• Café Life is the Colony's main hangout, watering hole and meeting point.

    This is a place where you'll meet and make writing friends, and indulge in stratospherically-elevated wit or barometrically low humour.

    Some Colonists pop in religiously every day before or after work. Others we see here less regularly, but all are equally welcome. Two important grounds rules…

    • Don't give offence
    • Don't take offence

    We now allow political discussion, but strongly suggest it takes place in the Steam Room, which is a private sub-forum within Café Life. It’s only accessible to Full Members.

    You can dismiss this notice by clicking the "x" box

Please Comment: Writing Distractions. Oh my!

Latest Articles from Litopia’s Writers

From Our Blog

Full Member
Blogger
Joined
Feb 3, 2024
LitBits
0
Just posted on SuperStack by James Charles – discussions in this thread, please
---

This is my first post on this forum, so I wanted to do something short and light.

What types of distractions interrupt you when you’re hammering away at your keyboard? The phone rings? Your significant other shouts at you from the other side of the house? Your cat comes in and plops down onto your keyboard?

Just when I’m on a roll clacking away, or deep into researching, posting on social media or any other writing-related activity, my German Shepherd strolls into the office carrying her ball. She drops it at my feet then comes up to me under the desk and gets into my business. I rub her snout, scratch behind her ears with one hand while trying to top off the sentence or finish the task at hand with the other.

Sometimes, I push her head away and redirect her off to the side. Normally, she climbs onto the nearby couch and proceeds to sit there, first looking at me, then at her ball, then back at me again. I say, “All right. All right. Just let me finish this and I’ll go out and throw the ball to you.”

Shepherds are too smart for their big ears! She understands, jumps off the couch, grabs her ball, and heads to the door. If I don’t get up right away, she stops at the door and looks back at me.

Oh, the life of a writer. If it’s not procrastination, writer’s block, it’s a German Shepherd getting in the way of my productivity!

How about you?
---

By @James Charles
Get the discussion going – post your thoughts & comments in the thread below…
 

Further Articles from the Author Platform

Latest Articles By Litopians

  • Winging it
    ‘I could never write a book,’ a friend said to me recently. She meant it as a compliment and I a ...
  • The Monster We Were Promised
    I tutor a small group of Year Five boys who love boardgames (let’s call them the Gamer Boys). We ...
  • Character Building
    I’m sure most of us have felt the excitement when we meet a new character. I wonder, do yours arri ...
  • Plain Grocery Stores
    Right up the road from the Weaverland Auction, there’s an unnamed farm stand, its open front cover ...
  • Out and About when Autumn Leaves had Fallen
    Late November 2025… Mrs Treaclechops and I enjoyed a 5-day break in Pembrokeshire. We know the are ...
  • Twice as Sexy as Madonna
    When Richard and Cathie got together in the mid-eighties, they both thought it would last forever. T ...
  • If Plot Were an Artisan
    A vast and echoey chamber crisscrossed by delicate strands. PLOT hangs suspended from the high ceili ...
What Goes Around
Comes Around!
Back
Top