Wagner Writer

I’ve found myself distracted from writing today. It happens occassionally, and I sometimes don’t even realize it. Two hours, ten mini Kit Kats, and twenty websites later, it finally sinks in that I was staring blankly at my screen, reading about celebritys’ hidden talents.

To combat that, I told myself to write a blog post.

Good thinking.

However, I’ve been staring at the screen for a bit, thinking, What the heck should I write about?

Well, they say to write about what you know, so I’d like to share the most common things I do when I should be writing.

Finding Distraction Memes

For example:

And my personal favorite:

Yahoo!
Yahooooooooooo (sung like their jingle). At least 5 times a day, I scroll through the Yahoo! homepage for weird/interesting articles. You’ll be proud to know I’m currently learning about:

1. The Futurama/Simpsons episode. YIPPEE!

2. The grossest things people do without realizing (“The Center for Disease Control has stated that every person who jumps in a swimming pool adds 0.14 grams of fecal matter into the water”…. OMG!!!!!)

3. Amanda Bynes blaming her parents for making her sleep in a shopping mall (they didn’t give her money for a hotel).

(NOTE: Notice how I said “learning” and not “wasting time”.)

Driving
This is more of a “clear my head” activity. Instead of eating lunch at my desk, I always drive around and park somewhere. I’ve found a few private little roads where I can stop and eat while looking out at alfalfa fields or a small farm. Getting out gives me the separation I need so I can go back home feeling more refreshed.

House Hunting
This one is temporary, but as Windy and Chris search for a home, I’m compelled to help them out.

Translation: house hunting is so much fun!

Seriously, it’s addictive. Have you ever gone to Zillow and started looking at houses in your area? It’s like Lay’s Potato Chips – once you click that first link, you’re sucked in for at least an hour. Maybe 10.

Last night I told myself, “I’m looking at no more than 4 pages of houses for 10 minutes”. An hour and 25 pages later, I had to drag myself away from the keyboard and put myself in timeout.

Why is it so fun? For me, it’s all about the guessing game. When you look at the outside of a house, you have NO idea what’s inside. And the price isn’t always a good indication. I’ve seen amazing houses listed 50-60K cheaper than dumps.

I like to say, “I bet myself a mini Heath bar this house will have ugly pink counter” and then see what happens.

Facebook
Oh Facebook, you wily minx. I think we all have those friends whose posts we look forward to. The second I see a few particular friends’ names at the top of a post, I already know I’m in for a treat.

Now, Facebook isn’t extremely productive, but I do have to give it some props. Why? Because it’s helping me become more of a morning person. Before Facebook, getting up was a chore. I just wanted to hit snooze 9 million times. Now I wake up and immediately grab my phone. After scrolling through my wall, I’m awake and ready to go. Thanks Facebook!

Amazon
This one is actually healthy. It’s soooo fun pulling up random books on Amazon and reading the first sample pages. You can learn a lot about someone’s writing from the beginning. I’ve been majorly impressed with some unassuming books and horribly disappointed by others. (One book sounded like it was written by a little kid: “And then I was super really scared and I wanted to run away and hide underground. But then I sat there for a little while and I wasn’t scared anymore.”) I think reading other’s beginnings is a really powerful thing to do as a writer. And it’s incredibly enjoyable.

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