writing can be extremely difficult when outside forces are pushing in on you. This isn’t about getting distracted by social media or your favorite TV show. The big distractions like work, family, and other emergencies can take a lot of time away from your writing. If you’re on a schedule it can severely affect the timeline. If you’re not on a schedule, though, getting distracted by the big things can still be detrimental to the writing of your story.

Getting distracted

Getting distracted can be extremely upsetting because you don’t exactly realize it has happened until you’ve already missed multiple writing opportunities.

Dealing with these distractions can be hard to overcome when you’ve lost the motivation to keep moving forward with the story. I have personally experienced distractions like this and stepping back into the story after dealing with the things life throws at you can make writing feel like a chore.

There are ways to work through your distraction. For example, you can force yourself to Write even when your mind is elsewhere and waiting for the editing process to fix any mistakes you may have made. Another way to work through the distraction with limited time is to simply set a reminder to write a note or even just think about your story for a moment every day.

Overcoming your distraction

There are multiple ways to overcome the rut that life can put on your writing.

In my last article talked about outlines. An outline can help you remember where you were and what should happen next. This is a great way to get back on track with your story, but it may not always help.

Reading through what you have already written might also help you to feel the story like you did before you got sidetracked.

This way is probably less efficient than looking through an outline. Reading through what you have already written can cause more issues than you might expect. By reading through the rough draft of your story, you might be inclined to focus more on the mistakes that you made in the beginning rather than focusing on moving forward.

What to remember:

Almost every writer will deal with distractions. In today’s world, we are constantly distracted by things like social media. However, coming back to your story after a scroll through Facebook seems to be a lot easier than writing after dealing with a family emergency. It is important to remember that you started writing for a reason and that you will not be happy until you follow through and finish writing it. Another thing to keep in mind is that becoming distracted does mean that you are a bad writer, it only means that you are human.
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