Welcome to another Writers' Tuesday and our regular column by Emily Tootsweet about life on the hunt for publication. I do hope you enjoy, and if you have any questions or thoughts then please do leave a comment!
Confessions of a Wannabe Chick Lit Author by Emily Tootsweet
Distractions
This is my first real confession on this column. I’ve been distracted this week. I’ve been suffering a bad cold and therefore any writing or subbing that I’d wanted to do hasn’t happened. I just haven’t felt up to sitting at a computer for any length of time - all I’ve wanted to do is watch TV. But, on the bright side, it has inspired the subject of this column.
Distractions. All writers have them. They can vary from writer to writer but mostly they revolve around the same general things: family, the Internet, reading, shopping, television, health, love life… The list could go on and on. And when you think about it, it’s a miracle any books get written with the amount of distractions around.
When I get home from work, I switch on my laptop and head straight to Facebook. I go on to check what’s happening with my friends for only two minutes and four hours later I’ve played games, checked my farm on Farmville, commented on some photos, played Virtual bowling, poked a few people - that isn’t as rude as it sounds - and became a fan of weird and wonderful groups. I then check the time and suddenly all the free time I’ve had to write has been swallowed up. And I haven’t even checked my bebo, checked my emails, checked twitter, read the mountain of blogs I’ve subscribed to or written a blog entry for my own blog.
I confess the internet in general is my downfall.
I hear you all shout, ‘Disconnect the internet then!’ Yes, it would be easy to do that and yes, I’ve done it. But it’s just too tempting to press the connect button again. Just for two minutes… just to see what’s happening… just to see who’s around… just to see if there’s any other writers moaning about Facebook being too much of a distraction. Believe me there’s a lot of us out there distracted by Facebook.
Now don’t think I’m not dedicated to writing though. I am. My passion for writing it still there, burning away in the pit of stomach. I don’t let the distractions get to me all the time. I do manage to drag myself away from the internet from time to time… just not as often as I’d like.
You see, Facebook for me is fun but it’s also useful. Not only do I use Facebook to stay in touch with friends but I also use it for networking with other writers. I’m friends with a selection of authors (published; unpublished; chick lit and other genres) and I love it. I love reading their status updates and seeing how much they like being connected with their fans. I find out if they are doing any book signings in my area or workshops I could go to. It’s useful. Or at least that’s what I tell myself.
There must be a novel out there, written or being written, based around Facebook. There has to be. I would think there’s a lot of writers out there distracted by that site and it has to have inspired someone to write about it.
Anyway, I’m feeling much better than I did during last week. The cold that distracted me has gone, well mostly gone, so I have no reason not to go out, get those envelopes and start subbing as I’d planned to do last week. Or I could just nip on to Facebook…you know, just for a couple of minutes… ;o)
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