Elliot Kessler

I have a problem with attention. It’s not my ADD, not because I’m bored with what I’m doing. It’s because I lack discipline. I’m supposed to be writing a book right now, but I find myself playing games, watching YouTube, and pursuing other projects that are entirely unrelated.

There’s nothing wrong with taking a break from your projects every once in a while. Writing a novel is a big goal. But there is a point where that break becomes a distraction, and I have reached it.

Taking a Break

As I said, there is nothing wrong with taking a break. It’s very important in writing a novel or working on any other long-time projects. But taking breaks constantly is not a good idea. If you are always on break, you are never working, and if you are never working, nothing gets finished. Something I like to do to pace myself is to use what I call “work sprints.”

My mom taught me work sprints, but I decided to name them that for the sake of this post. You work for 30 minutes and then take a 15-minute break. Then work, then break. Work, break, on and on throughout the day. It’s simple but effective. It might not work for everyone, but it certainly works for me.

But that’s something to do for a day. What about taking a day off? Or a week?

You should do that for long-term projects, of course. That’s why weekends exist. However, I’m not the best at advising about that.

When writing “Liar’s Legacy,” my starting goal was to write an episode weekly. I didn’t realize how hard and unrealistic that goal was until I got into the project because, while I was still infatuated with the story, I wrote episodes two and three a week each. I thought I could do that for every episode, so that became my goal.

Unfortunately, we had some week-long trips planned, which completely threw my schedule. Then I began to lose interest in my own project, and I went weeks without writing. It was hard. The only reason I kept going was that I had already published the other chapters, and I didn’t want to have an incomplete story.

Finally, I pushed myself to finish the project. It took much longer than it should have, but it’s over now.

So, I have no idea how to plan or schedule. I’ve always gone with the flow and never thought about scheduling my projects. I work on them daily until they’re finished and take breaks when I feel like it. Not the best example to follow, but I think it works for me for the most part. But there are times when a break turns into a distraction.

Distractions

Not many of you know this, but I love making video games. It’s a fun hobby I have, and I only recently picked it back up. I think games are really fun and can be used as a unique and beautiful way to tell stories. Occasionally, I will go into a game-making obsession for no reason, which lasts about a week or so until it dies. I’m going through another one of those periods right now. I have no idea why, and it’s distracting me from my more important goal: writing a novel.

I’m trying to participate in NaNoWriMo, and making video games doesn’t help with that project. It’s no longer a break, and it has become a distraction. I need to refocus, but I don’t know how. The best way I can think of is to turn off my devices, pick up a book, and remember what I started and why. Maybe I can get so focused that I catch up on my word count. Who knows? Miracles happen.

The point is, don’t let your hobbies become a distraction from your main goal. Keep the end in sight and work towards it. If you start losing track of the big picture, take a moment to realign yourself and get back into your bigger, more important projects.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have hobbies. But don’t let them take away from your main goal.

Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.