daredevilkink | Discussion/Off-Topic Post #1

my fellow prompt fillers: how do you keep your concentration while you're writing? concentrating in general is difficult for me but it's especially hard when i'm writing, as every time i get distracted it becomes harder and harder to go back and keep writing because i start worrying about whether or not i'm ever going to finish. what are your tips and tricks? educate me, help me!

I turn off my wifi, because apparently my writing style is to write one or two sentences and then "reward" myself by surfing Tumblr for an hour, lol. ^^;

Set tiny goals? Like, write non-stop for 15 minutes, or a half-hour. Or try to finish a scene before allowing yourself to do X.

If websites distract you there are browser add ons that let you block them for however long you want it. Chrome has StayFocussed and I guess there are others but that's the one I use.
I also find instrumental music helpful. Doesn't matter if something classical, a soundtrack or whatever as long as nobody is singing.

Otherwise: what anon above said. Perhaps slowly 'up' your goals? As in 'another paragraph' before I do X. 'Two more'...

I totally understand worrying about finishing - as a person who basically only had unfinished WIPs sitting on my ff.net account for almost a decade, it's a thing that can happen.

However, I've learned a few tips and tricks I can share:

1) Find a cheerleader - a good beta who will push you and be supportive with their feedback, encouraging you to keep going!

2) Find a writing software or app that minimizes distractions. I use Writer: The Internet Typewriter (https://writer.bighugelabs.com) and I absolutely adore it - the typewriter clicky noises entertain and focus me and I can fullscreen it to avoid distractions plus there's no ads and no real formatting options (which means I'm pretty much just pounding out text and worrying about the formatting later).

3) (And this one is going to be hugely controversial probably and I know doesn't work for everyone) If you've got writer's block or aren't feeling it, embrace the distraction impulse but write something else for a while. Just don't get bogged down in it. For example, if I'm writing something super-angsty and epic and it gets to me, I come here and pull up a short, fluffy prompt I know I can write a good one-off or short fic for and write that. It gives me a confidence boost, reminds me of other aspects of the show I love, and takes me out of my own head related to the story I'm writing long enough to clear what's blocking me. Then, I come back to the original story feeling better about it. Again, not for everyone, but it works for me and it's not advice you hear as often from people.

Take it with a grain of salt but I hope that advice helps!

I like written kitten. It shows you your word total if you need to keep track of that, and every 100 words you get a new photo of a kitten!
I would not have made it through finals without the morale boost from those kittens

I write on my phone so there's really not much else around to distract me. Kind of helps that I usually write while I'm at work when I should be working, lol.

Start small!

Do a mini fill. Do lots of mini fills. Try to write in such a way that each fic you write has a higher word count than the last. (But don't over stress that, I over stressed that.)

That's what really helped me write the 10k+ fics I got. I have a lot of fics that never reached the 1k mark but that I wanted to be epics. Until I started small and just focused on short things.

I co-sign this ^^

Discussion/Off-Topic Post #1

concentrating while writing?

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