions that are being asked or you should be asking--sometimes it jogs a scene loose and you can start writing again.
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