Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Writer's Worst Enemy

A writer's worst enemy... time sucks. Whether it's promotion or catching up on emails or facebook or twitter or yahoo groups or even reading blogs, there are so many distractions for a writer, and those are just the ones on the computer! There's also your family and friends and real life (what's that???) and eating and showering. And don't forget the evil writer's block!



My personal writing enemy is definitely time. I have to sacrifice sleep in order to write and as my due date draws ever closer (August 2nd) I'm running out of time before I'll have to take a break from writing, at least until I can get my then two children on some kind of a schedule so I'll have enough sleep that my writing won't be utter crap. So now would be the final push to get as much done as possible and instead of writing, I'm spending more time checking my emails and reading blogs instead. Not using my time the most wisely, I'm afraid, although the past week or so, I have been doing a better job.

What about you? How is your writing going? What is your personal writing worst enemy? And how do you avoid it?

8 comments:

Cherie Reich said...

My writing enemy is Facebook and the multitude of games on it. When I spend more time on Facebook than writing, my writing word counts suffer. Yesterday, for example, I didn't get on Facebook at all until the last hour of work, and I managed to write a little over 2700 words. I'm trying to limit my time on such things at least several days a week to get more writing done. Of course, actual work at work cuts into my writing time too. *laughs*

Suzanne Johnson said...

Email is my downfall--I'm constantly checking it, responding to emails, reading WAY too many yahoo loops, getting messages from the too many online workshops I sign up for. Like you, I have so few hours in which to shoehorn my writing, I need to shut down email those times. But I don't. Wow--due date's coming fast!!

Nicole Zoltack said...

Facebook and emails - huge time sucks! As great as the internet is, it sure can be a writer's worst enemy. :)

I can't wait for this baby to be born, Suzanne! The doctor said there's a good chance I'll go early. With all this heat, I certainly hope so!

Faith said...

I've threatened myself more than once with handing over the wireless receiver from my computer to my hubby... who could hide it from me until I completed my word count every day. I haven't done it yet (I'm too chicken, I admit) but if I don't get out of the slump I'm in soon, the internet's gotta go.

Alexandra Shostak said...

Time is a pretty good worst enemy. I can't think of anything that gets in the way more! :-P

Carolina M. Valdez Schneider said...

Gah! It's the story of my life! If only there were 36 hours in a day! I don't get much more than 5 hours of sleep a night. One of these days, I hope to start getting a regular 8 again, but I fear it'll be a long time before that happens! Hope you find a way to fit writing in!

Vicki Rocho said...

I so wish I could pause time so I had enough of it to finish the things that need to get finished. If you figure it out, let us know!

Donna Coe-Velleman said...

Games, reading and writing blogs (my own and my chapter's), emails and writers block are my biggest zappers. I haven't written anything in a while. I get ideas but nothing follows through. I even pledged on my blog that I'd write but guess how many words I put to paper? 0 That's right. 0 But I will be writing several interviews for our newsletter. Does that count? :)

And now since I'm president of LIRW, I have to read emails everyday. I can't skip them. We're trying new things and thinking up more. I spend more time on line than with my family. I'm glad they understand. I keep thinking it will settle down and I can get my brain back on track. It's just been one of those years. You know?