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Is it just me, or...

Ronald T.

Troubadour
I wonder how many of you suffer from the same springtime distractions that plague me.

It seems that the moment the weather turns from cold and wet to warm and sunny, I am inundated with the chores that need to be done before the heat of full summer. Sometimes it's overwhelming.

What bothers me most is that these chores distract me from my writing. But they are chores that can't be ignored.

Perhaps it's a special problem, particular to those who live on wooded acreage. Mowing tall spring grass that grows wild among the trees is part of the fire protection process. Trimming the trees so that no limbs remain lower than twelve feet from the ground is also a necessity. And that must be followed by cleanup -- hauling the debris to a burn pile for burning next winter. And there is always the mowing and watering of the front lawn (approx. 1500 sq, ft), fenced to keep the wild pigs from rooting it from the ground. This dry California climate requires lawn watering every there days, and mowing every ten days to two weeks.

Then there's the exterior maintenance of our house. Painting siding and trim, washing dirty windows, and a seemingly endless list of other tasks. And because I'm a general contractor, those chores fall to me. I can't really say I don't know what to do, because I've been doing it for decades.

So my questions are these. Do any of you have tasks and unavoidable springtime chores that take you away from your writing? Of course, your distraction are likely to come about for different reasons than mine. But do these distractions frustrate you as much as mine do for me.

All I want to do is work on my writing projects. Yet life's necessities intrude on that desire.

Sorry! I guess I just wanted to make certain I haven't created my own prison of yearly springtime chores.

I would be very thankful if you let me know whether you face similar yearly distractions. Thanks.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
I think my whole life distracts.

For me, summer means the kids are out of school, and that means they don't go to bed. If they don't go to bed, I don't get released from Dad duties, and so my writing time gets affected. Also, having the PC on in the upstairs room makes the room really hot. So it gets uncomfortable up there at times.

Oh, and summer also means more AC problems at work, which at times steal my whole weekend.
 
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For me, there are distractions, but not so many that I can't steal some time during the day to write, if I'm feeling up to it. My problem is having energy to write if there have been too many recent distractions. There have been plenty of times lately when I've awoken after having fallen asleep at my computer, trying to get in some writing at the only time I had a chance that day, but just too exhausted to do it.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
My life is filled with distractions. Got the plants going in the greenhouse a couple weeks ago. Mowed the lawn today. trying to avoid some heavy duty cleaning. Vehicle issues - just went and picked up the one rig a hour ago. Summer is starting, which means I start riding the bicycle daily as part of my futile exercise program. There are certain things that need to be done for a...long term family issue.

And I do have a couple other hobbies of sorts.
 
Life always distracts. I don't think "time to write" ever shows up if you sit around and wait on it. Or rather, if you don't forcibly tackle it and fight it into submission.

Of course, we all must sacrifice something. Social media, TV, exercise, sleep...some things more detrimental to sacrifice than others, of course. (For me, it's been sleep. Most of my book was written after 10 at night, and a lot in the wee hours of the morning.)
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
I'm entering Exam Season which is followed by Research Season which is followed by New Students Season and at some point I really should sort out all those little things at home that I can live with but should get done...
So yes there is always something.
Just to quench my curiosity...
Trimming the trees so that no limbs remain lower than twelve feet from the ground is also a necessity.
Why do you need to do this? I can see the aesthetics but I surmise that isn't why...
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
I'm entering Exam Season which is followed by Research Season which is followed by New Students Season and at some point I really should sort out all those little things at home that I can live with but should get done...
So yes there is always something.
Just to quench my curiosity...

Why do you need to do this? I can see the aesthetics but I surmise that isn't why...

Fire. Anything lower has a good chance of catching fire.

We have devastating forest fires in my area. As a preventive measure, the forestry people will clear swaths of land to act as firebreaks. They won't cut most of the trees - but they do remove the brush, and the lower branches. That measure saves lives and houses.
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
Fire. Anything lower has a good chance of catching fire.

We have devastating forest fires in my area. As a preventive measure, the forestry people will clear swaths of land to act as firebreaks. They won't cut most of the trees - but they do remove the brush, and the lower branches. That measure saves lives and houses.
Curiosity quenched....
 

Rkcapps

Sage
I wish my hubby got distracted! the few pot plants i had died long ago because I can't water them and he never has. I'm distracted by carers til 5/5:30 and can't write beyond 11 because my husband is up at 6 for work (gone 12 hours) and he needs to put me to bed. I end up spending a few hours staring at the ceiling and try use that time to think of ways around writing problems. So I end up with an hour to write, if I'm lucky, because there's always carer issues, online shopping, birthdays etc
 

gia

Scribe
Recently, after seeing this great documentary on Neil Gaiman (Starz), I redefined my "distractions." Gaiman made this comment about how there comes a point in your writing career when you have to input more experience or you run out of writing material. So now all my distractions are considered future material for my highly successful novels. It makes it feel like an all inclusive life versus my "writing" life and the rest of my life.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
There are always distractions. Life tends to creep in and fill any voids left in time. The best way I find to combat it is to either set aside time that cannot be encroached on by anything but he most extreme of emergencies, or to find the gaps in my day where I can squeeze in some writing. Sometimes it's only in half-hour or fifteen minute segments, but it all ads up.

There's always something that needs to be done, but generally, I don't think carving out a half-hour to an hour a day to write is an impossible task.
 
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