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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Distractions...Distractions

So many distractions, so little time.
How do you deal with it all?

Between juggling a family, work, writing and reading when I take the time to think about everything that goes into one single day I can't help but wonder...how do we do this crazy little thing we call writing a book?

There are so many distractions. And by distractions I mean anything that pulls us away from writing, averts our attention. Here are just a few that could be potentially problematic for me...


Cooking and cleaning-If I could afford a maid and a chef I would be one happy girl!

Work-Yes, I still have to hold down another full time job in order to pay the bills. And I know a lot of other writers still hold down full time jobs as well.

Books, books and more books!-This one is a huge distraction for me. I love to read and with so many fantastic new books being released every week, my TBR list has taken on a life of its own!

Blogging-Oh yes! Another big one! I love reading all of the awesome posts that all of you write each and every day and if I'm not careful, I can blow my whole morning and think nothing of it at all. (But what a worthy cause!)

Myself- Yeah, I said it. I am a huge distraction. And I keep getting worse. For example I have two WIP's that I have completed a first draft on and I keep going back and forth between the two and its making me insane! (But that's a whole other post in itself!)

So, now that I've divulged my dirty laundry...it's your turn. When you're tucked away in the privacy of your own little writing oasis, what distractions do you battle?

Have a great day everyone!

10 comments:

Stephanie said...

Fortunately, I am lucky enough that we can survive on just my husband's income. Notice I said "survive"...we are not swimming in cash. But it was a sacrifice we decided to make for our family and we are happy with it.

So that means I am home all day with my children. Summer is very hard...they are both annoying each other all day and the little one is climbing on me when I'm trying to send an email. But when school's in, it's just me and my son and he used to take a nice 3-1/2 hour nap every afternoon. I don't think he'll be doing that anymore.

Many nights I end up on the computer after my husband leaves for work (he works nights and leaves at 10)

One thing that I do push to the side is housework. Yeah..there's a stack of dishes in my sink right now.

Jaimie Teekell said...

For me... it's the full time job (I'm answering phones right now!) and, when I'm not working, movies. I watch a lot of movies.

Candyland said...

Well I love to clean bc I'm weird. But my biggest distraction, other than being a stay-at-home mother is the web! I'm obsessed with checking my email, blogs, Twitter, FBook, etc.

Lindsay said...

*waves* heehee, I'm back!

Oh my list of distractions are loooong. There is blogging, books and chocolate...... Sorry, I just lost a minute distracting myself there!

A.L. Sonnichsen said...

Oh dear. Don't come over to my house unless you give me a couple days warning, so I can clean up. Believe me, you don't want to see it, especially after I've been binge writing for a few days. ;) And I don't even have a full-time job like you do! Renae, you're amazing!!

Amy

Anonymous said...

Solitaire... That little card game has cost me hours of writing time. Oh and Pop Cap. That website is evil.

Jessica said...

How about from a teen's point of view? Hmm, during the school year homework is a huge distraction and especially since I'll be taking so many classes this year. Siblings, church events, not becoming a couch potatoe as we all have such a big tendency toward.
I guess the biggest setback though is just internet. Since I can't spend all day on here, I lose a whole lot of time when I do get on by talking to people, checking blogs and email and doing random research projects cuz I'm weird like that and I always run into a problem with my story that needs some researching.

Jemi Fraser said...

I want a maid too!!!

Cooking, cleaning, laundry, kids, hubby, job, books, Space Channel, TSN (our version of ESPN) ... *sigh*

Anonymous said...

I sometimes wonder how I get any writing done. It's done piecemeal, here and there in snatches. I also write down my writing sessions to see how regularly I write, and this motivates me.

I confess that sometimes I leave my house dirty to have more writing time.

Lola Sharp said...

Yeah. I know this struggle well. Blogging and reading are two distractions that I LOVE, but they definitely make my writing suffer.

As for the house, I whip around in the morning like the Tazmanian Devil, and wipe everything down as fast as I can, and start a load of laundry. I don't let myself do ANYTHING else (not even peek at a blog or my email) until I've made the downstairs look nice, and all 3 bathrooms wiped down. (if you do it every morning, it takes only a few seconds)
As for the bedrooms...who cares!
Dinner...well, that is a chore I HATE. I refuse to stop a good writing roll to make it...so I either a) throw a bunch of stuff in the crock pot in the morning (daughter and husband say sarcastically : "Mmmm crackpot surprise. What color will it be today?"... or b) order food to be delivered.

I am sure I have the ONLY teenager that complains "pizza AGAIN?" ;) (husband learned long ago not to complain.)

Also, I *TRY* to limit my time to visit other blogs to 1 hour in the morning and maybe another in the evening.

Summertime is hard if you have young children, because they want and need you a lot. When mine were young, the trick is a set bedtime (like 8 or 9) and then I would write after they were in bed.

Happy Humpday!
Love,
Lola