Preparing for Distractions

My personality leads me to prefer being proactive rather than reactive whenever possible. It’s the difference between working on something every day and/or setting aside blocks of time and getting it done, or sitting at the kitchen table in tears the night before a project is due and hearing someone tell me, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.” (bird by bird, Anne Lamott, pg 19)

You can’t always tell when life is going to twist and turn and throw your schedule out the window. But if you’re at least 30, you’ve begun to see some patterns (or will if you try looking). After a few moves, I know more or less what to expect when I have to pack up our home. Having moved overseas before, I know there is a lot of shopping involved in addition to packing. After the movers come to pick up everything, John and I will be hobos for a while. Part of our travels will be back “home” seeing family. Been there, done that, have an idea of what to expect. Then we’ll be in a motel for a month in Sydney while we look for an apartment. I know what to expect of that, too.

So I can make a plan for my writing. Now, while I’m shopping and packing, I think about my book whenever I can. I am deciding which four books I’m going to carry in my suitcases and read over the next three months. (I think the list will include the new The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass, bird by bird by Anne Lamott, The Gospel According to Superheroes edited by BJ Oropeza, and A Poetics for Screenwriters by Lance Lee. But this list is subject to change until the final box is packed!) And I’m trying to decide how much work I can do on the chapters I’ve already printed without printing too much more (since I’ll try to shred all the paper before I actually get on the plane, paper weighing so much).

Once I’m done packing and in my hobo life, I’ll have my laptop for writing and editing. I won’t be able to do too much since I’ll be doing a lot of visiting and vacationing, too. But I’ll trick my brain a bit (see last week’s post) to wallow around in the fun and play of my story, and grab a few writing moments several times a week. The lack of pressure will likely allow my brain the freedom to create and I’ll get more done than I might otherwise expect.

Which reminds me of a conference speaker I heard last weekend. She was talking about early childhood development, and stressed how important it is for children to be playing. They learn when they are playing. Since I don’t have kids, I immediately started thinking about the implications for writers. We must play when we write! For the joy set before me, I choose to run this race. If I let myself think about how hard it is to [insert your own thought here], the negativity only makes it harder. If I try to look at the challenges using different vocabulary, I can make them harder or easier on myself.

Compare:

Ugh, I hate editing the second draft. The first draft is all over the place and I can’t keep track of where I was trying to go. Why can’t I find a better way to do this?

Versus:

Okay, self, listen up because we’ve got a puzzle to work on now. We like puzzles, puzzles are fun! Only when we’re done with this puzzle, instead of having a picture, we’ll have a book! Cool! We can do this!

A few months ago when I was deep into a negative mindset, I cried because it would be six months before I could work on my book all day, every day again. Life didn’t seem fair! But I’ve determined to change that mindset. Now I see that there are lots of opportunities to work around the distractions. If I can’t focus on my book itself, I can journal about the moving process, the hobo life, what it’s like to be back in your old home town, write about my family and look for combinations of real people that I can turn into fictional people. I’ll probably be able to use those notes later, but at the very least I’ll keep my mind free and open and playing so it’ll be ready to jump back into my story whenever an opportunity presents itself.

Look at what distracts you from writing – or from anything else that is important to you. How much of this could you see coming if you’d been looking? How much happens frequently, even if irregularly? What can you do to work around it? What else can you do to make you feel you’re still accomplishing something?

Let us know what you do! We’d love to hear your great ideas! (Or help you brainstorm ideas for your challenges!)