How Do You Shut out the Noise while Writing?

 

So, I joined the Spring Writing Bootcamp organized by the YA Buccaneers, and I think I’ll accomplish good things in these two months!

 

I’m so excited to keep working on my novel ‘City of Lost Words and Dead Ends‘. I have a lot of faith in this one. That said, I want to talk a bit about the writing process itself.

Since I’m currently on break, I’ve been writing in the mornings. Today, I had a major case of lack of concentration.

Seriously, I had a ton of things in my mind. Thoughts about having to post in IG, having to write posts for Armchair BEA, the fact that next week break is over, and just many things that were fighting for my attention. I was so close to saying ‘Screw it, I can write later, or tomorrow’, and get on with writing blog posts instead. I debated with myself for about an hour or so. Just sitting there, laptop in front of me but being so utterly unproductive it was just sad.

 

A matter of writing time?

Writing in the mornings, afternoons, or at night. The thing is, even though having an schedule helps, it’s really irrelevant, you know. Because there are always things to do. Sometimes, you may feel fresh as a daisy in the morning, but others, you’ll be swamped with everything you’ve got to do that day. At night, same thing. Sometimes you may feel you’ve already done everything that needed to be done and now you have your free time, or you may be so tired you don’t want to even look at the keyboard, just thinking about one the next day will be like.

 

I think it’s a matter of life. Because there’s always going to be something to do. And you’ve got to make time for your writing. But, how do you keep the other stuff from intruding in your writing time? How do you stop your mind from reminding you that there are another million things you should be doing? How can you even feel at peace doing those things if then your mind goes all ‘But hey, aren’t you going to write? Not even a little? You’ll never finish this shit this way.’?

 

What did I do today?

I told myself that I’d do all of that later. I literally emptied my mind of everything. I was really shocked that that worked. I thought it was just nonsense all the time people spoke of emptying your mind, but it worked. I plugged in my earbuds as if physically leaving everything outside and just focusing on the words. I’m happy to say I got to write in peace today, but I was so overwhelmed at first I didn’t know what to do.

So, it worked today, and I’m certainly going to try it if again, if this happens again too, but I’m really scared this was a one time thing.

 

What do you normally do when this happens? Do you give up and run from the headache that forms when you try to write but your mind is somewhere else? Or do you push back and attempt to write either way? Do you have any suggestion to avoid both this awful fates?

Related Posts