Yesterday I was getting ready to work on a short story I have to turn in to my fiction professor this week as part of my final portfolio. I was sitting on my couch watching TV and trying to psych myself up to get some writing done. But as I looked around my house, I noticed a hundred things that needed to be done–clean the bathrooms, mop the kitchen floor, vacuum–and that’s when I knew I would never be able to get any writing done at home. So I decided to change locales.
I went to my local Starbucks (cliche for a writer, I know!), got myself a Caffè Vanilla Frappuccino, a bottle of water and a chocolate croissant, and found a small table nestled in the corner of the room. I sat down, pulled out my laptop and an amazing thing happened.
I was able to just start writing. There was nothing to distract me from my task of writing (other than my delicious croissant, which I polished off quickly). There were no chores to do, no TV shows to watch, no people around to bother me. It was just me and my laptop.
I ended up deciding to turn the short story I’ve been working on into a novel, and I got the first chapter written yesterday at Starbucks.
Getting writing done isn’t all that difficult. It just takes some focus and dedication. I found it very useful to get out of the house for a bit. It really forced me to concentrate only on writing.
So this week, I suggest you try this method of sparking creativity out. Find your favorite place, or a place that you can go without being distracted, and go there to write. Then drop me a comment and let me know how it went. Where did you go? What, if any, distractions did you find there? How much writing did you get done? Do you think it helped you to change locales?
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