How’s the Water?

The heat in Florida is unrelenting at the this time of year, pressing down over everything like a steamy blanket and making the air so thick and humid that it feels like you’re trapped inside a never-ending steam bath.

It’s not only the air that warms up but the water, too. Instead of water temperatures in the 60's or 70's, like off the mid-Atlantic coast at this time of year, the temperature of the water in the Gulf rises into the 80's. Some folks might think that’s s little too warm, but it’s the temperature that I wait for every year. As soon as the temperature reaches 85, I dive in. It’s perfect.

But here’s the thing: what’s perfect for me is not perfect for you.

So, when you’re writing, it can be helpful to ask yourself: how’s the water?

Perhaps you’re swimming farther than you ever swam before, and the water is colder than you’ve ever felt, and you’re wondering if you should keep going or turn back and borrow a friend's wetsuit.

Or perhaps you’re swimming in circles, stuck in the same cove that you’ve stepped into each day for the past month, and you don’t feel you’re going anywhere. Should you keep swimming? Or should you get out of the cove and find another place to swim?

I know some writers who switch from one cove or pool to another each day to stay fresh—writing poems one day, short stories another, and then returning to a novel-in-progress when neither the poems nor short stories seem to flow.

And I know other writers who remain steadfast and keep swimming, no matter how cold or hot the water, no matter how far they’ve already swum, no matter if the shore looks unfamiliar or if they’ve passed that point on the beach a few times before. They keep swimming.

Some days it’s helpful to step out of the water and spend the day on shore, just watching the waves and listening to the surf pound the beach and enjoying the sight of other swimmers doing laps in the areas just beyond the buoy markers.

Other days it’s helpful to acknowledge the temperature of the water, to become aware of whether you want to stay in even though it’s a challenge to keep swimming or if you want nothing more than to step out of the water and catch your breath and let your muscles rest.

Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial end of summer and the beginning of a new stage of the year when you’ll need your strength and energy to dive into your stories or poems and swim for as long as it takes to finish your work.

How do you find that energy and strength? Where does it come from? How can you preserve it so you can draw on its resources when you need it?

These questions are as much a part of the writing process as asking yourself when to use a comma or insert a parenthesis or substitute a different verb.

Being aware of how you feel in the water is crucial to being able to stay in the water.

So, ask yourself: how’s the water?

Depending on your response, you can decide how you want to plan your writing life this weekend and into the future. 

Distracting Currents

It happened again this past week.

One morning after I finished breakfast, put up a pot of coffee, and set my manuscript on the kitchen table to start work, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to check my e-mail before sitting down to write.

And checking e-mail turned into a fifty minute distraction--messages from readers, friends, students, colleagues; updates on my Facebook account; new Tweets to follow.

And then, while sitting at my computer, the phone rang... and, of course, I had to answer it.

After hanging up I went back to the kitchen, not to start work on that manuscript but to get something to eat.

By the time I looked up at the clock, I realized that the morning was gone.

In that split-second decision when I turned away from the manuscript, I thought it would only take a moment to check my e-mail.

I hadn’t imagined responding to messages or checking Facebook or signing into Twitter, just checking in to see if anything urgent was waiting for me.

But the moment I sat down at my computer and signed in, I found my mind disengaging from the difficult work of diving into a manuscript and, instead, relaxing into the ease of responding to messages and the pleasure of reading the work of other writers.

And, looking back, I’m sure that part of what pulled me away from the manuscript was precisely this desire for pleasure as much as the desire to avoid the challenging (and sometimes uncomfortable) work of revisions.

Instead of diving deeply into a manuscript and searching for emotional truths still hidden on the page, I made the decision to step off the diving board and let myself be distracted by a different current.

Admittedly, there are days when I have only enough emotional strength to step into a shallow current, to explore links and answer e-mail messages and check Facebook postings and talk on the phone.

But there are other days when I can delude myself into thinking that checking e-mail will only take a moment, when, instead of sticking to my plan, I veer off course purely on a whim or because of a hidden fear that I may not have what it takes to dive today.

That’s how I can end up in a current of distractions.

Some days I find myself in a sink hole, unable to get out. Other days I can manage to step out of the current and return to my original plan, just a bit later than I'd intended to start.

The key to sticking to my plan is to remind myself what’s most important.

Is it checking e-mail, hanging out with friends on Facebook, sending another Tweet?

Or is it getting the words on paper?

What about you?

How do you manage to stick to your plan to write rather than letting yourself be swept away by a distracting current?

How do you overcome your urge to step into that current and, instead, stay on the diving board and jump back into your work?

Write and let us know when you get a chance.

For more on avoiding distractions, visit:
http://www.ehow.com/how_8746343_avoid-distractions-writing.html
http://mywritingtips.com/tag/prevent-distractions/
http://www.helium.com/items/2102522-distractions-to-avoid-while-writing-writing-distractions-emails-friends-competition
http://betterwritinghabits.com/5-strategies-to-banish-writing-distractions-for-good/
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/164729/how_to_avoid_distractions_while_writing.html?cat=15
http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/19/ways-to-avoid-distraction-while-on-deadline/