Post #60 – Women’s Memoirs, Author Conversations – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Memoir Writers Get Distracted – 10 Great Distractions and How to Turn them Around
by Pamela Jane Bell, guest blogger, children’s book author and currently writing her memoir
Writing distractions – they’re fun, seductive, and definitely addictive. But there’s a flip side to these ten deliciously dangerous distractions that will making indulging in them guilt-free.
Almost.
1. Searching on the internet for people from your past.
You can spend hours hunting for a long-lost boyfriend, classmate, or cousin. Perhaps writing a vivid scene in your memoir made you long to contact this person from the past. But beware! Your search can shift imperceptibly from the friend who loved listening to your mother’s stories to the boy in the marching band who moved away in ninth grade and is not even remotely connected to your memoir. But hey, he was really cute!
2. Fanaticizing about becoming an extremely famous author with fans for your book signings lined up around the block.
Being famous isn’t easy! In fact, you’re so hounded by fans, photographers and reporters, that you become slightly reclusive. And now they want to make a movie of your memoir. Not only that, but you get to help decide who will play you!
You spend hours finding just the right actor.
3. Visiting real estate websites and fantasizing about moving.
Maybe you’re wondering what it would be like to move back to your old neighborhood. What is your childhood house worth now anyway? How much money would you have made if you stayed there and sold it today? And why have housing prices gone up so much in the next house you lived in?
4. Fantasizing about adopting a homeless dog or cat
My writing would go so much more smoothly if my cat, Mittens, would keep me company instead of disappearing in the morning for a twenty-two hour nap. Maybe I should get a dog. What about that adorable puppy I saw last week on the SPCA website? I wonder if he’s still there? But then I’d have to get an electric fence. What do electric fences cost anyway? Better research this.
5. Day dreaming about your vacation next year
You just paid off last year’s vacation, but that leaves you free to think about next year. And it’s not unrelated to your memoir because you could take a road trip through the past. Definitely worth spending time on this one.
6. Rating films on Netflix
This might seem far-fetched, but watch out. This distraction can appear in the form a harmless email that you spend a few minutes on before getting to work. The problem is, each time you rate a movie, Netflix will throw you five more to rate. If your teenager likes horror films and you like historical dramas, the Netflix team gets confused. Netflix doesn’t like being confused and will present you with even more films to rate. The next thing you know an hour has gone by.
7. Strolling through old neighborhoods on Google Earth
Imagine being able to explore from home the physical landscape of the past, three dimensionally, as if in a dream. Just launch Google Earth on your computer, type in an address, and then click on the little camera icons. You’ll find yourself walking through the neighborhood you grew up in, or past the schoolyard where you broke the jump-roping record in third grade. I tried this myself just now. A few clicks transported me to a familiar tree-shaded corner in a Midwestern suburb. Once again I was eleven, and heart-broken that my family was moving, leaving behind forever the labyrinth of sidewalks, basements and yards that held the secret language of childhood.
8. Thinking
This one is really dangerous. Thinking is bad for writers. You start thinking about if your memoir is working, or if it will get good reviews when it comes out. Stop thinking. Just write.
9. Researching old films, TV programs, or songs
Fifteen years ago, if I wanted to see an episode of “I Remember Mama,” a favorite TV program when I was four, I had to visit the Museum of Broadcasting in New York. But the web has made such research nearly effortless, and exemplifies the love in my love-hate relationship with the Internet.
10. Blogging, commenting, and commenting on comments.
We all know how appealing writing online is, and we all have different feelings about it, from intense attraction to total repulsion and sometimes both in the same day, or even the same moment. Commenting on someone else’s article is more seductive than working on your own. But it’s writing, you tell yourself.
Turning Distractions into Attractions
Guess what? Every one of the ten distractions has a positive side. Connecting with friends from the past, envisioning success, thinking deeply about your memoir, and blogging are all rewarding activities whose efforts ripple outwards in unanticipated ways, connecting us to those we’ve lost touch with, our writing communities, and our work. (Well, except for rating Netflix films.) The trick with distractions is not to let them take you too far afield. In other words, don’t let the distractions distract you.
I have a confession to make. I indulged in every one of these delicious distractions when I was writing this piece (even the Netflix ratings.) But I had to do it for research. Really I did!
What are your most tempting writing distractions? Do they help or hinder you in your work, and how do you deal with them? Let me know your thoughts in the Comments section below. I promise, this isn’t a distraction. It will help you focus on what works or doesn’t work for you on any given day. And by sharing, we can help each other reach the goal of a finished memoir.
Pamela Jane has published 26 children’s books with Houghton Mifflin, Atheneum, Simon & Schuster, Penguin-Putnam, HarperCollins and others. Her new picture book for children ages 3-7 is Little Goblins Ten
“Numerous titles interpreting ‘Over in the Meadow’ have been published, but trust the team of Jane and Manning to conjure up an impressive new vision in time for Halloween – Kirkus, starred review.
“Pamela Jane has fun playing within the nursery rhyme’s parameters, whether peeking in on a family of zombies (“ ‘Stare!’ said the mommy; ‘We stare,’ said the three”)… Manning’s quirky and expressive monster families are 10 kinds of cute–“ Publisher’s Weekly
Pamela is currently completing her memoir: What I Don’t Tell Kids: Memoir of a Children’s Book Author.
You can visit Pamela Jane’s website at http://www.pamelajane.com or her memoir blog at http://pamelamemoir.livejournal.com
