So, you’ve identified your time and place where you’ll write. If you’re really lucky, that place has a door that others respect when it’s closed. Or maybe you write better with people around you, like at a coffee house or your kitchen table.
Wherever you are, it’s just you and your story. You have these next 30 minutes/2 hours/whatever set aside for writing. You’re being faithful to your butt-in-chair, fingers-on-keyboard time, and now there’s nothing left to do except actually write.
So, naturally, you remember that your best friend texted you an hour ago about weekend plans and you haven’t responded yet. You’ll just do that real quick before you get immersed in your story and forget. Oh, and it’s your aunt’s birthday. You should send her a text too.
Does this sound familiar? Surely I’m not the only one who struggles with focus when it comes to writing time. I’ll complain about not getting time to write, and then when I do get time, I wander off to Instagram in the name of “building my author platform.” (Which does need to happen … just not during sacred butt-in-chair time.)
Sometimes—this is embarrassing—I spend actual available writing time sending chats to my best friend (who’s also a novelist) about how little writing time I have.
WHAT IS THIS MADNESS? WHY DO I DO THIS?
The reality is, we default to easier tasks. It’s in our design. Sending texts or interacting on social media are both easier than writing a novel. As Jon Acuff points out in his book, Finish, nobody accidentally exercises.
“You will never accidentally end up doing a difficult project . . . You’ll never accidentally work out. ‘I meant to watch TV, but the next thing I knew, I was doing burpees!’”
We find ourselves accidentally scrolling social media because it’s easy and fun. The reward is immediate. We won’t accidentally get our novels finished because that reward isn’t immediate.
But I have learned some strategies for dealing with my self-sabotaging self:
Plan a transition activity
I find it very difficult to go from running errands, feeding my children lunch, getting them all settled for some form of quiet time, and then popping open my laptop and diving into creative work.
I’ve learned I need a few minutes of transition, something to help me turn away from task-oriented work to creative work. Sometimes this means I spend a few minutes cleaning up lunch dishes while purposefully thinking about the scene I’ll be working on.
Or as I’m waiting for my computer to boot up, I’ll read a passage from Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert or A Million Little Ways by Emily P. Freeman. Both of these are books that talk about creativity in a way that resonates with me, and I like to read small passages of them before I write, almost like a devotional.
The last part of my transition, and the most critical, is reading over the part of the story I worked on the day before.
Then I usually feel ready to write, but if my brain is being stubborn, I combine my transition with some of these other methods.
Turn-off notifications (or maybe your phone)
Most writing teachers advise turning off your phone entirely while you’re writing. This is wise, and I find a lot of value in it whenever I actually do it.
But there are a lot of reasons a person might not feel comfortable being completely unavailable, and that was always my struggle. When my kids are at school, school needs to be able to reach me. Aside from potential phone calls about getting sick at school or injured on the playground, one of my kids used to have epilepsy and another has a carry-the-EpiPen-everywhere level allergy. Being unreachable makes me anxious.
Even so, the odds of receiving an emergency call when I’m writing are really, really low. I’ve received only two “please come right away” phone calls in the ten years I’ve had kids in school, and only a few other “just a head’s up” phone calls that weren’t exactly emergencies, but still weren’t the kind of calls you want to miss.
The compromise I’ve struck with myself is to set my DND on my phone (plus turn off computer and watch notifications) and then to set a timer for fifteen or twenty minutes. (More on my love of timers in a minute.) When my timer goes off, I’ll peek to check for missed phone calls, and then go back to what I’m doing. This provides me with focused time and the knowledge that if school does call, I’ll notice it within fifteen minutes.
But if you don’t have someone dependent on you or expecting to be able to reach you, then definitely turn your phone off. When I’m writing and my husband has the kids, I turn my phone off completely for extended periods of time, and the level of focus is glorious.
Embrace the beauty of timers.
I’ll admit, I’m obsessed with timers. I have a really nice running watch from when I trained for my half-marathon, and these days I mostly use it for setting timers. (It’s a fantastic toddler parenting tool, but as this isn’t a post about parenting toddlers, I’ll skip those details.)
When I set my timer to check my phone for missed emergency calls, I’m simultaneously committing to write with absolute focus until the timer goes off. No email checks. No social media. No responding to texts. Just me and the story.
Sometimes it’s helpful to start a writing session with a shorter time chunk, and then gradually increase your timer once you’re more engaged with your story. (E.g. starting with a 10-minute session, then 15, then 20.)
Of course, there are also blissful days when the words themselves motivate me, and I forego the timer altogether, or I can abandon it partway through my writing session.
Be smart with your breaks.
Whether or not you use a timer, it’s good to plan for a break or two if you’ll be writing for very long. I usually take up to five minutes for mine, and I physically leave my chair. I move laundry, I use the bathroom, or I refill my water. Other than checking for a call from school, I try to give my eyes a break from screens and keep my head in my story, so I stay off my phone.
Sometimes, on the blissful days that I’m really into the book, all I do is stand, stretch, and dive back in.
End your writing session thoughtfully.
I’ve talked a lot about how to start and keep your focus, but it’s also important to have a routine for how you end.
My personal favorite way to end is to stop in the middle of a scene, make note of my word count in a dorky spreadsheet that I keep, and leave a couple thoughts there in the document for myself. Simple stuff like, “He tells her that he’s moving and she acts like she’s unaffected.” This way when I come back to the story, I’ll remember where I was headed.
While ending mid-scene like this drives some writers crazy—and while I’m sometimes too excited to follow this advice—I love how it can jump start my writing session the next day.
The reason I’ve developed the habit of noting my ending word count (or other progress if I’m not in a first draft) is because that feels like a happy celebration to me, similar to crossing something off a to-do list. Despite books that promise you otherwise, finishing novels takes a long time, so whatever I can do to make it clear to myself that I’m making progress is helpful!
What would you add to this list? What helps you focus on writing during writing time? Do you have a way that you like to end your writing sessions?
Read the next post in this series: Get Ready To Celebrate
One thing that will definitely help me (I hope) is not having all my distraction sites (Youtube subscriptions, Goodreads, even you guys) up. Yesterday, I created a brand new email/Chrome profile just for the one story I’m working on. That way I can’t get distracted by checking email or the sites listed above. It would have to be intentional. One thing I’ve been really bad at this weekend, is going to my room to write…….and then playing Cut the Rope for an hour because its ‘new territory/levels that I haven’t played before.’
I laughed when you mentioned us as a distraction site. Definitely! Talking about writing or learning about writing instead of ACTUALLY WRITING can be the sneakiest thief of them all!
Yeah. Or scrolling through Pinterest. I’ll scroll through when I eat snack and its an endless game of ‘just a few more minutes’.
That totally sounds like me. . . (which is not a good thing)
SO true!!
I have fallen into that trap sooo many times 🙁
For me, I tend to write on my computer, so turning off the wifi (my file is on a USB) is super crucial to not getting distracted. So is putting on music and wearing headphones. I know it doesn’t work for a lot of people, but if I listen to music for long enough while I’m working, it forms a block between me and all the noise around me. (Which there is a lot of, cause my family’s a little large). So getting on the computer, telling my little sister I’m a little busy right now and turning on music is very helpful for me to settle down and get to work. I don’t really end my work time a specific way, cause it’s usually “whenever I can squeeze it in,” aka after homework/dinner and when no one needs me, or at school in a study hall period. I’ve started cutting myself off mid-scene though, cause it does help me jumpstart sometimes.
I know what you mean. I always have music on while I write. Normally its stuff I know by heart so I can sing when I want to and also be able to tune it out. My favorite playlist is EDM – which mainly consists of old DJ hits through the years. So energetic!
Jamming out while writing truly is the best. I sometimes struggle to hit that balance of singing along and tuning it out so that I can be productive, but when I do, it’s always a good writing session.
Aster, I’m glad you’ve found that headphones work for you! If my kids are in the house, I’ll sometimes use the Coffitivity site on my computer to block out noise for the same reason. Sounds like you have some good boundaries set up!
I never used to write with music, but since I’ve started, I really enjoy it. I like having a little background noise, but writing in busy public places makes me uncomfortable for some reason (a fear I hope to conquer), and no matter how much I tell myself I can watch TV and write at the same time, I can’t.
I’m trying to create a writing playlist for myself, because deciding what song to start each writing session with can be a very sneaky time waster, as can searching for a new song when the song up next isn’t what I’m in the mood for. I also like the idea of having songs to match my book’s mood.
Same. I’ve given up on trying to do anything productive and watching TV at the same time. I always manage to get distracted. By keeping my writing time separate from my TV time, I find that I actually enjoy my TV time much more.
It seems like when I *think* I have a long time to write, I waste it with distractions. If I know I have a limited time & know what I need to write I’m better at getting it done.
A super hard one for me is if I don’t know how to start a scene. That causes major procrastination. I’ve been trying to get myself to start it in the lamest possibly way just to get started.
Tonya, I’ve heard several mom writers whose kids are grown say that they get the same amount done as when the kids were in preschool for that same reason. When you know this is all the time you have, that makes it easier to sharpen your focus!
Everything you said about allowing tiny distractions to suck away valuable writing time is so relatable. If I get so much as one notification, or if I need to re-check the story information that I have saved to an album on my phone, it can be a slippery slope to scrolling mindlessly through Instagram. Writing related activities always seem to be more alluring than actual writing. And while my writer friend can be a huge source of encouragement for me, we can also be each other’s worst sources of distraction. We once had a study hall, but no homework, and instead of working on our books, we played a game of “Pick a Vine to match your characters’ personalities”.
I love what you said about having transition activities to help you ease in to writing. It does feel weird going from socializing or chores straight into my story. I’ll keep this in mind in the future.
I too find it helpful to end my writing sessions in the middle of a scene. It can be hard to walk away when I’m on a roll, but starting a whole new scene takes effort and energy that I don’t always have right off the bat, so knowing what I’m doing when I begin helps me get into a groove.
Ohhh, yes. As I mentioned, sometimes my friend and I spend what COULD BE writing time messaging about how little writing time we have. We’re also very understanding if the other person says, “I’m going to write. I’ll be back in 30 minutes.” Sometimes it just takes one of us to be the more disciplined person!
Notifications are the worst. I have to close gmail in order to write, otherwise I get distracted. Another distraction for me is short stories I write. When I open docs to work on my book, I also see my document with short story ideas. And it can be SOO tempting to “jot down an idea really fast,” or “make a quick edit.” Usually this leads to me writing a short story instead of my book, which overall isn’t good.
I totally listen to music while writing too. Violin/Viola/Cello covers of song are the best for me because I can easily tune out OR sing.
I’ve never thought about intentionally ending a session mid scene! (I do it by accident all the time though.) That’s super smart!
Well, at least your writing distraction is actually writing!
Turn off notifications on my phone helped a lot (not only for writing, by the way, I notice the positive effect in all areas of my life). When I write, I use DND mode with exceptions for school and my husband. So if there’s something with my family, they can reach me.
Knowing what to write is another one. I have a large summary of my story, so I can easily pick up where I left.
Like you, I have kids and I also need some transition time between breakfast, bringing them to school, and writing. I am experimenting with reading something about writing, like this blog, or listening to my Spotify soundtrack to my story. Everytime I hear a song that reminds me of my story, I put it in the list. It is a nice way of finding inspiration.
And instrumental music helps a lot. Currently I am slightly addicted to the instrumental songs of Sleeping at Last (although I love his music with lyrics as well).
Marja, sounds like we’re at similar stages of life!
I love that you have a Spotify soundtrack for your story! I don’t usually write with music, but that sounds like so much fun that I want to try it.
I really liked what you said about making sure you have a transition time before sitting down to write. I find that if I think a little through my story and what will happen next before I sit down, then I’m more anxious to get to writing and I can jump right in to it when I’m ready.
To help me write, I often put my phone far on the other side of my room and make sure notifications are turned off. Then I set my timer for thirty minutes. Sometimes, even after thirty minutes I don’t feel like stopping, so I just keep going. But if I need a break, I usually do a short activity that is easy to do and doesn’t require a lot of thinking before I go back to writing.
I actually don’t like stopping in the middle of a scene because that’s where I usually feel most compelled to keep writing and because I feel a sense of incompleteness when I don’t finish it. So I like to stop at the end of a scene or a transition point.
Thanks so much for these posts! They are so helpful, especially now that I’m working like crazy on the first draft of my novel. 😀
I never like to stop in the middle of a scene because then I end up not finishing it the way I know I wanted to the day before, if that makes any sense.
Yes! I end up forgetting details I meant to add in 😛
I definitely understand not wanting to stop mid-scene! During previous seasons of life where I had an abundance of writing time, I wouldn’t have done that. I would have stayed with the creative flow and finished the scene. Now, with my writing time so condensed, possibly forgetting a few details that I meant to include is a worthwhile trade-off for being able to get into the next writing session quicker.