Focus

One very hard thing for a writer to do is focus. From all I've read about how other writers approach writing, Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird comes to mind, it is often daunting to have that computer screen stare you in the face, the keyboard waiting for your nimble fingers to dance across the keys spewing forth an outrageously brilliant work of literature. When this happens to me -- yes, I have been known to jump up and down, get a cup of tea, file my finger nails, check emails. But many times I tell myself, "Just write something. Anything. Just write something. You can always delete it later." It might only be one paragraph, it might not fit the plot or make any sense, but it gets me off dead center, breaks the log jam, and I can continue on with the story. It seems like I have to overcome the inertia to get the fingers moving across the keys. Just writing something.