Trouble concentrating

[Incanus]

Spent about 3 hours last night generating about 250 words. Pretty sad. I can't focus. I can't concentrate. My mind just goes where it goes. I'm not very young, and I don't know if I can improve much. Mostly, I think I just have to live with it.

Anyone else have a problem like this?

 

[pmmg]

I think this is where routine becomes you friend.

For myself, I have a lot of routines I go through to get into the right writing place, and when I am there, I do not want to be interrupted. If I get interrupted, its usually 30 mins or so before I can get back.

Having routines that you know result in you having 'time' and 'place' to do it makes a lot of it easier. Also means I don't fret when I am not in that place.


If you are easily distractable (and who isn't), I try to cut out all distraction (specially the internet). For me, I like being in the dark and like to have something playing to keep unwanted sounds from breaking in. For me, this usually means late at night when everyone has gone to bed.


The down side it, if you don't get to go through the routine, its hard to get in the right space. Sometimes, I have back up and go through them to make it happen.


Also 250 is better than 0. Rather than saying, I got 250, whats wrong with me, say instead, I got 250, and tomorrow I will do it again

 

[skip.knox]

Well, the first step is admitting you don't have a problem.

Or rather, let's rephrase it and see what we have. Here: "I can't concentrate as much as I wish I could."

Or, perhaps even better, "I can't concentrate as much as I think I'm supposed to."

IOW, maybe your concentration isn't the problem, maybe it's your expectations. I can't run as fast or as far as I used to. That's not ideal, but I'm an old man and it's to be expected. Once I get rid of the burden of memory, I can take stock and ask, well can I run at all? OK, how far? Turns out, I can run enough to let my little King Charles spaniel stretch her legs for all of about ten seconds. That's a good thing. There will come a time when I cannot do that, so I'm going to make the most of those ten seconds and her obvious joy in the moment.

This is verging dangerously close to sap, so I'll switch gears here.

I'm not entirely sure what "concentrate" means or how I would define it. As a writer, I'd like to be able to write more or less without a break for hours on end. I'm pretty sure I was never able to do that. [aside: what I do miss is being able to *read* for hours on end; I really do miss that, but the body says no]

A bit of self-examination reveals several kinds of concentration in line with different stages of writing. There's the Thinking Stuff Up stage, sometimes called by the vulgus as daydreaming. Harrumph. It's brainstorming, even if the storms are sometimes little more than a breeze and clouds on the horizon. But not actual putting words on paper. Or wherever it is they get put.

There's the wide variety of preparatory writing: outlining, notes, research, worldbuilding, sketches, ... <your pet term here>. Words on paper, sure, but not anything meant for external consumption.

Aw, you can see where this goes. All the way through to proofreading and, for us self-pubbed, through formatting and publishing and marketing (writing ad copy).

So, do I have trouble concentrating in all these activities?

Now let's define "concentration" as working without being distracted for fifteen minutes. If the answer is no to any one of these, we can start to examine why. Maybe I can do fifteen minutes of research and fifteen minutes of notes, but not fifteen minutes of "actual" writing--by which I mean writing that is at least a candidate for First Draft. Or maybe I can write early drafts but I can't concentrate during editing. I'm guessing there are different forces at work in different areas. Also, if I *can* manage fifteen minutes, maybe I can start experimenting with longer stretches. I would also start looking at external as well as internal factors. Example, I'm finding that reading over notes, something I'm currently working on, and then going for a walk, is helpful. Or at least is motivating. I think it's because I've sort of primed my brain to think about something in particular, like a scene that's still to be worked through, but with no computer and no notebook, I have to arrange it mentally, so when I return, my brain is more ready to tackle writing.

Ah well. Some thoughts, anyway. Also, if you've managed to read all the way through to this point, congratulations. You've concentrated!

 

[Incanus]

Some great observations there--thanks pmmg.

Even among us oddball writers, I may be a bit unusual. So I don't really have any external distractions. My routine sounds close to yours. I live by myself. Room is darkened. I use white noise for consistent background. No problem there.

It is the fact that I am the highest-ranking Grade A Space Cadet who ever lived. My mind wanders, in a big way. Some thought enters my head, which prompts an association, or several, thoughts start circling and next thing you know, minutes have slipped by. A couple times last night I looked down at my notebook to see a half-written sentence. Why that happens, I have no idea. I've been this way my whole life.

But you're right--there are 250 less words I have to put down for the project. I do have better sessions some of the time, where I may get 500-800 or so.

And I'm mostly pretty happy that I am working on my dream project at this point.

I suppose I should try to appreciate that I'm a tortoise, but I can't help having a little envy of the hare.

 

[pmmg]

Another thing I do, that I would recommend, is go for long drives. I used to do a lot more of this before my job changed, but....

Driving is a great place to think on the story. Playing an instrument is as well. Anything that lets your body go into autopilot and leaves your mind free, helps get those focused thoughts going, while keeping the more distracting thoughts of the active brain occupied. Wont help you with typing, but it will help with knowing what you want to type in the next scene.

Not that I want anyone to live alone, but just gonna say I envy that a little My son is home this week, and I am waiting for him to go back to college.... Kind of get my uninterrupted free time back... Not that I want him out of the house, but.... Well... there good and bad in everything.

 

[Incanus]

If I've not said it before--Skip, you are a real gem.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It helps.

OK, now I'm the sappy one.

In a lot of ways, I manage my expectations pretty well. I think I have a pretty good reason to be a bit frustrated. 3 hours, 250 words (it might have been less actually). Seems like I could have gotten 250 in an hour, and then watched a movie. It's the same 3-hour span, but more got done in one than in the other. The weird thoughts running around in my head are not nearly as entertaining as a movie----

I think I might try techniques where I just try to concentrate for very short amounts, and then try to expand upon that. I'll start tonight...

 

[pmmg]

Skip is one of the great sages of the site. We are lucky to have him

 

[Incanus]

pmmg--many of the things you mention are uncanny.

I really enjoy long drives, and I absolutely daydream and/or think on story ideas as I do. I had a good friend who lived nearly 6 hours away that I would visit a few times a year. He moved to Hawaii not long ago, so that isn't an option anymore.

Also, I am a musician as well, though not very active at present. I wrote a smallish batch of songs about a year or two ago, but I'm not sure what to do with them at this point. I've played a few hundred gigs over the years, and recorded records in both pro studios and at an elaborate home studio.

These are all fine ways to relax. My main concentration problem occurs when I'm sitting in front of my WIP though. That's the moment when my concentration fails pretty badly.

 

[Super Fantasy]

There are a few ways you could approach such conundrums.
While writing slowly may seem to be a setback, I feel not always.
Most of the time I write slowly, review the writing slowly and touch up on the writing slowly on purpose to make sure what im writing is valuable.
You could take time brainstorming before writing to increase the rate that you write.
Or perhaps your writing, be it anything from a novel to a poem, is very complex.
You then might want to take time writing.
Honestly I value writing slowly.

Things to do to increase writing speed:
Have the chapter mapped out.
Have a plan for the more descriptive paragraphs.
Go into detail with things like ambience and character attitude.
Make sure you are as creative as you need to be.
Write about a complex scene with a simple approach, then add more description later on.
Say your characters are on a adventure, but you don't know many ways of portraying them.
Brainstorm ideas for the characters.
And also brainstorm things they might be doing, the way they are feeling, how they interact with each other.

 

[pmmg]

I really enjoy long drives, and I absolutely daydream and/or think on story ideas as I do. I had a good friend who lived nearly 6 hours away that I would visit a few times a year. He moved to Hawaii not long ago, so that isn't an option anymore.

Funny, my sister lives in Hawaii, and she thinks that's a reason not to visit....

 

[Finchbearer]

You’re not very young? How cryptic.

It seems as though your mind is wanting to do literally anything but what you intend it to do…and that says a lot.

If writing is what you actually want to do, maybe it could be doable to set very small goals, such as timing yourself for just five minutes. Write for five minutes and you’ve achieved your goal. That may encourage you to keep going.

 

[Jackarandajam]

I feel you.
I'm undiagnosed, but everything I've heard about the evolving definition of ADHD I'm like "yep. Sounds about right."
I'll hyperfixate and not be able to stop writing, 100k in a couple months, then crash, lose all interest, have not the tiniest spark of inspiration and do anything but open my laptop, sometimes for upward of a year. If I do open it during one of these lapses, 250 words in three hours would break all records.
And it's not burnout. I WANT to write, but asking my brain to make sentences happen may as well be demanding my brain think in mandarin Chinese.

I'm trying to be more balanced in my approach, obviously. I know consistency is key and the pattern is unsustainable.

What I've found is that sometimes my brain knows that I need to think something through, rather than write. What seems to break me out of these slumps is getting in the habit of sitting down and opening my laptop, but rather than trying to force words out, read back over some old stuff, take a few notes, ruminate on some problems, consider alternatives. If nothing else, blunder out 500 words of a mad, steam of consciousness journal entry. Writing about writers block can be very effective in breaking it.
Also, if I ask myself "what kind of movie do I need to watch to get my juices flowing on this issue." That encourages me to go searching for inspiration, and encourages my brain to pay attention in a writerly way.

Edit: thinking about it, it seems like mine is an immersion issue, like I can't get into the feel of it because I'm mentally disconnected. Usually that seems like it stems from there being some impending problem or semi-ignored plothole in the wip. Sitting back and purposefully chewing on it, searching it out and ruminating on it, sometimes fires me up if I light on an answer or a cool tack for the story.

 

[Ned Marcus]

I agree with pmmg about routines. If you persist, writing routine will become a habit. Then it becomes normal to write and everything gets easier. The problem may never go away completely, but there will be less days when this happens.

 

[Prince of Spires]

The main thing to keep in mind is that every writer is different. What works for me will not automatically work for you. So experiment until you find a method that works for you. Try different times, places, moods, settings, maybe outline or maybe don't. Set timers. Tell others. Try anything to see what helps you improve. Keep what works, discard what doesn't and iterate.

Once you find a reasonably effective method, turn it into a routine (as pmmg mentions). Make your body learn that when you do X, you write.

A few things that generally work are:
- know what you are going to write before you sit down to write. You can outline your whole tale if that's your thing. Or you can outline the scene you are about to write. Or you can simply go over it in your head until it's clear in your mind. Stopping in a place where you know what will happen next is the same sort of advice.
- write in sprints. Set a timer for 15 minutes, and during that time the only thing you can do is write. Nothing else. After the 15 minutes are up, take a short break and continue. Experiment with the duration of the sprint, the break between sprints, and how many sprints you do one after another.
- find your most productive time of the day. For most people this is actually the morning. For me it's the evening. Try a few different times and take notes. Same with locations by the way. Some people like desks, or libraries, or coffee shops, or anything else. I write on a laptop sitting in a comfortable chair.
- allow yourself to write it ugly. I can keep mulling over a specific sentence or way to frame something in my head for 10 minutes. And then when I've got it I write that and find it's not as perfect as I thought and I change it in editing anyway. Sometimes just writing a sentence or a scene as it goes through your head, without worrying about all the nitty-gritty stuff gets you to where you need to be.
- Accept that not all days are perfect, and that sometimes 250 words is all you're going to get. There are days when it feels like I'm forcing the words out and writing each word is like getting a root canal treatment. I just put in my time, and then accept that's all I'll get for today. And afterwards when I'm editing, I'll find there's little difference in quality between these bits and the god-inspired, muse-filled bits.

If you're looking for more things to try, hop on Youtube and google "try writing like author X". Plenty of booktubers have created videos where they try writing like some famous author. It gets them clicks. You might learn something.

 

[Incanus]

Thanks for all the great advice and support. Writers are the best!

So last night was more or less similar to the previous night (I got about 300 words this time). However, I have changed my perspective on it, at least a little.

I am focusing on the good points of my project. It’s the project I’ve always dreamed of doing, but never had the skills or ideas before now. That’s huge. I have a truly fantastic writer friend who I speak with every week on the phone. She is simply one of the greatest friends ever, and has helped me more than I can ever calculate.

Also, I am realizing this: my project is ambitious, complicated, original, large, and inherently difficult. So of course I’m going to have some slow times with it.

And another thing, the writing itself the last few days has actually been pretty good. A number of secondary characters were oddly trying to assert distinctive voices in this draft, and I have to admit I think it a good idea to allow them to do so. So I obliged, which took some extra effort.

I sort of made a little deal with myself last night. I didn’t want to tackle the issue of ‘spacing out’ all at once. I simply identified when it was happening, and in a few instances, I stopped it before it got out of hand. A pretty minor win, but I’ll take it.

I’m going to read through all the great advice again, and try to put some of this in practice.

Thanks again everyone.