Thursday, March 25, 2010

Oooh...shiny...

I'll admit it--I'm easily distracted. When I sit down to work on my novel, I usually convince myself to check my email first, followed by a couple YouTube videos, maybe a nice three-hour CIV game. By the time I actually get around to writing, most of the day has been wasted away and dinner needs to be put on the table. Granted, this doesn't happen all the time--thankfully--but it happens enough. To be perfectly blunt, if I don't give myself deadlines, nothing will ever get done.

But sometimes, just sometimes, those distractions are a good thing. Not the games or the videos, but the time I choose to go outside and enjoy the scenery or spend time with my family. Sometimes life needs to be lived. How can we portray real characters any other way? We can't.

So don't feel guilty on those days when you've done nothing about your WIP. Your time hasn't been wasted, it's just been spent in a different way--research. Sure, you probably didn't analyze the social dynamic between a mother and her child while you were out shopping, but chances are you noticed it anyway.

Go ahead, get distracted, just make sure that you do get that writing in there somewhere. Night time is for more than just sleep. ;)

So, you tell me...

What distracts you?

4 comments:

  1. Blogging. Hands down my biggest distraction. I got up two hours early to work on my story and I blogged instead. I wrote two pages at work (where I can't blog :-) )

    ReplyDelete
  2. Blogging!!! I am addicted I can't help it, I want to see what others are doing and thinking. I will say that my current WIP has kept me away from my blog though, it's been such a great relief to get the story on paper and I only take a few minutes to comment on blogs before going back!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hehehe! I should have guessed that you guys would have said blogging! :) I will admit, that is definitely a distraction for me as well. Dah! All the temptations my computer offers...it's killing me!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have to agree that since I've started blogging it has begun to take time away from writing (and editing), but like Emily said, it doesn't have to be considered a waste of time. It can be productive. Just don't let it take up all your time.

    ReplyDelete

Yay! Comments! Oh, how I do love them! :D