BIAW-WADD

Distractions. We've all got 'em. Unless we write in a vacuum, there's going to be something, someone, some idea that's going to distract us from our BIAW (or any writing) goal.

From something as simple as--for me right now the washer just quit so it's time to be distracted by laundry--to discovering you've wasted an hour on the internet when you went in to just check on this one little fact--or you need to read all the blogs/twitters/facebook wall/yada yada yada. (Why are you reading this blog now? Shouldn't you be writing? )

Distractions happen. It's how we deal with them that's important. Both now during a book in a week, and later when we step back into our 'normal' writing mode.

I will be the first to admit I'm fairly well addicted to email and the internet. Although I don't tweet often, I can get so caught up in reading others' posts--well, where does the time go. I have to make a conscious effort to stay away! I try to use checking email as a reward for a certain period of writing or some other task. When you can, group your distractions into a bunch and deal with them all at once rather than one at a time. Put a 'do not disturb' sign on your door--and a mental one on your writing mind.

Understand that distractions happen. And all do have some level of importance...although it's easy to assign a higher degree of importance to something when we want to be distracted. Such as looking at pictures of Indian motorcycles. Or... need I say more about him?

WADD? I know many of you share this condition with me. Writers' Attention Deficiency Dis--oooh, shiney!

Or, as Dug the dog (in Pixar's UP) puts it--Squirrel! (Did you know Dug has his own Facebook fan page? How's that for a distraction?)