The distraction is different every time. Often, it's a novel or series of novels I get hooked into. Sometimes it's a non-writing project like the dress I sewed this summer. Right now it's obsessing over political news and chatting in political forums. (I don't recommend doing this, BTW, it's a really Bad idea.)
Any suggestions for getting back on track?
So far my biggest distraction is my pregnancy, and its my first, so it's become a virtual obsession. The only idea I've come up with is take my laptop out of my bedroom/computer room and set it up somewhere where I can't be distracted by pregger forums, baby clothes and nursery items on ebay, and half-finished cross-stitch projects with bears and Santa Claus.
Babies, babies everywhere...I just became an aunt for the second time this morning.
[This message has been edited by Christine (edited October 13, 2004).]
quote:
Any suggestions for getting back on track?
No. I wish. I'm all ears for everybody else's solutions though. 
[This message has been edited by GZ (edited October 13, 2004).]
If only I could find the motivation.
That'll start all kinds of discussion, then maybe you'll be motivated to more fully live up to your responses to the inevitable questions.
Who knows. Haven't tried it myself---yet. Worth a try.
Second, there are plenty of things you could do to feel guilty about. Not wanting to do something that you don't HAVE to do because you find it momentarily tedious shouldn't, IMO, be one of them. Life hands us enough pressure. Give yourself a break once in a while if you need it and don't feel guilty about it.
[This message has been edited by djvdakota (edited October 13, 2004).]
On distrations:
First, you must come to Hatrack often, read all the posts and respond to as many as you can. Keep doing this until you begin to get paranoid that someone is going to start wondering why you aren't working on a story. Begin to wonder that yourself. Then write.
Problem solved. 
Seriously, I have no idea. My life is one of constant distraction and I'm still trying to figure it out.
And then after a while, I'd just leave it. I just wasn't interested in it any more.
Then I read an article by Lawrence Block, who used to write the fiction column for WRITER'S DIGEST. He said that writers have only one basic reservoir to draw on when they write, and that's themselves and their lives.
He pointed out that if writers don't stop every so often and do something to fill up that reservoir, they will drain it dry and either not have anything to write or just keep writing the same old thing over and over and over again.
He encouraged writers to be fickle about their interests, to immerse themselves in something new every so often in order to have new and interesting stuff to fill up their reservoirs with.
It made me feel so much better.
And I think it applies here, as well.
A distraction wouldn't distract you if you really needed to write and nothing else mattered. I submit that you may be finding yourself distractable because your reservoir is running a little low and needs refilling, and the distractions can help you fill it--if you take advantage of them and use them with getting back to your writing in mind.
If you don't, they can just become excuses to not write. And maybe that's not bad, either, if you really don't want to write.
Just a thought or two, anyway.
I've always been a procrastinator and been able to find excuses not to write, but generally, I could keep progressing steadily on projects. But then I noticed the excuses were getting the better of me (Oooh! Law and Order rerun! Must watch!) and I felt guilty.
But after a while I got tired of feeling guilty and figured that if I really wanted to write, then someday I'd actively want to write again, and it was just a matter of being patient until things cycled around again.
I think the real trick is to tell the difference between just being lazy and genuinely needing some time off.
I've been thinking recently of finding something nice to do with some of my time...some volunteerish sort of thing to get me out of the apartment, interacting with people, and out in the "real world" for some part of the week. I think you're absolutely right. I do have a novel in mind but I'm not ready to write it. I finished one but I'm not ready to go back to it. And the short story ideas I've churned out over the past couple of weeks are either flat, predictable, or similiar to something else I'VE done. (I have hard enough trouble keeping from doing something someone else does...actually, it's impossible. Even if I think I'm doing something unique someone soon tell me that my story is just like so-an-so's or was done in such and such.)
Take your laptop or notebook/pen and leave home. Go to a Starbucks or Borders cafe or something of the sort, buy your favorite latte, and sit your butt down in a comfy chair. There's something about the random conversation in the background and inability to get up and do laundry or flip on the t.v. that makes me uber-productive. Bookstores with cafes are especially good for an air of inspiration.
Write toward a specific goal. Pick a short story contest (there are many of them) and write for that deadline. The Phobos challenge, for example. There is something about hard-n-fast deadlines that focus the mind.
I hope those help, but above all, don't beat yourself up. Everyone needs a break now and then and you deserve one that is guilt-free.
What I've found is that the first step is to stop the guilt feeling.
Julia Cameron says a very similar thing to L.Block in The Artist's Way about essentially making it a requirement in your life to go find ways to fill up your reservior with new experiences. Even if it's just people watching.
She also suggests just sitting down and writing. Not what you are working on, but stream of conciousness babble direct from your head to the paper for at least 3 pages. This has produced some interesting results for me, and it especially gets out all my anger over those political discussions you allude to. It definitly clears my head to get all of those things out. And maybe, you won't feel the need to go back to the forums either.
Good luck!
I've talked a lot to him about this very subject and I think the solution we've come up with kinda goes along with what Kathleen said, only slightly different. Instead of concentrating on my fiction and making myself guilty, I'll be journaling a lot more than I have been. There's only one time to do something for the first time, and I think it would be neat for my kids to hear about mom when she was pregnant, complaints and all.
In it, she talked about a cause she was passionate about, which was interesting to read...and about talking to her husband about starting a family.
::shiver::
2. My own recommendation is this: WORK ON ONE PROJECT AT A TIME! Very few writers are able to work on several projects at once (and when they can, the projects seem to be very different). If I had the luxury of writing full-time without any kids and my wife supporting me, this would be the schedule I'd keep. I'd go for a walk first thing in the morning (or, if the weather wasn't conducives, I'd ride my stationary bike). Then I'd write between 9 and 12, working ONLY on new material, writing however many pages as my muse could muster that day (but I'd shoot for 10 pages, about 2500 words). Lunch and reading. Then I'd work on revisions in the afternoon, say, from 2 to 5 (if you can keep the new material going, you'll always have some revisions to work on). Then I'd get dinner ready for my wife, and read in the evenings. But that's me.
3. Joyce Carol Oates, a very prolific writer, tells all of her writing students to read whatever they want whenever they want, and not to follow any kind of plan. This fits in with what Kathleen was saying. But I'd like to add this. You should also write whatever you want whenever you want. A problem I'm guessing you have is this: Since you've been given the freedom by your husband to try to become a writer, you might be writing for the markets, bending your creative impulse to fit into certain molds. I dunno. But maybe--again, I dunno--you're trying too hard to be a certain kind of writing, instead of just being a writer. Once I threw off the shackles of being a "genre" writer or a "literay" writer (both labels I've worn), the dam broke and I just write what the story that interests me the most.
4. Finally, you have to have some motivation to keep you going. I won't go into the details of my own personal life, but what makes me sit down every day and write--what has made me work through all the feelings depression and frustration--is a deep feeling of the fear of failure. On the superficial level, this simply means that since one is afraid to fail one doesn't write at all. That's not it. Becasue I'm afraid to fail, I MUST WRITE. (I won't tell you want I'm afraid to fail at, either.) But everytime I don't want to write or I think about giving up, I conjure up what it would be like to fail in this deep way, and suddenly my butt is in the chair and I'm working. The pain of this kind of failure immediately overrides the pain and frustration of writing. I certainly wouldn't recommend this kind of motivation to anyone (it makes one a bit crazy at times), but you might want to spend some time really thinking about why you want to write. And in my opinion, it has to be something more than, "Becasue I like it," if you want it to carry you through the dark times.
Sorry for the wind.
<A hush falls over the crowd. What did he just say?>
Writing is not the most important thing in the world. Whitney, you're distracted from writing by the fact that you're carrying your first child? That's fine. If you were distracted from the child because of writing, that would be a problem. (I realize there's only so much attention you can pay a child before it's born. I'm just twisting the facts of the situation to make my point.
Getting distracted from writing by reading? You've got to fill the canteen somehow, Christine.
I'm going to school full-time and then some, plus working third shift to pay for it. I don't have as much time as I would like to have for writing (as in next to none). Whatever, I'm certainly focused on being a successful writer, but sometimes stuff comes up that you have to pay attention to, like it or not.
Write as much as you can, but don't beat yourself up when you can't.