How can you create fiction when reality comes to call? by Carolyn Chute and 6 Ways to be a Hemingway-Level Productive Badass by Drake Baer are two very different articles about pretty much the same thing, writing and the distractions that come along with it. Carolyn Chute seems like more of a disorganized writer. In her article she talks about the many distractions surrounding her throughout the day. She talks about having to take care of the dogs, multiple people coming over to visit, and doing the laundry and the dishes. Carolyn Chute says “Writing is like meditation or going into an ESP trance, or prayer. Like dreaming. You are tapping into your unconscious. To be fully conscious and alert, with life banging and popping and cuckooing all around, you are not going to find your way to your subconscious, which is a place of complete submission. Complete submission.”
Ernest Hemingway was definitely the more organized of the two. Drake Baer writes that Hemingway had a specific routine for his writing. He would get up very early, pay attention, and protect his time by keeping distractions to a minimum. Ernest Hemmingway said “There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write. You read what you have written and, as you always stop when you know what is going to happen next, you go on from there. You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again. You have started at six in the morning, say, and may go on until noon or be through before that.” I can relate to both Carolyn Chute and Ernest Hemingway in these articles. I work full time and go to college full time so you can say I have a busy life. I live at home with my family and we are on fairly different time schedules. You can imagine things might get tricky when it comes time to do my homework. I have friends who are always asking to spend time with me. Social media also plays a big role as one of my distractions. I think of myself in the beginning stages of writing. I have tons of room to improve and I am eager to learn. I believe you can get better at anything if you try. 6 Steps to avoid distractions and become a better writer: 1. Set quiet times to write. 2. Set the mood. Light a candle. Get comfortable. 3. Start early, as soon as the assignment is given. Even if that just means putting ideas onto paper. 4. Get feedback from others (professor, family, friends, peers). 5. Coffee or something else to drink depending on what time it is. 6. Track progress throughout the semester.
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