I'm going to tell you a short story of distraction. Yesterday morning I had a great plan to actually get out of bed when my alarm rings at 7am allowing me to continue writing for a whole hour before having breakfast and getting ready for work. All part of my grand plan to write more regularly instead of just "when I feel like it".
However as you can tell by the heading of this post, my plan didn't quite go to plan. I decided to take it easy on myself and watch a TV show, but my DVD player broke. Needless to say I spent my hour on Google looking for help.
I don't have a recent story of procrastination, but I will whisper three words to you: Facebook and emails. These are evil when I'm trying to get writing done.
The best solution I find for distractions and procrastinations is to be in a room away from a TV, disconnect from the internet and hide your phone! However when not possible use these five tips to keep on track:
1. Make Lists - If you love lists writing one might keep you on track. Goals, To Do, Reasons To Write, 5 Favourite Things About Writing... Your imagination is the limit! Lists can keep you focused and remind you to look at the big picture when you feel like you have a long way to go. I am a list writing novelist. I have two current lists: Short Term Goals and Long Term Goals. The LT Goals remind me of what I hope to achieve. The ST Goals are there to remind me of the little steps in between. I never write more than ten goals on the ST list, otherwise I am afraid I'll get bogged down with the enormity of writing a novel.
2. Let Others Know - One of the major Ds & Ps of writers are people. If you live in a household with other people it can be very hard to get some quality writing time to yourself, unless you state your intentions. Tell them to treat it like work and only contact you when really necessary. Which brings me to my next point.
3. Treat Your Writing Like Work - Think about how much work you get done with a boss breathing down your throat? Or simply the incentive of being paid is enough to bring out the best in you. Channel that feeling, that drive and use it to push yourself harder than usual. After all if you treat writing as a hobby its easy to let it go and think "I'll just do it tomorrow..." and poof! No writing get's done at all.
4. Be Aware Of The Time You Have - An easy way to be super productive is to only give yourself a short time in which to write. Imagine a lovely Saturday with the whole day stretching out free to do whatever you please. You plan to write for the majority of it, but since you've got to whole day you might as well watch the Big Brother episode you missed last night or discover a new way to sort your books. Before you know it the day has disappeared. But if you imagine only having half an hour before jumping on the train and go to your day job you can get an extraordinary amount of work done because you only have half an hour to do things.
5. Determination and Discipline - These two words are one of the many things that set wannabe writers a part from professional writers. Sure getting down the first draft is pleasant, easy even, but the real work comes after. The reading, re-writing, revising, editing, criticism and multiple drafts written until your manuscript is polished. It can be hard to push away distractions and procrastinations, but if you really want it you'll learn to push them away and before you know it there will be a polished manuscript in front of you.
(Oh and in case you were wondering I'm getting a new header picture designed. Goodbye hideously over sized five second attempt of a picture!) xx
In my previous posts I've written briefly about a creative writing course I was taking. Now that I've finished it, I believe its an appropriate time to review it. This course is offered by the Australian Writer's Centre: http://www.writerscentre.com.au/
