Writing Distracted

I’ve written about 3000 words over the last week, which 1.5x what I usually try to target in a day. There are lots of reasons for this. Some are good reasons (this chapter is not working, all the little disconnected bits are not connecting, etc) and some are bad reasons. It’s like having a bunch of cakes all demanding immediate eating. Below is the process I went through when exploring my capacity to procrastinate.

1. Facebook
2. The article I found on Facebook
3. The three articles that were on the sidebar of the article I found on Facebook
4. Laundry (assume this interruption happens three more times because loads needed to be transfered)
5. Music, because I need the energy boost
6. More music, because now I’m off on a mental adventure and it’s impossible to get back to my book without finishing the adventure
7. But that’s not the right song
8. Neither is that one
9. Oooo, that’s a funny gif
10. Text friends funny gif
11. Okay, text friend singular, but then she wrote back and response was required
12. The toilet keeps running in the background and making a weird noise
13. Seriously, is something wrong with that thing? Should I go check on it?
14. Oh, no, we’re good
15. Sort emails
16. Skim through posts on writing blogs
17. Read the good articles (like this one)
18. Read the wonderfully scathing roast one of the articles linked to (this article here)
19. Exult for a short time that I am not so condescending and awful as the person who wrote the original piece that was roasted (yes, I am that petty, shut up)
20. Cookie break!
21. Actually, I don’t really want a cookie, I want lunch
22. Darn it, no bread
23. Ramen! That’ll work
24. And when you give a writer ramen she needs something to watch while she eats it…
25. (I may or may not have watched Sherlock)
26. (Who am I kidding? I watched Sherlock)

(Note: This list is actually composed of the procrastinating activities that I have performed over the past few days, not just one, and excludes the slightly more productive things like going to work and searching for jobs and responding to the more important emails.)

(But still, I have problems.)

Of course, the first step to fixing a problem is admitting when you have one, so I guess I’m in good shape. Please tell me I’m not the only one with a list like this.

A little procrastination is okay. A lot can be detrimental. Now that I’ve spent some time doing all this (and doing some research into places I might want to query my book) it’s time to knuckle down and work. It also helps that I finally made it past that hump and the story makes sense again.