My 500 Words Day 5 – What Are You Struggling With?

Writing Prompt: What are you struggling with? What gets in the way of your 500 words?

Today: 549 words

Total: 2353 words

Writing is something I enjoy doing so what gets in the way of my writing? One word – Distraction.

I’d say that 99% of the time my mind wanders or other things catch my eye which interrupts my writing (or more truthfully said stops it before it gets started).

I read a blog post the other day by Wendy Krick of Affiliate Marketing Dummies Blog in which she shares how she avoids distractions while working at home.

I think it would benefit you to read this “The distracted affiliate marketer writing a 400 word blog post“.  (scroll down mid-post) This is SO me except I don’t think I really obsess over statistics anymore but it can happen.

Wendy shares how she tackles the distraction beast – visit her post to read how she does it.

What do I struggle with?

• Email
• Social Media
• Noise
• Thoughts
• ‘To Do’ lists that have nothing to do with the bottom line
• Fear of what people might think
• Fear I am not ‘doing’ enough
• Fear I might ‘miss out’ on something
• Constantly researching something
• The rabbit whole of the internet and email messages (one leads to another and before you know it 3 hours have past)

Michael Stelzner asked a similar question on Copy Blogger: What Keeps you From Writing? Here are just some of the responses that resonated with me:

• Fear of failure or judgement
• Getting caught up in non-important things
• Lack of time
• Lack of ideas
• Procrastination and insecurity
• Motivation
• Focus

Writing a novel takes hundreds of hours, the ability to tune out distractions, forcing oneself to buckle down when the novelty wears off, and the mental perseverance to keep going when doubts and the am-I-crazies creep in. ~ Nathan Bransford

Read this post with over 250 comments from writers who all share the same distractions on Nathan Bransford’s blog.

What is the solution? How can a distracted writer write?

The following is currently working for me:

• Toggl.com – a timer that I set to calculate the actual time I spend on something whether that be social media, crochet, or writing (found out about this app via BuzzBlogger – Kim Roach)
• Timer-Tab.com – a timer that I use to allocate the time I actually have for a task (1-hour to write and post a blog)
• Jeff Goins My 500 Word Challenge – this is something I’m doing to get back in the habit of daily writing. I belong to the Facebook group and each day there is a prompt I use.
• Daily Writing – often times I will stack post which is good for blog challenges. It doesn’t help when forming a habit. I can crank out 5 – 7 blog posts in one sitting but I get drained and don’t want to write any more. The result being the blog sits empty of new content.

Besides focus, procrastination, time, and fear I think I struggle with not thinking I am a writer most. This thought alone stops me from accomplishing anything.

Jeff Goins says to call yourself a writer. Once he did his career took off.  Now he is a well known author and blogger. He didn’t wait for affirmation from others, he acknowledged himself as a writer and then started living as a writer.

I’ve chosen this path too. I don’t know where I am going or when I’ll get to my destination BUT I’m going.

You’re Turn:
What about you? What keeps you from writing (or blogging) or doing what makes you happy?

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