October 5, 2011

In my book Writer’s First Aid, I talk a lot about dealing with interruptions and distractions because I began writing when I had a newborn (ten days old), a todder (two) and a preschooler. If I couldn’t write through interruptions, I couldn’t write at all most days.

People protest all the time that they can’t write with continual interruptions, and I never had much of a response beyond “just do it!” I knew it was possible if they’d really try it. Then recently I heard about someone who’d led a workshop dealing with this very thing–and she taught the participants a valuable lesson.

Start! Stop! Start Again!

The speaker was ostensibly talking about “carving out time to write.” She suddenly stopped and said, “You may choose to write on your current project or a new one, but decide on something, even if it is just an account of your day. Pick up your pencil and paper and write when I say go.”

She timed the group of writers for three minutes and said, “Put your pencils down” and continued her talk for several minutes. She then repeated the interruption and her instructions. They wrote for three more minutes. The speaker interrupted her talk four different times during the hour and had them write.

At the end of her workshop the participants compared notes. They had all written at least one page, many had more, despite being interrupted four times in only twelve minutes of actual writing! Each time they’d been able go back and pick up a thought and continue. The speaker ended with, ”You can revise bad writing, but you cannot revise a blank page. Give yourself permission to write junk, then fix it.”

Change Your Mind

I know this sounds awfully simple, but I encourage you to change your mind about being able to write despite interruptions. So few of us live on a deserted island. Most writers–probably 90% or more–have to deal with distractions and interruptions.

If you need to prove to yourself that you can get back to your writing after an interruption, try that workshop experiment. Either try it alone or with your writing group. See what happens.

It just may turn out that you’ve been believing a lie all this time. Writing may not be as enjoyable when you’re interrupted, but it can be done.

9 Comments »

1. 

   This is so true! Even though there are some parts of writing that beg for uninterrupted time (e.g. working out the plot, brainstorming ideas or working on a tricky section), I find I can usually manage to get something done, even in just a few minutes. And every little bit helps.

   Comment by Andrea — October 5, 2011 @ 5:57 am

2. 

   Andrea, that’s really true. Some parts do beg for uninterrupted time–but probably fewer parts than we think really require it. I remember a lot of years of working out plot problems while pushing someone on a swing or walking a fussy baby or whatever. Now I do it with grandkids. In this one area, being a woman helps, I think. Our minds are always running on more than one track–we just have to make sure one of those tracks is our writing project.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — October 5, 2011 @ 10:08 am

3. 

   So often starting is the hardest part… getting ourselves to sit down and focus. As a friend once commented, we are like dogs circling a pillow, looking for a way to get comfortable. Take the first action. Then the next. And so on.

   Comment by Grier Cooper — October 5, 2011 @ 10:25 am

4. 

   Grier, that is absolutely true! I think that’s why we hate interruptions so much! Getting started–and getting started again and again–is tough. My first WRITER’S FIRST AID book devotes the whole first quarter of the book to “getting started” because it’s so difficult for most writers. (Unnecessarily difficult probably.)Thanks for your comment.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — October 5, 2011 @ 12:26 pm

5. 

   That was a great post Kristi. I wouldn’t have thunk it possible to write anything good for 3 minutes, but then I forgot that Natalie Goldberg encourages a lot of short timed writing exercises and I have to admit that I can write a lot in 5 minutes if I let myself just write instead of think too much.

   Comment by Vijaya — October 5, 2011 @ 5:57 pm

6. 

   Vijaya, it’s actually been a good lesson for me babysitting my youngest granddaughter each week. She’s almost one, but it’s forced me to remember how I used to write all my books in ten-minute segments. That’s all I had! And I got as much writing done then as now–which is sad.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — October 5, 2011 @ 7:24 pm

7. 

   Wow. Thinks that work shop idea is a good one. My problem is that once I start I don’t want to stop but want to keep working until its done. Second, I have so many things I want to get done that I’m constantly waiting for the right “uninterupted time”. But after reading this it makes a lot of sense how much can get done in a short amount of time. Thinks I will have to give it a try and change my thinking and attitude.

   Comment by Jennifer Rathe — October 5, 2011 @ 9:04 pm

8. 

   Jennifer, it’s lovely when we have a block of uninterrupted time. But from the biographies I have read, the only women writers who had that kind of time were unmarried ladies with no kids (Austen, Alcott, the Brontes, Margaret Mitchell) and had someone else supporting them. The rest of us, I suspect, will always write in snippets of time!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — October 6, 2011 @ 3:27 pm

9. 

   What a practical example of showing us we really do have more time to write than we think!

   Comment by Gina Conroy — October 15, 2011 @ 6:34 pm

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