How to Write When the Bullets Are Flying

I used to say that you should never write at home. After all, you're surrounded by all of these things you like, because -after all- you chose to put them in your house.

And then I used to say that you should never write in a coffee shop because you're constantly around distractions. There's people coming in, people going out, and there are people who escalate in rudeness -I mean, volume. You have the pounding of the espresso being cleaned out, the hiss of the machine, the rattling of the blender, and this is all of the noise on top of the din of whatever music the barista selected.

Now I'm back to writing at home. Both places are equally distracting, but at least I don't have to spend money at home. (And now I have the pug puppy so I would rather be home to keep her company and take her outside when she needs to.) When Jonathan Franzen published to much critical acclaim Freedom, I remember he was featured in Time magazine. More memorable than popular adages that writers throw out or advice on how to tackle a long-term project, I remember him sharing with America what his writing room looked like. I was shocked at how sterile it was. Take a look.

I mean, finding time to write and overcoming distractions might be hard, but it's not insurmountable... Or is it?

An avid reader of Writer's Digest, I read an article a few years ago from a freelance writer. I hadn't yet embarked on that adventure myself, but I attended a workshop during residency at Goddard College on how to be a freelance writer, and I was intrigued to learn as much about it as possible. The writer of this article (his name escapes me now that I've had a few thousand names circulate since then) offered memorable advice: "If you're going to be successful, you need to learn to write when the bullets are flying."

Okay, how many of us require absolute silence when you're writing? Yeah, that was me, too. I couldn't picture what writing while the bullets were flying looked like.

This writer continued: he said that he was a stay-at-home dad who was a freelance writer, and if he wanted a paycheck that week, he had to figure out how to write articles around let's go to the potty, around tantrums, around fights, around getting dinner ready, and around welcoming mommy home from work. I have new respect for you, you parents who juggle writing and/or grad school, novel writing, and freelance writing: my puppy is now seven months old and while she tries my patience while writing (sometimes with gregarious efforts to get my attention), she's still just a dog, and not a gaggle of mini-me's who pull on each others' hair, throw tantrums, and destroy the bathroom.

So how do you do it?

Every writer has distractions, whether they're children, puppies, or (if we're being honest) Netflix. Distractions are a natural part of life (especially now that technology is so pervasive in our culture), and you as a writer need to find a way to overcome that.

Here's your challenge, writers: learn to write while the bullets are flying. Find a way that works for you. Here are some tips that I've found some help from:


1. Start the day with writing. You may or may not have plans for how the day is going to go, but I promise you it'll fill up nonetheless. Start the day off by writing so that even if you do get sidelined by your distractions plans, you'll have something done.

2. Make sure your friends and family know your priorities. Probably the hardest thing for a writer to say to friends and family is, "I can't because I have a lot of writing to do." Sometimes because people think you're a writer, they think that all you do is sit around in your pajamas all day, or that when you sit down to write, it comes pouring out of you. Treat your writing (whether creative or freelance) like you're clocking in to a brick-and-mortar store: your boss in retail doesn't want to you take a bunch of breaks and to be late coming back from lunch, right? So your freelance boss doesn't want you to, either. And your fiction boss (you), will be happier when you meet your goals. Writer's shouldn't be loners who live in the woods and only come into town once a month for supplies, but you should make sure that your work time balances out your play time.

3. Reward yourself. When you're putting off your friends until tomorrow and you're kicking butt on these deadlines regarding things you've written that you're not remotely interested in (yeah, true fact: to be paid for your pen, you often have to write about stuff that is mind-numbingly disinteresting), you need to reward yourself. Watch an extra episode of your favorite show, or take an extra long time to make dinner. You worked hard: you deserve it.