5 Reasons to NOT Write from Home… (now 6!)

if you don’t have to…

1.

The TV

What more can I say. Right now I’m tuned into a rib and chicken cooking contest after only having a bowl of raisin bran. I sure would like to be one of those judges right now.  Precious writing minutes are dwindling away second by second.

2.

You’re able to look around the room and think of everything else you have to do today, like the laundry, the dusting, paper shredding, pay bills, etc… And still, there’s the TV. So on top of ALL the tasks I have to do today, the TV is still there calling my name, sucking me into whatever nonessential show that’s flashing before me.

By the way–A paid programming just came on–so now I have to take a few seconds, possibly minutes to change the channel… (Pause)

3.

Food is too accessible. When you’re writing and you finish one complete thought or scene, then that brief stint of anxiety hits you where you’re trying to craft the next movement. You look around the room and there are (for me) the flaxseed tortilla’s, every now and then–the half dozen of donuts I bought during a moment of weakness, red vine licorice, a cup of tea, and then another cup of tea. I mean, I like the cup of teas but it’s the snacking that I hate.  At least at the coffee shop, when I think about paying $4 for a snack, the yellow eyed monster of cheapness comes out in me, and I think, I can get 4 of those for $4 at the grocery store!

4.

Just the general environment of home over-relaxes you at a certain point. When I take a break and look around my eyelids get heavier and I just want to sleep. And here’s the math on that… add the TV plus the food to the this physical state and you can have a severe one pound weight gain–today and then tomorrow, and then the next day. Good thing for me that I drink more tea than donuts! And right now there’s no licorice in sight.

5.

With all the distractions going on around me, I feel sluggish. I feel like I haven’t made any real progress, although I have. But the need to leave is always nagging at me. Maybe I should go to mom’s house,  a place where I get ZERO writing done. Maybe I should go to Pasadena. Maybe I should do this or that. However, the entire time, knowing I’m just not going to do it. And then, I look over at my hula hoop and think, maybe I should do yoga at some point or walk on the treadmill, which I do neither. By the end of the day, I feel like my writing is going too slow, my arteries are clogged with cholesterol and because I’ve been sitting on my tush all day, not the HDL but the LDL, the lousy cholesterol.

So because of reasons 1-5, I am about to hop into an outfit for the day and drive out to the only Coffeebean outside of LA where I may be able to get some privacy, which is about 15-20 minutes going 210 east of Claremont. Of course afterwards it’s off to DSW shoe store–a $10 rewards gift certificate arrived yesterday and I don’t know, I may feel like driving down to mom’s house later because it sure will be nice to go to the Cabazon outlet to see if I can run into something to wear to the Prince concert tomorrow night–hmmm maybe.  Maybe the DSW and the mom’s house and the Cabazon outlet are all tugging at me because of number five on my list! Time will tell!

And now off to write!

+++++++++Added later…

HOW could I forget…

6.  THE INTERNET!

This is an addition as a gracious reader reminded me, I forgot the internet! Again, I say,  how could I forget the internet????  (Thank you, Natasha!)

And I would think this is the biggest distraction for 100% of writers.  Injections of the internet just sort sneaks up on us, don’t they? I write one paragraph, then the next, maybe a few more and when I should remain in the world, visualizing my characters moving forward,  instead I let those few seconds of anxiety lead me to–let’s see–Facebook or The Kindleboards or I allow my constantly thinking brain to tell my fingers to type in the Google search option–“Eating too much Sage” or “Book Cover Designer” or “Eating too much sugar.” Truly, I can go on and on with the searches… Then there’s checking sales on Amazon too… By the time I get back to the story, so many minutes have passed and now I have to work my way back into the story. Although–we writers have the gift of giving equal time to about 3 or 4 thoughts at time. So, in truth the story has always been there. The problem is, it should’ve never shared time with all the other thoughts. When I go write at the coffee shop, away from this thing called the internet (because I never choose to plug in there), my mind can flourish and story is truly so much stronger.

So now it’s six reasons but number six is number one probably for everyone else but for me it shares the top spot with TV!

And I indeed did buy the shoes from DSW but I instead of heading to the desert, I stopped at the salon to get my nails buffed (toes and hands) and brows waxed!

Now it’s time for more writing (at home this time)–part two!

But first I have to turn from High Stakes Poker on channel 184… sighhhhhh..