Distraction Demolition:
Conquering NaNoWriMo
To succeed in NaNoWriMo, it’s crucial to recognize distractions and take proactive steps to minimize them. In this blog, we discuss the top contenders for distractions: social media, procrastination, multitasking, perfectionism, and lack of planning. If any of these sound like you…read on my NaNo writing friend. I found solutions that worked for me, and I wanted to share them.
Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok. Mad scrolling. Midnight zoning. Solutions: Announce your social media detox to your friends and followers, inviting them to join you for a day or week of reduced online interaction as a playful challenge. Enable “Do Not Disturb” mode on your device during focused work hours to silence social media notifications. Set specific time blocks for checking social media, like during designated breaks, to avoid constant distractions. Use website blockers or apps that limit your access to social media sites during work or study sessions. Unfollow or mute accounts that consistently post distracting content to declutter your social media feeds. My favorite – leave your phone in another room.
Procrastination: Cleaning house, organizing desk, running errands, seeing distractions social media, TV, and anything but writing. Solutions: Identify your procrastination triggers by self-reflecting or journaling. I use a tracker for tasks and when I find I’m procrastinating, I stop and write down:
- The task you were supposed to be working on.
- The time and date.
- My emotional state at the moment (e.g., bored, anxious, overwhelmed).
- My physical environment (e.g., at home, at work, in a coffee shop).
- Any specific thoughts or excuses that came to mind when I started procrastinating.
Some triggers for me are Lack of Interest, Lack of Clarity, Task Difficulty, Lack of Motivation, Decision Fatigue, and Task Switching. If a character does something for a living that I’m not interested in (e.g., Accounting, Administrative Work, Telemarketer, etc.), most of the time, I find myself dragging my butt to a chair to write about it. If I know the next chapter involves many boring detailed works, I’ll find anything to avoid doing it. If I’m writing a battle scene and there are tons of ships and strategic formations to the space battle, I get exhausted before I even write it. Sometimes I’m not motivated to write because of a lack of inspiration or overthinking. I find myself tired after a day of working at a job to come home and write for two more hours. My brain can be fried from all the decisions I make at work, sapping my energy. Sometimes I find I’ve switched from task to task and I’ve lost which tasks I need to finish.
Multitasking
Multitasking: Trying to do multiple things at once, like checking emails or watching TV while writing, can divide your attention and slow down your progress. A great analogy is if you are juggling, and decide to take on more balls than you can comfortably handle. You start throwing them up in the air, but as more balls are added, it becomes increasingly challenging to keep them all aloft. You’re so focused on not dropping any balls that you forget to pay attention to the quality of your juggling. Eventually, the balls start dropping one by one, and you end up with a chaotic mess. Similarly, when you try to tackle too many tasks at once, you may lose sight of their quality and effectiveness, and important things can start to “drop” or get neglected, leading to procrastination and a lack of meaningful progress. Solutions: Set a timer and do sprints. Google the Pomodoro Technique for a good timing schedule. Make sure to take a 5–10-minute break after each sprint to reduce stress and mentally set up your next sprint, just like running. Walk it out people, walk it out. Sometimes stopping the sprint doesn’t work for me and I just keep writing because I get into a flow state. This is OK too but remember to break every 40 minutes to stretch the body and stand up. Stay organized so you reduce the need to switch tasks or look for information during your writing time. Focus on progress. Have a specific word count to achieve and track wc as you write. Sometimes the epic writing sessions are because I really got into the scene, and I was living in it as I wrote it. You know what I mean.
Perfectionism: The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write the first draft quickly. Perfectionism is the act of wanting what you write to be perfect. It’s an epic time suck. A want, not a need. Solutions: Recognize that perfection is an unrealistic goal and that imperfections are part of what makes things unique and interesting. When you recognize you are becoming a perfectionist by editing or revisions, engage in activities that make you laugh, such as watching stand-up comedy, sitcoms, or funny videos. In fact, set up a lineup of videos that you find so funny, bookmark them, and watch them for 10 minutes when you find yourself “fixing” a sentence. I love Jimmy Kimmel’s lip sync battle with Emma Stone (8 minutes). OMG, hilarious. I also find watching reruns of MASH is the perfect remedy as it makes me laugh at a serious thing and can get me out of the somber perfectionist mood. An alternate method is to keep a journal where you document your blunders, funny moments, and imperfect experiences. Write them down with a humorous twist to remind yourself that it’s okay to make mistakes.
Sneak Peak PLOTTR
Lack of Planning: Let’s say you missed PrepTober and it’s week one of NaNo. Gosh, where did the time go? You weren’t really worried because a) you’ve done the NaNoWriMo challenge three times before and b) you’ve got an outline idea to follow. But you’ve started writing your book and it’s not really clear how you will get from Act 1 to Act 2. What is the inciting incident? How will you provide the rising action? Not having a clear outline or plot can lead to writer’s block and procrastination. Solutions: My first and easiest solution is to get the 30-day trial of PLOTTR. It’s very intuitive and you can immediately see what you need to do once you plot out your outline. Certainly, you can embrace “pantsing” (writing by the seat of your pants) to get some of the work onto the page. Start writing with a basic idea or concept and allow the story to unfold naturally as you go. But when you get stuck…use PLOTTR to better develop your characters, or track locations you are using in your novel. And by gosh use the visual timeline PLOTTR provides. Here is a reverse-engineered Act 1 visual of the novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I have an e-course to expand on how this is applied to learn Plottr fast, but I can share this sneak peek.
You can also write “What If” scenarios to imagine scenes related to your story’s central idea or character. Explore these scenarios through writing, even if they don’t become part of your final novel. This exploration can help you uncover plot points and character insights.
In the whirlwind of NaNoWriMo, where words flow and worlds take shape, minimizing distractions becomes the writer’s secret weapon. As we navigate the labyrinth of creativity, may we find solace in the silence of focused hours, the detox from social media, the bug-off spray of the inner critic, and the strength of finding new territories of undistracted minds. With each keystroke, we draw closer to the story’s end, a testament to our dedication and the power of our words. So, let distractions dissipate like morning mist, and let our pens, our keyboards, and our imaginations propel us toward the finish line of this thrilling literary journey.
I also want to give a quick shout-out to PLOTTR software which is very intuitive. My new favorite writing aid. This plotting software is da bomb. Use any of my affiliate links below and I might get a small commission. Thanks.
Check out my Youtube channel for PLOTTR videos @jlnichauthorsff
Joseph Michael’s Learn Scrivener Fast e-course
Please read and review my serial publishing novel, Sparrow’s Legacy, on Kindle Vella. You can read the first three chapters free on Amazon by searching for “Sparrows Legacy Kindle Vella” or clicking here. I. Please subscribe to my website if you want to be notified when I’ll be publishing or to get free samples of my work.
JLNich, Science Fiction Fantasy Author
