If you’re any kind of wordsmith worth your weight in ink, then you’ve likely become more than familiar with a blank screen from time to time; a screen just waiting to be filled with your breathtaking ideas. But familiarity breeds contempt, they say. Next thing you know, you’re stuck wondering how to focus on writing.
The key is knowing your distractions. As a writer, you’ve undoubtedly become a master at mind-wandering and an even better procrastinator, meaning there’s no lack of such distractions in your day. So, best to not also delay admitting to them.
True, a little procrastination has likely saved you from that nasty spurt of burnout. Sometimes, those self-made delays really do help us spend our free time to relax and rejuvenate, but it’s best to be careful.
How often has one piece of chocolate lead to the empty wrapper of an entire block?
Whether you’re a writer who’s lucky enough to do what they love on a full-time basis or a freelancer who has the choice to determine the flow of their day, you’re still left with a set amount of time that you need to responsibly use.
Same person, same time, same blank page. But you don’t want it blank; you want it filled! And if your struggle is ‘focus,’ then fixing your problem might require you to rummage through your mental toolbox to remove all the clutter.
Here’s understanding how.
How to Focus on Writing When Your Imagination Wants to Co-Author
Best Friend or Greatest Foe? Imagination’s Duplicity
There’s a quote that reads:
“Imagination is the golden pathway to everywhere.”
—Terence McKenna
Which is great, unless your deadline is less fond of the many detours your mind is open to taking. You can’t exactly go everywhere when the words need you to be somewhere. You want some direction, and your imagination isn’t always cooperative.
It is best to see your imagination as a kind of double-edged sword. With it, you manage to tap into the vivid imagery and descriptive writing that truly brings alive what you’re trying to put onto paper.
In fact, if you’re a fiction writer, then descriptive writing is encouraged. You want to channel those otherworldly abstractions and figures of speech that really allow your readers to be transported. Just witness the power of a good metaphor in the video below.
Figures of speech allow your imagination an entry into the words you’ll choose by ensnaring the reader’s senses in the same way as they ensnared our thoughts in the moment we conjured them.
But our imagination is addictive, and all too compelling. Imagination is just your executive brain having fun—sometimes to such an extent that you’ve flitted through a hundred thoughts without transferring any of them onto the page.
We get lost in the imagining, and it takes us down the rabbit hole we call mind-wandering.
Lost in Space
Spacing out may be the writer’s favorite pastime, but getting lost among galaxies of incoherent thought won’t serve you in getting any writing done.
It’s undeniable that a bit of meandering in the mindscape will inevitably lead to some marvelous epiphanies. In fact, there is research to support the upside of mind-wandering. Heightened creativity, improved job performance, and elevated mood are but some of the benefits.
It’s only a given that we’ll find great ideas when we look to the stars or maybe allow our head to drift in the clouds. However, what if that cloudbank is dense with thoughts to filter through? So much so that we find it difficult to discover those thoughts that are useful.
Before you know, you’ve drifted so far off that it becomes impossible to tether yourself to the task at hand.
That awareness alone can cause you anxiety—yet another thing to think about! Mind-wandering then turns into an ugly spiral of rumination, where we become fixated on the time lost and the lack of productivity.
So the question is, how do we get our head out of the clouds?
Clearing the Weather
Coming down for a hard landing to some diligent and focused writing will first require us to see where we’re going. So, instead of trying to ground yourself, first acknowledge what made you drift in the first place.
What are your musings about? What feelings do they leave you with? Were you in a certain mood before you even started your writing session?
If these questions are hard to answer, then change your approach. Instead of writing what you intended to, write about what is keeping you from it.
Journaling could be an effective method to declutter, allowing you to formulate the abstractions of heart and mind into words.
Emotive descriptions are often difficult to piece together, and when you succeed, it displays an understanding of what’s hindering your capacity to write. Consequently, this could later present you with a logical solution.
Another method is to use your very own emotional and cognitive blocks as writing prompts. You can shapeshift and simulate these into different scenarios, perhaps role-playing through the eyes of your characters to make sense of your own situation.
Writing through your emotions need not be complicated. There are no expectations for flowery prose when you are trying to articulate the way you feel.
Your goal is simply a recognition of your feelings in order to cast them aside. It’s an exercise of free association that allows these thoughts and feelings to unblock themselves to leave room for the reflections of your actual writing.
Imagination as the Critic
Ever look at a piece of writing and find that no matter how you rephrase it, it still doesn’t manage to read well? It may even bring you so far as to wonder if it was a good idea to begin with.
This is when your imagination steps in and presents you with the world of alternatives, all ripe for the picking. Any one of them surely tastes sweeter than the tired and bruised idea you’re trying to bring to life on the page.
Your own imagination will always be your greatest critic, always citing a bigger and better idea than the one you’ve been working on.
Before giving in to the notion of starting afresh, you may find it more worthwhile to put distance between yourself and your words. The reason for this is that you may have fallen prey to the mere exposure effect.
It’s a principle in social psychology which states that our preference towards something increases the more it is presented to us. The effect often tends to build on initial attitudes toward something.
For example, if the billionaire trope you’ve been flexing in your contemporary romance novel just seems like an overused cinema magnet for lonely singles, then the wildcard bad boy from downtown might look like a more attractive plotline the more you give credit to it.
Beside placing distance between yourself and what you’ve written, another outcome is left to you here. It involves writing about this clutter, simply moving it from mind to page to see for yourself whether this allegedly better concept actually holds value. Thereafter, to draw a comparison.
If imagination is the critic of your actions, then it’s best to make sure you can return the favor by seeing whether it had something better to offer in the first place.
Sadly, your mind is quite vulnerable when idle, and just as you exit your inner world, the outside world calls even harder.
When Life Gives You Distractions, Make Them All Attractions
Jumping from the dive board of distraction doesn’t exclusively plunge us into the pool of our subliminal thoughts. Sometimes, you land in the more shallow end of everyday concerns that just form a part of the admin of being human.
It’s just too easy to say we should eliminate the things that keep us from writing. Added, applying self-control to resist the temptation is also easier said than done.
Any expert on time-management could advocate for the establishment of a routine. It’s no secret to you either. Having a set time and place for writing is useful, and making this schedule known gives you an accountability to it.
But life intervenes despite our best efforts to compartmentalize it into shifts. Some days are just better to clean the home, restock the kitchen, tend to the garden, or see certain people. Your best workday might soon be buried in the avalanche of smaller tasks that have also been delayed.
Life is maintenance, and upkeep doesn’t have a schedule.
So, what if writing were to evolve from a desk job into an almost anthropological exercise?
What if you could write everywhere, and any time, if you just opened yourself to it?
The Social Laboratory
When life whisks you away from your precious keyboard, yearning for the attention of determined fluttering fingers, there is little to do beside seeing it through.
Ironically, whether fictional or more informative, our writing most likely concerns something that we find in everyday life. Basically, if you’re not writing about it, you’re living it. Or, you’re watching how other people go about the task.
We learn a lot from our social interactions, but have you ever heard of anti-social skills to improve your writing? It most likely not what you imagine!
Not all writing is imaginative. Some of it is observational. In fact, most non-fiction you read conveys something that acts as a sort of witness account to another thing being done, said, or experienced.
A recipe book is nothing more than an observation of food chemistry that can be recreated. A biography or memoir is nothing but the collection of actual lived experiences. A travel guide is a route compiled by someone whose steps took them through various places.
As conducive to creativity as the small parameters of your writing is, outside experiences remain the primary source of ideas. When you run out, it may be good to return to these settings—to regain focus from the very spaces you were convinced would distract you.
The Experiment
So, you’ve finally been pulled from your island out at sea (a.k.a. your writing space) and traversed the almost unfamiliar waters of the real world after delaying your errands for too long.
Great fun.
Only thing is, you want to bask in the light of your computer screen instead of the sun, and the idea of heading out isn’t really appealing to you.
But every errand is an opportunity to gather ideas that could be the stoppers to some gaps you may have seen in your plotline.
Your environment is filled with writing prompts. You just need to know how to look for them.
Are you grocery shopping? Or are you actually entering the foraging grounds of hunter-gatherers continuing a prehistoric tradition in a modern setting? Housewives are fighting fiercely over the last produce aisle special, while devious kids still learn the difference between what’s ‘free’ and what’s ‘for sale.’ The narratives seem endless!
Overhearing a conversation between two women? Or are you vicariously experiencing what it’s like to be the keeper of a salacious secret that could potentially end a marriage in a spectacular display of telenovela drama?
There are moments everywhere just waiting to be written, and it’s all about reframing your perception that will help make the difference.
The Ruts of Routine
Maybe You’re a Routine Raconteur
Though writing is a talent, we often misconstrue its difficulties by thinking it will come of its own accord when we sit down. But writing is also a skill, and like most skills, it requires practice.
Naturally, any experienced writer will tell you to schedule this practice, setting fixed writer’s blocks in which to be productive. Within this time, nothing is to be done save for writing.
You are even encouraged to make these creative shifts public knowledge, as it will hold you accountable to your self-made promises. So, whether you’re living with your parents, your partner, or progeny, announce your cordoned off writing time as if you’re ringing the dinner bell (does anybody still have those?).
Once that’s done, you take your planning to the next step by compartmentalizing your shift into even smaller and more manageable chunks.
Ever heard of the Pomodoro technique? Named after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer he owned, Francesco Cirillo devised the method in the late 1980s as an interval method of task completion.
He recommends using a physical timer. Why? Because the entire ritual is symbolic in meaningful ways and actually contributes to smoother writing transitions and focus. Winding the timer signifies a determination, while the ticking noise makes your desire external. Ringing is equated to the break.
To Francesco, such stimuli are more tangible and seem to add an urgency to the task.
Traditionally, every interval (known as a Pomodoro) is 25 minutes. A break in between these sets lasts about 5 minutes. After accumulating four Pomodoros, you deserve a longer break!
For example, let us say you’ve set the intention of writing for 2 hours in the morning, your basket of tomatoes could look something like this:
| Pomodoro 1 | 25 min of writing |
| Break | 5 min to mind wander |
| Pomodoro 2 | 25 min of writing |
| Break | 5 min to play with the pet |
| Pomodoro 3 | 25 min of writing |
| Break | 5 min to whimsically stare out the window |
| Pomodoro 4 | 25 min of writing |
| Recess | 15-30 minutes Make some coffee. Take a powernap. Stop the kid from chasing the dog with a kitchen knife. Reset for the next Pomodoro. |
This is to ensure that your streak of productivity remains unbroken and you actually manage to reach that word count you set as the daily goal.
However, routines can be stifling, even though it provides structure. A set plan makes your days seem very predictable. Overachievers that we are, we even manage a set plan for the set plan!
So, if we’re talking distractions, then you may just be creating your biggest one without realizing it.
Boredom.
Needs and Wants
You’ve done everything by the book. You’ve established a schedule, set yourself writing blocks, and tried to eliminate as many distractions as you could in your environment. Surely, once you sit down, there should be progress. Right?
When your intentions are clear enough to have translated into planning, then you may obviously experience the need to feel busy.
However, that doesn’t guarantee you’ll feel engaged.
Boredom, much like imagination as we’ve discussed, is kind of two-faced. It can be a buzzkill for achievement, but sometimes it’s a blessing in disguise.
What should your boredom be telling you?
Firstly, you may feel that you have no control over what you’re doing. This may sound strange, but when the right words keep on evading you or the syntax just doesn’t fall into place, it becomes plausible.
Secondly, not all writing is challenging. Maybe you’re working on a less riveting chapter, compiling a newsletter, or perhaps trying to work in yet another blog to keep to your posting schedule for the week. If it’s only a means to an end, then you may be looking for more substantial motivation.
Lastly, you may feel that your work is not gaining the recognition it deserves. No one knows better than you do what amount of time and effort went into shaping those words you finally put down. So, naturally you feel there is a certain value attached to it.
Like it or not, when this is the result, your boredom is yet another distraction. You may feel the need to be busy, but what you want is something else to busy yourself with.
Need a cure for your boredom? Listen to this.
Realign and Refocus
The existence of boredom is, however, not without value. By taking our mind away from the task at hand, boredom may give us a few other things to focus on to ultimately prepare us for the next session of writing.
You are being offered a reprieve from the task at hand, forcing rest upon a mind that you may have overworked. Our body is full of these automatic cues that call for recuperation, and you may find that it actually offers you the willpower to continue later on.
When your thoughts enter this state of relaxation, you become more inclined to meditate and reflect. Remember what we said of mental and emotional blockages? You can now become aware of them, and make sense of what’s keeping you back.
Other times, your boredom takes your mind for a brief meander to other topics—one that seems to capture your attention better than what you are actually writing. Perhaps this is your mind channeling its creativity, actively coaxed to look for new ideas.
Captain to Your Ship, But Not the Wind to Your Sails?
Previously, we had mentioned that boredom could be a result of not feeling in control. It may seem odd at first, but when you think of how your loss of influence in a situation demotivates you from engaging with it, it is sensible.
So, what if you were to find out that your very perception of control could be a distraction? In other words, how you define your locus of control.
Part of this little discussion you’ll have with yourself is also defining how you attribute your performance.
If you have an internal locus of control, it means you are in command of your own ship. The decisions you exercise in a situation is what determines control of the situation.
In addition, its means you attribute your performance to internal factors:
- Talent, which relates to your skill and remains stable.
- Effort, which relates to the amount of work invested, and this may be inconsistent and may vary.
On the flipside, an external locus of control credits the influence over a situation to factors in your environment—and thus the things you cannot control.
In the same breath, an external attribution of performance looks to factors outside of the self:
- Task difficult, which is a consistent measure of the work you’re doing.
- Luck, which can never be predicted, and is thus an unstable factor to rely on.
Are you beginning to see the conundrum?
When you make active changes such as establishing a schedule, removing yourself from settings with interruptions, or set times for actively writing, you are taking personal responsibility for your focus to write; therefore, assuming an internal locus of control.
But when you constantly blame your environment—the people, the background noise, the difficulty of writing a particular piece—then you relinquish your power to change these elements, and they will continue to offer you a distraction.
Distracted by More Concerns? Some Answers
What if my environment is truly intrusive? Do I just push through it?
If too many attention-grabbing elements exist in your workspace, then maybe it’s time to revise your idea of a workspace. Having clear mental and physical separation from settings devoted to work or leisure could help you make a mental shift to focus.
Are there any apps to help me focus on writing?
The Forest: Stay Focused app is a fun way to rebuild your attention and avoid the temptation to check your phone. If location is your problem, and you’re one of those hipster coffee shop writers who likes some ambience, Coffitivity may be a great choice.
Final Thoughts
Knowing what makes you tick is a very personal thing. Knowing what makes the ticking stop is even more personal.
No one can prescribe you on the type of distractions that are either to your downfall or your benefit.
Imagination is a refreshing wellspring of ideas, but also a labyrinth of wool-gathering thoughts that can easily make you lose your sense of direction.
Responsibilities progressively rack up on your to-do-lists outside of writing shifts, turning the perfect day of productivity into an administrative hassle. Yet, they surprisingly offer insightful moments in their simplicity to enrich our writing with something real and relatable.
Routine preserves us, but it can also be punitive in its rigidity, making us bored with the self-set expectations and lack of novelty.
And as we face all these things that could potentially help us, but prove themselves as unexpected distractions in itself, we wonder if we truly have the capacity to reclaim control over our focus to write …
You do.
You need not doubt the truth of it, simply because you now acknowledge your distractions, know them, understand them, and can, therefore, manage them.
Perhaps your solution lies in a discretion of which distractions serve your purposes as opposed to those that defer them.
After all …
Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation leans on the doorbell.
—Anon