WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 27 -- Tuesday

[linaewen]

Hello on Tuesday!  What kind of a writing day are you having today?

• I thought about my fic once or twice
• I wrote
• I did some planning and/or research
• I edited
• I've sent my fic off to my beta
• I posted today!
• I'm taking a break
• I had other plans

Yesterday we talked a bit about disruptions to our writing routines.  Distractions have a lot to do with getting out of a routine.  Do you ever run into the following problem?

 

 For discussion -- How easy is it for you to get side-tracked when you are determined to write?  What kinds of things do you find yourself doing instead of writing?  Do you have any advice for those of us who have trouble with procrastinating and getting distracted?

Comments

[linaewen]

It's early in the day here, so I haven't started anything yet -- not sure I'll get to writing today, unless it's this evening. I have a long list of places to be and things to do that doesn't leave much room for writing.

I get distracted easily when I have had a busy day and don't really feel like taxing my brain with anything that takes effort. Then it's an easy matter to look away from my document and start playing a computer game or surfing the internet or reading about my favorite sports team! Sometimes I have to go as far as to delete all the games from my computer in order to keep myself focused! What also helps sometimes is using Q10 (http://www.baara.com/q10/) to write, which is a full screen text editor that helps me focus on writing only because I can't see my computer desktop.

[lea_hazel]

Research always gets me. I look up a plant, or a name, or a historical period, and get sucked down this rabbit hole of information linking to more information. I'm thinking of using a cooking timer so that I don't spend more than 10 minutes on Wikipedia.

[linaewen]

Yes! This is my problem, too. I love research so it's easy to follow those rabbit holes. In the long run I think spending that time researching is valuable, but limiting it is also a good idea, especially when time is limited during the day for writing!

[lilly_c]

I'm travelling back home this evening but I did transfer the files for my kids big bang to my phone so I can try and get a little something done on it.

I used to get sidetracked a lot when I had a TV, it doesn't happen as much now.