remotefiction

Distraction

I am going to start this by stating the obvious. I spend too much time [insert distraction here] instead of writing. Probably most of have this problem, from professional to amateur. Though perhaps one of the marks that divide the two extremes of that scale is just how much we let ourselves be distracted. (which is of course ignoring the things we have no choice in doing just to get through life).
For me at the moment its twitter I suppose. I need to get better at getting the good things out of it – important news that I should see about friends, the inspirational news items that will set thoughts buzzing, opportunities and all. Then actually focus on processing.

Reading sounds like it’s a distraction, and yes, it is, but not entirely. There are a number of writers who have said that a great writer is a great reader, that we need to read other things to bring to our writing, that they read so many things till their head starts buzzing over and spills over into something new. There is an element of that for me – the old what influences you is truly everything. It’s all the books I read, the articles I read (science, politics, news, idea, idea, idea). It is in the art blog I maintain, every mad and crazy painting an inspiration, the scary monsters and the sexy women, all stories waiting to happen.

Though, of course, waiting isn’t always good enough. We need to deliver. Though, ironically, I think the more experienced I become as a writer, the more I need to wait for an idea to develop. I can’t just batter an idea out on the keyboard, like I did in the past, it needs to gain some shape, have some thought time before it starts to make sense. Ok, sometimes a little sketching helps, jotting down the skeletons of an idea, making sure one doesn’t forget the triggers that form the idea, that allow one to launch onto the next stage of the process.

One of the things I’ve been doing recently is trying to think about writing, trying to think where I am going with it, trying to understand my mind better. A dead end or an essential part of the process? I am unsure, but I think for the moment I need to do it. So to at least some extent I’m going to do it here. Finding somewhere to discuss it, some people to discuss it with, probably helps.