Hi Sally,

I don’t.

…

No, I’m actually not even kidding about that. I am a total scatter brain with between 5-10 different processes going through my mind at any given moment. Believe it or not, the first two chapters of Drakin were written while I was finishing up Soul Siphon.

If you’re finding it hard to focus, forcing yourself to won’t solve anything. Unless you have some kind of major deadline coming up, I’d highly recommend against it. Whenever I’m writing and I find my mind going off in a different direction… either there’s a topic I want to blog about or a new story that’s just too good to pass up, I stop what I’m currently working on and spend a few minutes here and there working on that. Does it slow down production of my books? Maybe a little… but not nearly as much as it would if I tried to force my mind to focus and it’s slowed down because the juices have been diverted to other topics.

You can’t always control when your mind is going to get the creative juices flowing. It’s a reality that we all have to live with. There really is no point in fighting it. Make sure you keep yourself on a schedule and try to put some time into your current project every day, but don’t stifle the creative juices. This was a hard-learned lesson for me when I was working on Divinity. I ignored the creative juices to focus on what I was working on and the result was a bad case of writer’s block.

Some may say that this is bad advice, but from my perspective, I believe that it is better than the alternative. Stifling your creative juices will not get your story written any faster. However, keep in mind, this is just how I approach the problem. You may be different and creating a schedule and a place to hide away from outside stimulus so that you have to focus on what you were working on, may benefit you. Try various methods and see what works.

Hope this helps. Readers, how do you focus? Do you have any advice for Sally? Let me know in the comments.

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.

jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com

I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.

Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Note:
If you have read my books, PLEASE log into Amazon and post a review. I really love to hear everyone’s thoughts and constructive criticisms. Reviews help get my book attention and word of mouth is everything in this business!

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim