Writing Through Distractions; Pre-release Book Coming Soon

 

It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) blog hop! In an IWSG post, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to offer solutions. I’ve had some writing challenges these last few days, one of which actually goes back a little further and has, ironically, lead me to planning a new upcoming book release that will occur before my short story collection, “Bad Apps”, comes out. It's, what I call, a pre-release book. Also, in today’s post, I'm also answering the IWSG optional question of the month about writing distractions. 

IWSG Optional Question of the Month: Writing Distractions

The IWSG question for May is: How do you deal with distractions when you are writing? Do they derail you? Isaac Asimov once said that if you're going to be a writer then you should learn to work through distractions, particularly noise. I’m sure that doesn't work for all writers. But when I read this advice in one of his articles during my early twenties I've tried living by it since. I can actually work through certain distractions. Outside noise I can work through. For example, I can write through noise such as a neighbour’s stereo playing too loud (in some cases, even when it's playing a genre of music that I hate), or the yard maintenance people in my apartment complex blowing off the leaves or clippings with that loud, buzzing blower outside my window. 

What I can't write through is when other people, such as relatives from out of town, walk back and forth through my work area in my small apartment. I normally write between the table in my kitchen and the desktop computer in my living room which the two rooms open off to each other (and so there's no partition). So, when people walk by they’re easily right in back of me and, so, during those times I have to take my writing to my room and work on my laptop. 

Book to Release Before Short Story Collection

As I mentioned, I've been having some challenging moments with my writing these last few days. When I see how little work I've gotten done in a time frame of 20 to 30 minutes each weekday, I get that touch of writer's imposter syndrome and so wonder why I am "wasting" my time writing. I feel so much like just walking away from my writing for good, but, as I think I've mentioned in past IWSG posts, I live my writing. It's practically instinctive. I really feel like I was born and called to write. So, I almost couldn't walk away from it if I wanted to. 

I think what’s caused this case of writer’s imposter syndrome is that I feel like it has been a big mistake to plan a release of a bunch of short stories all in one book, “Bad Apps”, without having a specific release date in sight early on. I want something to give my readers during the long journey to my full short story collection and not just leave them wondering if I'm ever going to publish any fiction again. That’s why I’ve decided to release within the next two or three weeks a one-short story book while I continue to work on “Bad Apps”. It will be a science fiction horror story involving a space expedition on an alien planet. For more details, sign up for my free newsletter if you already haven't, in which the next edition will be coming out at the end of this week or early next. 

I normally take a break from posting the Monday after an IWSG post and so there won't be a post here next week. So, be here the following Monday for more science fiction, fantasy and writing updates and discussions! How do you write through distractions? Do you release smaller books or short works while you're working on a larger or major book? 

Today’s IWSG is brought to you by these super co-hosts:  Victoria Marie Lees, Kim Lajevardi, Nancy Gideon, and Cathrina Constantine! IWSG was founded by awesome author Alex Cavanaugh, writer of the Cassa Series of novels! 

Until next time . . .