Distractions, Roadblocks, and Naps
My blog had some kind of freaking tantrum and I couldn't post anything. But I digress...please welcome D.G. Glass. She describes herself as an author-wife-mother-eclectic personality who sometimes lets her adhd get in the way and gets distracted easily. But I have to tell ya DG is my girl. I"m a napper myself. 2pm 6 days a week.
Distractions, Roadblocks and Naps by D.G. Gass
Once upon a time, I told folks that FranklinCovey was my friend. Not that I'mpersonally acquainted with Stephen Covey, the author of "The Seven Habits ofHighly Effective People". It's just thatthere was a time I lived and died by my day planner. Sounds silly I know, but the scheduling andthe planning had allowed me to get into routines. Routines allowed me to get thingsfinished. When things got finished, lifewas less chaotic.
Am I a little OCD? Probably.
That was before I began forgetting where I placed myprecious binder that had all my dates and tasks that needed to beaccomplished. To alleviate that, myhusband bought me a Hewlitt Packard Ipaq, palm pilot kind of thingy. It was great. I could just automatically up load the contents from Outlook and thereit was, available to grab from my purse. Being a bit of a tech geek, I lovedit. I coveted it. I forgot to chargeit. Since it required being shipped awayto have the battery replaced, it became a paperweight that mocked me aboutmissed appointments and uncompleted tasks. It sat on the desk for several years like that, until I finally foundthe heart to get rid of it.
I reverted to Post It notes. You know the colorful little squares of paper that stick to things. Iwas actually taught this method in a Lean Sigma Six Delta something or anotherworkshop. They were great. I had an excuse to feed my addiction tohoarding colored paper. The only problemwas more often than not, they would end up sticking to the cat's hind legsafter the beast rubbed up against the computer, the desk or my pant legs. I never really am sure how the paper ended upon my pant legs.
Getting into a habit is important, no, essential to me. Especiallysince I became serious about my writing. Few writers are afforded the ability to focus on their writingfull-time. There's jobs and families toattend to. Free time is often a jugglingact between adding a few extra hours to get a few thousand words typed up andtrying to squeeze in that nap. And itget's worse when you try to add in those little luxuries such as eating andsleeping.
Then there's the distractions. The family members wanting to talk whenyou're in the middle of writing up that great dialogue. The cats wanting attention by walking overthe keyboard. The squirrel on thewindowsill taunting you because it knows he's teasing the cat. If there's a dog involved, that's the timethey want to take a walk. Of course it doesn't help that they have towalk around the spot for the next thirty minutes deciding whether or not theyreally want to go there.
Yet, we're our own worst enemy. In a way, I can see how it may have beenbetter to use a typewriter. I know, with the advanced technology we have, it'smade it easier. No backspacing andstrikeouts. No white-out. No ripping the sheet of paper out from thecarriage for do-overs. Easy access todictionaries and a thesaurus.
Still, I've found it difficult to maintain focus at times. Usually this comes when I have to bring upthe browser to verify spelling or find a synonym. I'll just blame the subliminal messageshidden in the songs that are playing on Pandora telling me to check my emailsand statuses on all the social network sites I belong to. You'd think that having been in the military,I'd be a little more disciplined.
While it may seem that being distracted or being thrown offmy routine may be the biggest threat to my writing, it actually isn't. It's frustration that comes from using otherwriters accomplishments as a benchmark. It would be the doubt that might comeif I thought I should be putting out so many words a day. Or if I hit a wall and can't get through itat that moment that some how, I failed myself.
When I was writing "Ghosts of Arlington", everything that could sidetrack me, did. Iprocrastinated. I allowed myself to getdistracted. I allowed myself to getthrown out of my routine. What didn'thappen, though, is important. I didn'tallow myself to give up or quit. Whenthe voice of self-doubt tried to divert me, I told it to "bite me" (yes, thosewere my exact words).
It's difficult, I know. I had years of practice telling myself my writing was garbage, that wasuntil I found out people actually liked reading what I wrote, whether it was ablog or a poem. I'd use thatencouragement from time to time to help keep me writing.
There's a lot of obstacles to achieving a dream, these were(and still are) mine. Every writer hastheir own unique hurdles to cross. Itwould be pointless for me to tell a new writer what to do. Even if I had twenty books under my belt, Istill wouldn't be able to tell them what will work.
The best I can tell you is this. There's a lot of advice in books and on theinternet from other writers. Try it out,see what works for you. If it doesn'tseem to help, don't get discouraged. Keep trying until you find the right formula to get you into yourwriting zone. If it's your passion, ifit's your dream, it will come together for you, even if it's not the same wayit came together for author X or writer B. If you feel like you stumbled, pick yourself back up and brush yourselfoff. Achieving dreams is hard work andsometimes found in paths less traveled.
I'd like to thank Bri for allowing me to ramble, I meanguest post, on her blog. And thank you to everyone who took the time to readit. I hope you liked the picture.
About the author:
Inspired by Walt Whitman and Carolyn Keefe, author D.G.Gass, from a young age, has always loved to write. It just took 40-years forher to believe in her work enough for it not to find the trash when shefinished. Originally from Jeannette, PA, the Yankee transplant, currentlyresides in Columbia, SC with her husband and daughter, not to mention, threecats that own her.
A veteran of the US Air Force, whose day job is in healthcare IT, the authorhas a passion for veterans issues, which is the driving force behind her firstbook, "Ghosts of Arlington". When she's not writing, she can be found curled upwith a good book, working on handcrafts, or staring blankly at walls in acatatonic state.
D.G. Gass released her first poetry compilation, "Twilight Ponderings, MidnightMusings" at the beginning of 2011. The compilation is a series of poetry andprose that was born out of loving someone with diagnosed chronic depression.
The author is currently working on several stories for submission to crime noiranthologies and is in the process of completing her second poetry compilation,"Dancing Along the Dreamscapes", to be released the summer of 2012.
Find me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DGGassAuthorWebsite: www.dggass.com
Books available on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble.com
Distractions, Roadblocks and Naps by D.G. Gass
Once upon a time, I told folks that FranklinCovey was my friend. Not that I'mpersonally acquainted with Stephen Covey, the author of "The Seven Habits ofHighly Effective People". It's just thatthere was a time I lived and died by my day planner. Sounds silly I know, but the scheduling andthe planning had allowed me to get into routines. Routines allowed me to get thingsfinished. When things got finished, lifewas less chaotic. Am I a little OCD? Probably.
That was before I began forgetting where I placed myprecious binder that had all my dates and tasks that needed to beaccomplished. To alleviate that, myhusband bought me a Hewlitt Packard Ipaq, palm pilot kind of thingy. It was great. I could just automatically up load the contents from Outlook and thereit was, available to grab from my purse. Being a bit of a tech geek, I lovedit. I coveted it. I forgot to chargeit. Since it required being shipped awayto have the battery replaced, it became a paperweight that mocked me aboutmissed appointments and uncompleted tasks. It sat on the desk for several years like that, until I finally foundthe heart to get rid of it.
I reverted to Post It notes. You know the colorful little squares of paper that stick to things. Iwas actually taught this method in a Lean Sigma Six Delta something or anotherworkshop. They were great. I had an excuse to feed my addiction tohoarding colored paper. The only problemwas more often than not, they would end up sticking to the cat's hind legsafter the beast rubbed up against the computer, the desk or my pant legs. I never really am sure how the paper ended upon my pant legs.
Getting into a habit is important, no, essential to me. Especiallysince I became serious about my writing. Few writers are afforded the ability to focus on their writingfull-time. There's jobs and families toattend to. Free time is often a jugglingact between adding a few extra hours to get a few thousand words typed up andtrying to squeeze in that nap. And itget's worse when you try to add in those little luxuries such as eating andsleeping.
Then there's the distractions. The family members wanting to talk whenyou're in the middle of writing up that great dialogue. The cats wanting attention by walking overthe keyboard. The squirrel on thewindowsill taunting you because it knows he's teasing the cat. If there's a dog involved, that's the timethey want to take a walk. Of course it doesn't help that they have towalk around the spot for the next thirty minutes deciding whether or not theyreally want to go there.
Yet, we're our own worst enemy. In a way, I can see how it may have beenbetter to use a typewriter. I know, with the advanced technology we have, it'smade it easier. No backspacing andstrikeouts. No white-out. No ripping the sheet of paper out from thecarriage for do-overs. Easy access todictionaries and a thesaurus.
Still, I've found it difficult to maintain focus at times. Usually this comes when I have to bring upthe browser to verify spelling or find a synonym. I'll just blame the subliminal messageshidden in the songs that are playing on Pandora telling me to check my emailsand statuses on all the social network sites I belong to. You'd think that having been in the military,I'd be a little more disciplined.
While it may seem that being distracted or being thrown offmy routine may be the biggest threat to my writing, it actually isn't. It's frustration that comes from using otherwriters accomplishments as a benchmark. It would be the doubt that might comeif I thought I should be putting out so many words a day. Or if I hit a wall and can't get through itat that moment that some how, I failed myself.
When I was writing "Ghosts of Arlington", everything that could sidetrack me, did. Iprocrastinated. I allowed myself to getdistracted. I allowed myself to getthrown out of my routine. What didn'thappen, though, is important. I didn'tallow myself to give up or quit. Whenthe voice of self-doubt tried to divert me, I told it to "bite me" (yes, thosewere my exact words).
It's difficult, I know. I had years of practice telling myself my writing was garbage, that wasuntil I found out people actually liked reading what I wrote, whether it was ablog or a poem. I'd use thatencouragement from time to time to help keep me writing.
There's a lot of obstacles to achieving a dream, these were(and still are) mine. Every writer hastheir own unique hurdles to cross. Itwould be pointless for me to tell a new writer what to do. Even if I had twenty books under my belt, Istill wouldn't be able to tell them what will work.
The best I can tell you is this. There's a lot of advice in books and on theinternet from other writers. Try it out,see what works for you. If it doesn'tseem to help, don't get discouraged. Keep trying until you find the right formula to get you into yourwriting zone. If it's your passion, ifit's your dream, it will come together for you, even if it's not the same wayit came together for author X or writer B. If you feel like you stumbled, pick yourself back up and brush yourselfoff. Achieving dreams is hard work andsometimes found in paths less traveled.
I'd like to thank Bri for allowing me to ramble, I meanguest post, on her blog. And thank you to everyone who took the time to readit. I hope you liked the picture.
About the author:
Inspired by Walt Whitman and Carolyn Keefe, author D.G.Gass, from a young age, has always loved to write. It just took 40-years forher to believe in her work enough for it not to find the trash when shefinished. Originally from Jeannette, PA, the Yankee transplant, currentlyresides in Columbia, SC with her husband and daughter, not to mention, threecats that own her.
A veteran of the US Air Force, whose day job is in healthcare IT, the authorhas a passion for veterans issues, which is the driving force behind her firstbook, "Ghosts of Arlington". When she's not writing, she can be found curled upwith a good book, working on handcrafts, or staring blankly at walls in acatatonic state.
D.G. Gass released her first poetry compilation, "Twilight Ponderings, MidnightMusings" at the beginning of 2011. The compilation is a series of poetry andprose that was born out of loving someone with diagnosed chronic depression.
The author is currently working on several stories for submission to crime noiranthologies and is in the process of completing her second poetry compilation,"Dancing Along the Dreamscapes", to be released the summer of 2012.
Find me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DGGassAuthorWebsite: www.dggass.com
Books available on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble.com
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