More Writer Traps

As anyone knows who has been writing for any length of time, it is easy for someone to waste time on other activities that should or could be spent on writing. This is the writer trap.

They come is all shapes and sizes and I've written about a few. Generally, they come in the form of distractions such as surfacing the Internet, playing computer games, keeping up on social media, and so on. But anything can be a writer trap of this type such as a movie on TV that you don't plan to watch but get sucked into.

But this past week I found another kind: one that involves having too many projects to work on. At the moment I've got lots of projects:

• revising Book 2
• working on several short stories
• reviewing poems for my poetry collection
• promoting Book 1
• web site revisions
• finding writers for the author event I'm organizing in the spring
• keeping up on local author events in my area

All of these need my attention and are important things to do but the main focus of this week was revising Book 2 since I've neglected it for so long. But I found having these other projects a distraction too and so one day I focused on my poetry and not my novel. Another day I took for my web site.

This surprised me because I was not expecting it. But when I looked back on how far I had gotten in revising Book 2 the trap was obvious. I'll have to watch that for the future. Although it will be hard because distraction of this type are likely to increase as more books are completed.

Keep writing everyone.