Distraction

I have lots of time to write but making that time productive sometimes seems like trying to reach the unattainable high score in a game. Since I already have my laptop open on my lap the necessity of research becomes an excuse to spend more time than necessary, checking email, flickr and all the rest.

Cory Doctorow, sci fi writer and BoingBoing blogger says the way to manage the websurfing trap/research guise is to not even go there. He says,
“Instead, do what journalists do: type "TK" where your fact should go, “ .
Later a quick search through your document for TK will show you what still needs to be done.

Most experts on writing suggest you sit in the same place everyday at the same time and write a certain number of words. A thousand words seems like a good total to aim for. Cory Doctorow writes only a page. They all agree you should stop writing the minute your total is reached, even if you are in the middle of a sentence. Supposedly the unfinished thought gives you something to begin with the next day.

My problem is most of what I write I delete. I write hundreds of words, most of them useless, trying to get to the essence of what I want to say, not every word I write is a gem. Perhaps I'm missing the point. I suppose it all counts in the end result.

Chris Hardwick writes about time management a construct described in several books on which his article, in the current issue of Wired, is based. What’s interesting is the pie chart he drew while writing the article. It shows the amount of time he spent doing other things besides writing, clicking unrelated Wikipedia links, watching Mad Men on TiVo, researching, actual writing and the time spent making the pie chart.

Despite his newly learned time management skills he’s not too worried about the time he wasted, being distracted, from writing his article. Hardwick concludes that the point of being a freelance writer is being free. Subscribing to one of the "time management cults", he says, is too much like getting a real job. "I prefer to swipe the best ideas and ignore the rest."

Maybe, allowing oneself to be distracted is a way for ones brain to organize your thoughts, while you are playing tetris or oggling the latest at apartment therapy, so when you come back to the blank page you have no trouble filing it up with brilliant prose.

That’s my new excuse, err theory anyway to justify the time I spend on websites like flickr, unplggd, Desire To inspire, the kitchn, design* sponge and a million other home design, lifestyle sites in order to avoid writing.