The Road to Done is Paved with Good Distractions

I’m going to work on my fiction.

That sentence summarizes one of my major writing-related goals this year. The goals, if you want to get into details, are to publish (not just write) 3 short stories and participate in this year’s NaNoWriMo, or at least just spend a month or two writing the first draft of a novel.

Small goals to the seasoned fictionist - but the last time I wrote fiction was five years ago. “I need to devote long stretches of time to this,” I thought. “I’m out of practice, so I need to devote, say, around 2 months of my life just doing this.”

But if I were to spend a couple of months working on my fiction, where would I get my income? I’d have to find a way to make money passively while I write.

That’s it! I’m going to work on a passive income stream, then when that gets rolling I can really work on my fiction.

So I spent the bigger part of February, March, and April working on this ebook that’s supposed to make money while I write. I did market research, wrote and edited the ebook, set up the web site, and the dozens of other minor tasks that were related to publishing an ebook.

When I was finally done with that, I realized that I couldn’t really write in my office. Only a thin curtain separates it from the living room, so the toddler and the cats keep distracting me when I try to write.

I needed to hire a contractor to make me a permanent wooden divider. But then I’d have to design it first, and looking for a trustworthy contractor is such a hassle…

Do you see where I am going with this?

Distractions become detours

I was so focused on these projects that would “help me write” that I forgot that I should be, I dunno, doing the goddamn writing in the first place. It’s procrastination on a grand scale. The worst part is that you don’t notice it when it’s creeping up on you.

If you think you already have a big problem with your creative work, imagine how that problem compounds when you introduce “distraction projects”. The first problem you have (eg. writing a novel) will turn into ten different problems (writing a novel and creating an ebook and dealing with refunds and marketing, etc.) It’s like cutting off a hydra’s head only to discover that seven new heads will grow in its place. Two months later, as you’re deep into your distraction project, you’ll be asking yourself this:

Why the frak am I doing this again?

And your answer will be: Oh, right. So I can write fiction.

Way to go accomplishing that, then.

Getting back on track

As soon as I realized this, I took a hard, unforgiving look at my schedule and work habits. And guess what - I do have the time to write fiction. Looking at my schedule, there are some inconsequential personal timesucks projects I can drop, such as watching yet another episode of Angel on the SciFi channel.

Not only that, I can write while waiting in line, sitting on the toilet, walking my dog, or doing the laundry. There must be countless little opportunities for writing throughout my week - I just don’t notice them. I don’t have to write neat, grammatically perfect sentences typed out in my laptop, either. I could read into a small recorder, and scribbling on my beat-up notepad should be fine.

Taking all these things into account, I can spend at least an hour a day writing fiction. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

I hope this long rant will serve as a reminder for me in the future when I find myself distracted by side projects that have nothing to do with my writing goals. We all need a serious kick in the pants once in a while.

Until I need to read this post again, however, I’ll just be here in my office - working on my fiction.

Image by brokenarts from sxc.hu

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