But Those Distractions Are So...Shiny...

Focus, focus, focus!

While writing, it's so easy to pop open your web browser to "look up a word" or "do some fact-checking" and then, hours later, you find yourself still reading your Twitter feed, 'Like'ing things on Facebook, or lost in an endless maze of Wikipedia entries (darn them for linking to so many other enticing entries!)...where did the time go?

I'm not even going to get into the research on distraction.

Okay, fine, I will. Just one article -- read this study on how checking Facebook even just once within a 15-minute period was enough to derail student productivity.

I'm easily distracted. Even Microsoft Word is too distracting for me! All those things to click on across the top? Writing with my text surrounded by those huge margins, or trying to read anything that's double-spaced? I can't do it! Something about the empty space makes me lose my focus.

I used to do all my writing in Notepad, but it came with the added danger of no auto-save feature. I could lose whatever I was working on if the power went out or if my computer froze.

All the advances of the modern world, and I can't even control my Internet-checking impulses, right? (It's called addiction.) Finally, I looked into distraction-free writing tools and tested out a few. I wanted one that I could carry around on my USB drive to move from computer to computer, and I wanted it to be plain and easy on the eyes. Naturally, as a starving writer, I also wanted it to be free.

There are many similar applications out there, so be sure to research on your own. FocusWriter is the one I currently use. It allows for some formatting (like bold and italics), so that I don't have to search through my text later to add it in. It also auto-saves as long as I've saved the file under a name already. I can even set it to make clacky typewriter sounds for writing days when I feel particularly old-fashioned.

Got suggestions for me or other writers? Let me know in the Comments field!

Ren D.

Productivity, The Elusive

Oh, productivity. You are as elusive as the ice cream man when I am craving an artificially colored, novelty-shaped popsicle. Sometimes I can hear you, but I can't see you -- and that's as helpful to me as subscribing to weather reports for cities in which I don't live.

I heard that people do this. I'm not talking about myself or anything.

I was trying oh-so-hard to work on The Fracture of a Dream while I was out of town last month, but I have to confess it really didn't work. Every day, there were other things I had to do. E-mails to answer, errands to run, people to see, requests for other urgent work to be completed...

I'm sure you know what I mean.

Even when I'm trying to write in the comfort of my own home, I struggle with the other tasks that come up. Many people don't understand that I am working (and that I do not answer phone calls or reply to e-mails during that time) and make demands on me to complete some unnecessary task or another. They perceive their work to take priority over my own.

I'm even guilty of abusing my e-mail's vacation auto-responder to pretend I am away on delightful trips when I'm actually not. ("Just leave me alone" is a little rude, you see.) I do still want to have friends, family, and colleagues once I am done with my current writing project.

Aside from using productivity software such as RescueTime (I used this while completing my doctoral dissertation) to hold me accountable for my time, I've had trouble sticking to a set-in-concrete writing schedule. Sometimes, as much as I hate errands and other small jobs, they must be done.

Anyone out there in Internetland have some advice for me?

Ren D.

Uh-Oh, Editing & Rewriting!

Sometimes you're writing and writing and writing, and you realize what you've written previously doesn't work. Maybe plotholes are blooming all over the page; maybe you've just got a tough inner critic. (Oh man, what if that picky inner critic is right?!) You hate the idea of scrapping it all and starting over, or you hate the idea of picking over your words to be sure you said what you meant to say (surely everything you write comes out baby-perfect?). But it's okay. Editing and rewriting can and must be done.

In my case, I can't always get the perfect word to come to mind at the "write" time. (Yeah, dumb pun. You got me...I'm sorry.) Sometimes I even get the meaning totally wrong. When I read over older passages, I catch awkward phrasing and and overuse of the same words. Sometimes a passage is clear to me, but upon re-reading, I realize it wasn't written clearly at all. On the days when I don't feel like working on something new, I go back to what I've already written and examine it. It requires my editor's eye to be alert, of course, but editing something that's already written is easier than filling up a blank page.

During my writing process for The Fracture of a Dream, I had to change several scenes because Dek, the protagonist, was not the dynamic character he needed to be. Too often, he was passive, allowing things to happen to him and finding himself in situations rather than putting himself into them. I would personally hate reading about such a milquetoast character ("Do SOMETHING, man!"), so I knew this wouldn't do for my precious Dek.

I deleted some scenes entirely, changed the way his behavior and reactions were described, and reversed the dialogue for some of the other characters. The way the final scene plays out changed significantly.

You may not agree with what Dek chooses to do in the end, and your interpretation of who he is as a man may vary, but at least Dek isn't the lost soul being pushed around by fate that he was before.

Back to work, friends!

Ren D.