6 Ways to Stay Focused on Your Story
There’s no doubt we’re living in the Age of Distraction.
Facebook. Netflix. Shelves full of books. Invitations for coffee. Wordle. The list goes on!
And this doesn’t even touch the bigger challenges — the very real difficulties affecting our lives on all sorts of levels. Work, household duties, navigating a global pandemic. So, when it comes to writing, it’s easy to lose your momentum.
Maybe you have a regular writing practice, but you keep losing focus. The book or story you’re writing keeps changing. You lose plot threads or the voice shifts. Or perhaps you’ve gotten three-quarters of the way through, and you just can’t bring it to a close. Or maybe you’ve finished the manuscript and now the revision stage is weighing you down.
When writing starts to feel like a chore, you might not even know what it is you need.
I get it.
There’s a lot to do in a day of one’s busy life. But here are a few ways you can stay focused so you can finally write and finish the book you really really want to write.
1. Follow the energy
Notice how you feel — in your body — when you can’t focus. Oftentimes we spiral around thinking, “What’s wrong with me? I can’t focus!” And, because we’re human, and we don’t like that feeling, we try and get away from it. Instead, be curious. Take a moment to notice what not feeling focused actually feels like. Is it scattered? Do you feel a thrill alongside a panic? A compulsion? A buzzy, fizzy feeling?
Really notice how it feels in your body. And where. Belly? Chest? Back of the throat?
The object here isn’t to judge the feeling. Or make yourself wrong for having it. It’s to really be curious and give yourself the opportunity to stop reacting to it. To simply notice. This allows you to de-personalize the experience, shift the energy, and allow you to redirect it back to your writing.
2. Get grounded
Lack of concentration typically stems from a headiness. Meaning, you’re spinning out in your head and have grown disconnected from your body. The solution is to get yourself grounded.
There are many grounding techniques out there, but I’m going to list a few simple ones that can help settle your mind and bring you into the writing zone.
Draw a spiral or other doodly lines. Drawing (without having to make something) tells your brain the stakes aren’t high, and it can relax. This relaxation acts like a bridge that leads you edaway from all the previous distractions and into the realm where you can create and focus on your story;
Pick a letter of the alphabet and write for 10 minutes listing words that begin with this letter (apple, anchovy, acronym, etc.). I love this exercise and do it often to warm up before I begin my work. Why? A word list is playful and there’s no story or awesome sentence to come up with — simply another word;
Focus on your breath and meditate. This isn’t about clearing your mind, but rather settling into your body. And if focusing on breath is difficult, focus instead on feeling your feet on the floor;
You may notice that a lack of focus feels busy. Almost frantic. I should do this! Or this! The antidote to unwieldy speed is to slooow it down. Take a simple physical activity — brushing your teeth, sipping tea, taking a shower — and slow it down so your attention is just on that action.
3. What I really want to write…
Before you dive into the day’s writing, spend five or ten minutes with this prompt:
“What I really want to write is…”
You may have a dozen different answers, but one or two will consistently rise to the top. It’s a daily reminder of why you’ve chosen to write this story, affirming its importance, and nudging you back to the work at hand. On slow writing days, you can always refer to these lists for some quick inspiration.
4. Keep a running list
If you’re a person with a zillion ideas, if they ping and pong around your brain, distracting you from the one central story you set out to write, then jot the shiny ideas down in another notebook or file for a rainy day.
And if the distraction is an endless list of possibilities for your current work, do the same thing. Don’t start writing another scene or plot line today — sketch it out and keep it in a notebook so you can return to it when you arrive at that place.
5. A little something on the side
This is not necessarily popular advice, but sometimes we need to remove ourselves from a bigger project to refresh our vision or recharge our creativity. Consider dabbling in flash fiction, poetry, short stories, or essays on the side. This creates a space for you to play and get fresh inspiration while still keeping you writing. Don’t overwhelm yourself with these side projects — keep them to one or two — and be diligent about returning to your main WIP.
6. Deadlines and accountability
Whether real or imposed, give yourself deadlines to share your work with a writing buddy, a coach, or even enter it into a contest. Or sign up for a course and commit to the work you really want to see finished. Writers who implement accountability measures into their lives fare much better than writers who don’t.
One final word: be gentle on yourself. The culture we live in praises productivity. Sometimes, though, we need to let go of productivity and actually rest.
If your inability to focus is connected to burnout or exhaustion, rest your body. The blank page will be waiting for you when you’re refreshed.
###
Traci Skuce is a devoted writer and story midwife. Her own short story collection, Hunger Moon (NeWest Press, 2020), was recently shortlisted for the Kobo Emerging Writers’ Prize. She helps fiction and memoir writers birth and finish their stories so they can get their manuscripts out into the world.
To learn more about Traci, visit her website and join her Facebook group.