Who Steals Your Minutes?
Having trouble getting focused? Do your ideas disappear when you finally get to the keyboard?
Some writers find they have obsessive compulsive disorder and need to make things “just right” before they can write. C.S. Forester (Hornblower series) wrote in pencil. He would not start until every pencil in the room was standing by, sharpened. Until then he couldn’t focus.
I have to complete something meaningful for house or family before my mind will release me to the joy of writing. (“Joy” is a funny word there. Writing is hard work.) Until then, all those chores, like a duty, call to me louder than my writing. (Maybe it’s my Army training: ”mission first, men second, self last.”
John Eldredge (Wild At Heart) talks about how when Satan can’t get a believer to stop working for God, he buries that believer in busy work. Eldridge calls it a “dog pile.” The dog pile distracts us from the gifts and bigger jobs God has given us. If you have the gift to write, but you can’t find time to write, look and see what is robbing your time.
Satan uses media as a big time thief.
Is the TV off? The radio? (I’ll talk about music and writing another time.) Do you have your computer set to tell you every time someone sends an e-mail or posts on Facebook? And games! Are you called to a quick round of Freecell while your mind settles or the computer warms up? I finally learned to put my phone two rooms away when I write. Where is yours? Get out from under the dog pile.
You can’t write if you can’t focus.
