You're probably looking at the title of this post and going "really Liz?". I know, I get it, you're supposed to write in a place where there are no distractions but for light jazz or classical music. If you can do that, then I really need you to teach me your ways. My mind wanders too much while classical or jazz is on. I need some rock and lyrics but this isn't what music to listen to.
What I'm talking about is something that won't take away your attention too much. It can be your favorite movie that you've seen a million times and can multitask during it. For me, that would be any Disney movie or Devil Wears Prada. Sex in the City (the first movie, mind you) works for me as well. So does any Law and Order episode. It's background noise that'll keep my mind focused on the task at hand. What you need to be careful of is when you start watching too much and writing too little.
Some of the warning signs is that you get to the end of an episode and realize you've only written a few words instead of what your target was going to be. When that happens, you do need to turn off the television and get to writing. Or turn on something else. Or go back to your favorite music to focus on the task of writing. I know that I'm guilty of this. I'll turn on House or Law and Order and end up watching the entire episode even if I've seen it a million times. Or, in the case of House, it'll just be my luck that it'll be one of my favorite episodes (Three Stories is one of the best ever House episodes by the way) and I'll waste an hour watching it. It's not a bad waste of a hour but I could have been writing.
Now, going back to what I talked about on Monday, life doesn't stop during NaNo. Neither does television. So, a coping way of getting around having your DVR fill up with your favorite episodes, is to write during the commercials. Don't try to make your goal too high - I recommend about 100 words during each commercial break - and see if you can break it. So, over the course of a hour of a TV drama, you'll have around 400 words if you keep to the 100 words target. Say you watch two hours of television - that's 800 words on just commercials alone. That's really not bad, especially if you wrote half of your words before sitting down for television at night.
So, it's not the fact that you have to stop watching television in order to write. You can do both. You just need to figure out how to make it work for you. I really think that writing on the commercials will work for most people. If you're someone who watches via Netflix or Hulu, then try to write for 15-20 minutes before going onto the next episode.
Until next time, keep on writing and planning! It's T-minus 5 days until NaNoWriMo.
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