Dealing With Distractions

Any creative person will always have this one problem. They are too easily distracted. Why does the distraction happen? Because, creation is an act of observation and at the same time being disassociated enough to focus on the creation. It's like a loop, or a vicious circle.

Let's take an example. Of me writing a story. Because that's the closest thing I have as the means of a specimen. Me. A specimen. For your entertainment and understanding.

I get distracted easy. There is very less present to keep my attention to a task. And even now I see the twitter tab has three new tweets but I am writing in this window. And I am wondering if gmail has any new emails for me. And I have this bowl of noodles on my table and I am hungry. The fish in the bowl on my table are looking at me. I just stared back at them and they dispersed.

So there. Lot of distractions. But I am still writing. How?

SPEED. MOMENTUM. KEEP THE BALL ROLLING. DON'T STOP.

There, that's in capital letters, you can write them on your hand, or on your notebook.

The trick is to not stop when you start something. That's the best hack i know to keep distractions at bay. Yeah, you might need to go to loo to pee when you're writing a very long story but even then, when back at the keyboard, it means no fucking around.

If it's a long job, divide and rule. If it's still big, divide more.

But don't get distracted.

Twitter tab tells 18 tweets. I'll now tweet the link to this post.

More, tomorrow. About characters in stories.