Is Your Writing Time Being Sucked Away?

So have you ever sat down to write and the next thing you know you've spent two hours surfing the web and playing Internet games? What just happened to that precious writing time? It got sucked away in a vacuum of Internet gimmes, Those "gimmes" are designed to dull your mind and suck your time and money from you. Am I being harsh? That depends on where you want to spend your time. Let's take a look.

We spend an average of 6 to 10 hours sleeping each day. And unless you have some special, juiced-up metabolism, that's not going to change much. It's a given, you're going to need sleep to perform your best.

This leaves 14 to 18 hours to divide between eating, daily chores and doing the things that help you survive. If you have a job, you can automatically take out another 8 hours, five to seven days of the week. That would leave 6 to 10 hours of "free" time. Take out time for daily necessities and you have 3 to 7 hours left.

What can you accomplish in 3 to 7 hours? If you get caught for 2 hours on the Internet with the "gimmes", your time is almost gone. You have 1 to 5 hours left to write. Give yourself an hour to get into your story and if you're on the bottom end, you have no time left. Zero hours to write. How can we change this to accomplish our goals?

Get rid of the "gimmes" and make a written out goal for your writing time. Start your writing when you are fresh and leave the "gimmes" until you are finished with your writing time. That way, when you feel exhausted from picking at your brain, you can surf the web or let the "gimmes" have the left overs. Your writing will be stronger and fresher and your ideas will flow from a renewed source.

What about doing research on the web for your story? That comes under your writing time, but be careful not to rationalize and play a game. That's not research unless you are writing a book about gaming on the web. Are there exceptions? You can always find loopholes to any argument, but I'm speaking from the point of view of someone who was caught in the Internet "gimmes". It sapped my thoughts and ate up my time. Don't let it do that to you. Write fresh and strong. Your story will be at its best and your readers will enjoy it!