This week the topic is:
What are your top three distractions and how do you deal with them?
First:
As an author, the first and main distraction is social media. Unless I work offline, then I tend to check Twitter, WordPress, BookFunnel, ACX, Amazon, Goodreads, KDP, MeWe and my email notifications as they come in. Fortunately these days I don’t have to check Facebook or LinkedIn as I deleted them, but social media is a serious distraction and time suck if authors are trying to write a novel.
Social media creeps up on you like a convolvulous vine and entwines itself around your very being if you let it. You start off with one site, then feel obliged to register for more sites because you read online that authors must jump up high to be seen above everybody else, and the only way to do that is to be active across as many social media sites as possible. However, when you log into these sites, you see the very same authors are on there as well as on all the other sites, and that they’re all jumping up just as high as you are. It’s a lose-lose situation, as we’re all promoting our books to each other, and not to the readers (who are not authors) that we should be promoting them to! What a game it all is, and what a terrible waste of time.
Second:
Paid employment takes me away from writing books. At the moment I earn much more working as a medical secretary three days per week than the royalties I receive from Amazon and Ingram Spark. After I’ve spent 6 hours staring at a computer screen at the hospital, then I don’t always fancy coming home and staring at my own screen. Consequently not much writing gets done on work days.
Third:
Sunshine. When it’s a lovely day outside and the sun is shining, then I’d rather be out walking or cycling in Suffolk or on the Isle of Wight instead of sitting at a computer. Therefore in the winter I’m much more productive as regards creative writing!
What distractions affect other blog-hoppers? Click on the blue button below to find out, or just add a comment.
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Stevie Turner 
I don’t consider sunshine as a distraction, rather it’s a way to recharge my creative batteries so that when I finally do get a chance to write, the words flow easier.
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It’s a distraction because I want to get outside in it and not sit at the computer.
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Even though our lifestyles and locales are different, I’m with you on all 3! 🙂 x
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Some familiar themes, I’ve given up on Twitter as whatever I tweet seems to bring out the worst in people. I’m hanging on to Facebook but it may soon follow. I write because I want to, not to satisfy my ego or fish for compliments. Research, finding a rabbit hole to follow, now that is a hard habit to break.
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I’ll have to check out your tweets, lol!
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I’d say, the weather, but that’s only a distraction around here in the summer. Right now, it’s a really good reason to stay inside.
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Are you down to -30 yet? We’re about 0 this morning. Haven’t had any snow yet, but some frost and ice.
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Oh, we already had -38*F two weeks ago. It’s warmed up to a balmy -13*F (-25*C) over the last week. Clouds are clearing off today, so it’s likely to get cold again.
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I drove to work in thick fog today. I hate fog.
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We get a little fog in the spring and fall, but we get a different kind of fog in the winter. Ordinary fog is condensing water suspended in the air. Ice fog is ice crystals suspended in the air. It’s naturally occurring at -18*F. You know how in fog sounds are distorted and muffled? Well, you can hear a neighbor close his door two blocks away in ice fog. It’s really weird.
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Ice fog? Ooh… never seen that one. You’re on a whole different level as regards peculiar weather!
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You folks don’t get cold enough. I’m betting people in Lapland and Russia know about ice fog.
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Reblogged this on aurorawatcherak.
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Thanks Lela.
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Real life, mostly. Social Media is like smoking cigarettes. Just. Stop. Pick it up once or twice a week. Try not to make “keeping up’ a priority. SM is why even crappy writers the last half of the 20th Century were so much better at their craft than (huge percentage) of what I see being interviewed, cover revealed, reviewed and self-promoted. If “indie writers” spent half of their SM time on content and clarity instead of being “writerly” and wasting a lot of time on pursuits that are proven to be a waste of time, our choices as readers would go up. You have no friends on SM, you have a giant game of tag. All the authors’ circles/groups la dee dah are mostly no more than cheerleading for one another, swapping reviews and gladhanding. I’d rather have one editor with a clue tell me I was full of shit and why (whether I agree or not) than 200 Indies promoting something a couple of edits away from a real book swap attaboys and way-to-gos with me. The self-congratulatory environment of belonging, on the pretense of promoting, does nothing to advance your skillset for your craft. Which wasn’t what you asked for at all, but if SM is a distraction, that’s on you.
To the point – the real world. One can eek out time to sketch ideas getting one’s tires rotated, if the desire is there. Carry a voice recorder/use your phone. Try not to let scenes and great dialogue from life’s interactions get away from you. All day, every day, no matter what you’re doing, pay attention. Imprint the sunny day distractions and use them. Sketch them up over a glass of wine while you put on your spouse filter.
Here’s a question. What are you going to learn that will make you a better writer chasing the SM dragon? A cute meme with cats about adverbs? How to friend farm, up your game of tag? Worthless in comparison for finding the words for a sunny day.
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All very true. After nearly 7 years using social media I’ve come to the same conclusion; most of the social media sites are a waste of time. I’m going to concentrate on BookFunnel now, and see if that helps to sell books. Social media, plus the interviews and cover reveals take authors’ time away from writing, and are pointless. It’s best to try and find a worthwhile site that actually helps to sell books, and delete all the rest. To be honest, I’m heartily cheesed off with social media and have decided another site is going to be deleted very soon!
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I could do without this one save for a few gems of reality. WP is simply a rehearsal stage for me where I throw it out there and then edit it repeatedly like it’s a real work on display, if for no one one but myself.
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My biggest distraction is my hubby. LOL. Social media can be a distraction but I have learned to limit it. I need FaceBook etc to keep in touch with my family in Canada. Reading other blogs takes up time but I enjoy them. If they get wordy I don´t read them for that reason. Now what to do about hubby??
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Lol. Find him a job to do around the house that takes a long time!
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Like you, Stevie, we are trying to cut back on unproductive timewasting, at least some of them. Trouble is, there are our favourites and we couldn’t possibly give them up. I mean, all work and no play and all that!
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Depends how much time you have to waste…
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These days, I don’t have time to turn around!
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A great response, Stevie. I am going to participate this week.
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