The best writing sessions are when you’re deeply focused on your story.

You’re so mentally present that your brain is immersed in your writing. This type of presence is your flow state.

When you’re in a flow state, part of your brain isn’t distracting you with other to-dos, the wish to stop and check your phone or even just staring, uninspired at the blank page.

You can write when not in a flow state, but the experience is different.

You’re not as settled into your writing, and your mind is focused on more than the task at hand.

Great writing isn’t just about getting your story onto the page. It’s influenced by your mental presence while you write. 

You can nurture your writing presence so that you’re solely focused on your story more often.

Distractions can hurt your writing flow as they disrupt deep writing focus.

Here are 4 common habits to avoid so you can do your best writing.

On average, it takes 23 minutes to regain focus after a distraction. 

Having your phone beside you while you write is a massive distraction.

Notifications pop up in your line of sight, you hear it go off, or the fact that it’s within arm’s reach means that you can do a quick social media scroll at any time.

Switching between tasks for even just 5 minutes significantly depletes your mental capacity to focus on your story.

Part of your brain is still focused on the previous task.

With this fractured attention, you’ve lost the ability to immerse yourself in your writing.

Let’s bust the myth that we get more done by multitasking.

We don’t. 

It takes longer to refocus on a single task and complete it to the best of our ability as quickly as it would have if we’d just dedicated ourselves to it in the first place.

Imagine pausing a movie every 5 minutes. This start, stop motion pulls you out of the experience. You can’t settle in.

So what can you do about it? 

App blockers are one tool you could use.

Putting your phone in another room and making sure notifications don’t pop up on your laptop is important.

Commit to not checking social media until your writing session is over.

Many writers share their word counts as a daily goal.

It might be a commitment that keeps you consistently productive.

But for others, including myself, word counts can create unnecessary pressure.

We can become so worried about hitting our word count each day that we unintentionally stifle our inspiration.

And, when we don’t hit that word count? 

We feel like a failure.

We disregard all the writing we completed that day or that week as a win because we didn’t write an arbitrary number of words that we’d set as our goal.

Instead, set goals that focus on progress with some flexibility. 

• Writing a scene
• Writing 3 times a week
• Completing a 25-minute writing session

If your goals have a set day or time, ensure that you’re accepting of days when it doesn’t work out. 

Know that you can “try again next time” or push that task to later in the week without feeling discouraged.

I get it. We’re not all-knowing, and when worldbuilding, historical elements or specific info come up, we want to make sure we get our facts right.

Yet, researching while writing is another form of task switching, just like checking social media.

Your creative brain hits pause every time you need to check a fact, and we all know how long it takes to focus on your story yet again.

So, how can we avoid this?

Before writing your story, make a list of the need-to-know information.

Focus on information that has a huge impact on the plot, character arcs and world-building process. 

Research it in advance. Gather your notes in one easily accessible place.

As you’re writing, if something crops up that you hadn’t thought of, use a placeholder.

Lisa Cron suggests this format in her book Story Genius: (TK: climate in Turkey during November).

TK stands for “to come.”

You’ll remember what needs to be researched and can locate where in your story it applies at a later date.

Make a note and keep on writing.

Keep those extra browsers closed.

Do your research during the outlining and revising process.

Rewriting mid-draft saps your momentum and influences self-doubt.

Connected to rewriting is the urge to reread what you’ve just written.

DON’T DO IT!

First drafts are for getting your story onto the page. They’re supposed to be messy.

Save your editing for later when you have the full plot envisioned.

Trying to rewrite while writing the first draft will leave you in a tangled, confused mess.

Changing one detail can spark a butterfly effect of changes you’re not yet equipped to deal with. Your story hasn’t fully manifested yet for you to understand all fault lines.

So, write forward without worrying about what isn’t perfect.

You’ll revise it later.

Focusing on your story requires 100% of your brain power.

It leads to better writing, better storytelling.

Social media breaks, rigid word counts, researching and editing harm your flow.

Creating a writing routine that eliminates distractions immerses you into your story and allows for your best writing to unfold.

What distractions pull you out of your writing flow?

How have you combated them?

Share in the comments.

Talk soon!

Julia