5 Tips to Cut Distraction From Writing

When life gets overwhelming it can be hard to sit down and focus your attention on writing. Whether it’s too many tasks on your plate or you’re overloaded on social media brain rot, try these five simple tips to call in your attention and get the words flowing.

Tip #1: App Blocker

How often you use this tool is entirely up to you and what’s best will be different for everyone. Social media is created to be highly addictive. Not only can you accidentally spend a whole afternoon scrolling videos you’re not even interested in, but all of those audios, opinions, and visuals can stay swimming around in your head leaving you distracted. 

App blockers can be used in the moment when you’re writing and need to stop checking instagram or you can schedule blocks of time throughout the week that you don’t want to be using those apps. After a week or two you should start to feel calmer and more focused.

Tip #2: Brain Dump

Sometimes you sit down to write and there’s so many ideas all at once, or even a ton of unrelated thoughts about your day and things you need to get done. It’s enough to cause anyone to freeze up on the page. 

When you sit down to write next time, open your story where you last left off, change your font to another color, and start writing everything that comes to mind. It might all be about your story like different plot options or notes on where to go back and edit certain things. You might also end up writing down your to-do list or describing emotions you’re feeling at the moment. I’ve even written down song lyrics that were stuck in my head. Get everything out on the page until your thoughts start to slow down and there’s nothing left to write. Now hit enter a few times and start back where you left off in your story. Come back to your word jumble afterwards and save anything helpful or important. 

Tip #3: Voice to text

Using voice to text is also very helpful during your brain dump but it’s especially helpful when you see a scene clearly in your mind and want to get it onto the page faster than your hands are able to. By using voice to text and speaking your story out loud your brain may focus more intensely on the task. Don’t worry if it feels awkward at first or if your wording isn’t exactly right just focus on getting your concept and important details down on paper. 

Tip #4: Pick a special song that you play

Play this song when it’s time to focus on writing. It’s best that it’s a song without words so that it doesn’t pull your focus away instead. If you usually pair your music choices with the vibe of the scene you’re writing then you might want to pick a song for high conflict scenes and one for general use. When you sit down to write, pull up your song and put it on loop so it plays continuously until your writing session is over. Personally, chill house music is the best for keeping me energized and focused but you could also try a classical instrumental or jazz. 

Tip #5: Pomodoro

The Pomodoro method is a popular system for anyone that can’t concentrate for huge chunks of time. In a pomodoro session you will focus for 25 minutes and break for 5 minutes. Repeat this four times and if you want to continue then each 25 minute session then has a 15 minute break. If this sounds a little tricky or like too many timers for you to set then we suggest using our Pomodoro video on youtube! All of the work and break times are set with catchy music and an adorable cat to keep you company. Save the linked playlist for new pomodoro videos to fit every mood and season! 

During your breaks or at the end of your writing session stop by our Discord server to discuss your progress and chat with other StoryForge writers!