We Interrupted This Blog for Snow, Gaming, and Anime

So, it's been a little bit longer than I anticipated between blog posts. I blame three things: snow (we're getting more today!?), gaming, and anime.

Yes, I'm playing the blame game, but hey, I needed to do something for a blog post and this was the first thing to pop into my head.

Distractions happen all the time in life. Some are out of our control, such as snow storms, sickness, etc. Others are caused by ourselves and our lack of discipline. We can't really do much in regards to the first category, but we can do a lot when it comes to our man-made distractions.

As I mentioned last week, not all distractions are bad. Sometimes our brains need them to recharge or give ourselves editorial distance. Gaming is great for this! Some distractions, like anime, can actually improve our writing by learning from what others do with their characters, plots, and dialogue. For example, yesterday I watched the second season of Noragami (Aragato). The script for this show elevated and deepened each character and was full of action and tension.

That being said, I didn't get any writing done yesterday because of how good the story was. I originally was going to watch an episode or two and then hop into my writing, but the story was so engrossing I couldn't stop binge-watching.

 

So, even good distractions can become bad for our writing. Hopefully, the next time I decide to watch "one episode" before writing... I'll think twice about what that might actually result in: a day of writing lost. 

Of course, there is a way to use distractions to help our writing. Use them as rewards! Make those temptations work for us! So next time I get the itch to watch anime or play games before I write, I'll make a point to tell myself, "Not until you finish this chapter or write for X hours." That way, I can use those potential distractions as carrots that lead me to more writing and not less.

 = more writing!

Anyway, here's hoping you have a productive day of writing yourself.