It’s funny how many other things you can be doing while writing a post for your blog. People reading the post will imagine you calmly typing, maybe nothing more challenging than a coffee cup to distract you.
The reality is quite different. The phone rings. There is a kid telling you “The party is ready” when there was no party planned. Another kid is asking if they can rip up bread and throw it for the birds, only they brought the bread into the computer room with them and sesame seeds are now scattered over the carpet. Something crashes, anonymously. The party kid is now asking if you want to see how the character in their computer game looks naked. In between you spare a few brain cells to ponder things like the over due bill, the odd noise your car started making this week and the fact that your Mother will be visting, one of her bi-montly spot checks on your life.
Writing is never easy and the stuff that happens while you try to write doesn’t make it easy to keep writing. Meditation sounds good on paper, someone wrote that no doubt. But, in reality it can be hard to catch and keep your focus to write while life goes on all around you.
Saying “no” helps sometimes. Don’t take on too many things and cram your time into a tight schedule. Tell someone “no” and don’t let them tell you how much spare time they think you have.
Write things down. You never know when you will be interrupted mid-thought and lose your train of thought. Keep a notepad handy to jot things into so you can come back to catch that train when you come back to write.
Plan a writing schedule. Look at your life and your committments. Find a time when you are likely to be able to focus on just writing. Don’t answer the phone, let the messages pile up for your writing time. Unless Johnny fell down the well, all those calls can be returned when you really do have spare time.
Good luck.