I’ve listened to a lot of writing podcasts and read a lot writing advice. One topic that comes up a lot is finding writing time and writing space. For me, I use 2 computers for writing, my desktop and my laptop. My laptop has my drawing software, writing software, zoom for my writing group, and very little else to minimize distractions. I don’t use it often for writing unless I’m out of the house though. My desktop is set up very well to allow for distractions- I’ve got games, websites, and all sorts of things that let me just browse away pretty easily. Plus kids who don’t always respect the “I’m writing, please give me space for a little while” and know where they can find me. (They’re cute, I love them, they are also young though.) I sync writing across the two with file folders on the home network so I have about 3 copies of stuff I’m working on usually.
What helps me most is focusing on mental space for writing. And to accomplish that I need first off, self-discipline, something I’m still working on. Secondly and importantly, music. I like having sound on because it blocks out other sounds that distract or bother me, but I need relatively specific sounds to that music. Music with words, even words I know really well, engages the word part of my brain there instead of where I’m writing. Instrumental music, even of songs that I know the words to, fades into the distance pretty well. So I have a few standbys. First there’s this cd I found in the library used bookstore:
I also pull up “traditional Chinese” music on Pandora to get in the same headspace when I get tired of this cd. Then there’s the music on Youtube- I use the following styles often.
