Distractions That Keep Writers From…SQUIRREL!

Taking on the task of writing a full-length finished novel can be daunting and often more laborious than bargained for.  That’s why distractions are the number one enemy of writers. It’s not that we want to be distracted. Rather, when faced with a painstaking task, letting minds and bodies wander is simply the path of least resistance.

Distractions can be internal.

Be they daydreams of better times.

Or crippling self-doubt.

Often those inner distractions facilitate external ones.

Of course, some can’t be avoided, like relationships.

Or children.

Or household chores.

 

While other distractions are self-created, like TV binging.

Pet projects.

And even working on other writing projects that aren’t your book.

There are perhaps lots of ways to exorcise these demons of distraction.

Like shutting out the world, which we’ve pretty much all been forced to do lately.

But the number one way is to remove them, which is what this post is about!

My middle grade novel, Colossa and the Big Kids, has been languishing in the editing phase for nearly four months. I know what needs to be done to improve the story–thanks to editor Allison Weiss who made some brilliant suggestions–but the extensive (though not difficult) nature of the edits keeps me from knuckling down and getting them done. I find every excuse under the sun to delay digging in, including writing these blog posts.

SO…all this has been a fun–and yes, distracting–way to say that I am going to be absent from my blog for a spell. I’ve been working hard for more than a year to ensure I have three to four posts every month, and it’s given me a lot of great content. Yet, any amount of time spent writing up posts like this one steals from the projects I should be working on as an aspiring published author.

Once I’m happy with the final version of CATBK and get it back into the query trenches, I’ll return to my site.  In the meantime, I bid you farewell:

Now, get the heck out of here and get some of your own writing done!