Trying to Work Despite Distractions

I've heard a lot of writers, both published and un-, talk about all the ways they can become distracted from writing. Some distractions are unavoidable, such as children needing attention (if I was a kid who had a parent-writer at home, I'm sure I'd want attention, too, since the parent is right there), while others are sought out as a method of procrastination (reading blogs, perhaps?). I don't have children, but I have a husband who sometimes needs to know where something is (a fairly common occurance among husbands, I understand), and cats that waver between being completely independent (aloof? a cat??) and needing to be petted NOW, even if that means head-butting my hand while I'm trying to use the computer mouse or lying down on the desk between my hands and the keyboard. Shutting the office door doesn't do much, because then I get curious paws poking underneath (the cats', not the husband's), which serves as its own distraction. I read other writer's blogs, I check email, and now I have the greater distraction of Facebook (though I am trying to limit my daily dose of that).

Sometimes I have to look things up on the Internet for my story, but then I remember something else I want to look up, and the next thing I know I'm surfing way too much. However, I discovered something today: certain things can only distract you if you let them.

I was revising a chapter from the critique group comments I'd gotten, which was easier to deal with than I'd been afraid it would be (maybe the idea of revision in small pieces is generally better for me than being freaked out that I HAVE TO REVISE MY ENTIRE BOOK). While I was doing that, our 16-pound cat decided he needed some love, planting himself firmly on the desk and rolling a bit onto the keyboard (he can't help it--he's large). I swiftly transferred him to my lap, where he purred contentedly (and I ended up with a better-than-a-blanket lap warmer). I'd forgotten to close my email (I try not to keep it open while I'm working), so I heard the telltale "ding-dong" as I was typing, and somehow managed to resist the urge to click over and read it. I didn't feel like going on Facebook until I was done with the revision, because I didn't think that responding to a Mardi Gras "poke" would be as fulfilling as getting my chapter done. And I was right.

So, today's productivity--rounding out some things in my most recently-completed chapter that needed to be tweaked before I started the next chapter, for a total of one page. Extremely productive? No. But extremely unproductive? No. And that's the important thing. If I want to be working on my book, then I guess not much can distract me if I don't want it to, and I realized that I'd been pretty stuck lately, hence welcoming the distractions. I have a full day tomorrow with a tour at the Museum of Tolerance, but I'm already anxious to get back to my book as soon as I get home. Usually I'm too distracted after a tour (adrenaline after a good tour, frustration after a bad one) to even think about sitting down and writing, but I already want to tomorrow. And that's a nice change.