If You Can’t Beat ‘Em

If what is distracting you from writing can’t be changed, or at least it seems that way for now, find a way to use the distraction(s) to help your writing. For instance, I’m staring out my window trying to think of what to write in my blog (which is distracting me from my book at this moment). An ugly tree with gorgeous yellow blossoms is waving at me in the wind. That reminds me of the kind of trees that bloom where my book takes place – cherry trees – so I went over and made a note on my white board. I have no idea when I would have remembered the cherry tree blossoms, so I’m pretty glad it came to mind while I was distracted.

Yesterday I was overwhelmed with how much there is still to do before we move next month. I took a moment to close my eyes and try to think of what needed to be done next on my to do list. While trying to figure out what to do next in my own life, I realized my heroine is in this position in book one – completely overwhelmed. She’s not sure what she can do under her own power, and when she needs divine power, so she doesn’t know how to move forward. I realized I’d gotten distracted from my own life in thinking about hers – so I wrote those notes on my white board.

After we move, we’re going to take a few weeks to travel through Michigan, saying goodbye to all of our family and friends there. When I was making motel reservations in several little towns, I remembered a Michigan almanac my brother-in-law gave us a few years ago. I made a mental note to pack the book and a pad of sticky notes along with an additional memory card for our camera. While we’re traveling I can make notes and take pictures of things I want to potentially use in the book. (Okay, I just paused here to put those things together – in case I forget that I had that great idea! LOL!)

Where can you capture random thoughts about your book as you find yourself doing other things? I’ve tried notebooks of all shapes, sizes and colors, but I always end up losing about a third of my ideas. I tried speaking into a digital recorder, but I never typed out what I recorded. I just bought the white board a few days ago (Costco: $29.99!) but already I’m using it more than notebooks or backs of envelopes. When it’s full, I’ll sit and type all the notes on it into the Scrivener file for that book (see my April 1 post to learn more about Scrivener). And any time my mind is wandering, my eyes wander over to contemplate (sometimes subconsciously) what I’ve written.

Much as I want to work on my book, the “distraction” of moving around the world is impossible to ignore or set aside. But since having this quick & easy way to capture my random thoughts (takes less than a minute each time), I feel calmer. I feel like I’m still working on the book even as I do other things. I expect I’ll fill the white board even faster when I do something monotonous like packing.

Think about what is distracting you from writing. Do you need to take a moment to write down some random thoughts about your book? Do you need a better method to capture those thoughts? Are you distracted simply because you are too busy and need to slow down? It’s been very difficult for me to slow down, but after listening to my pastor harp on it for the six weeks of Lent I’m finally finding ways to say no or not now. I’m calmer and I’m getting more done – including more writing.