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Earlier this week, I had been writing for 45 minutes before I realized that the landscapers at the apartment where I live were working right below the window where I sat. When I stopped to get some water, I heard the construction crew across the street with the jackhammer.<\/p>\n
I knew they were there, but I was so into what I was writing that they didn’t bother me.<\/p>\n
I recently worked for a small company<\/a>. The break room was rarely used, so I brought lunch to work and got an hour of writing in each day during lunch break<\/a>.<\/p>\n One Friday afternoon as I was writing, a co-worker brought in a large stack of pizzas. It was the first Friday of the month, a day when the company I worked for brought in pizza for all employees.<\/p>\n I thought about going back to my desk or finding someplace else to write, but I stayed put.<\/p>\n I was focused on writing and decided to put my concentration to the test.<\/p>\n Aside from acknowledging co-workers saying hello, I stayed in the story, blocking out the commotion around me.<\/p>\n I wasn’t always so focused; the slightest background noise used to throw me off. Now, though, when I really get into what I’m writing, the commotion around me falls away. Background noises even become soothing (with the exception of high-pitched yapping dogs).<\/p>\n I still prefer writing very early in the morning when things are silent, but being able to write with background distractions is a great skill to have as a writer. When you can write with distractions, you give yourself more places and times you’re able to write.<\/p>\n Today’s Writing Prompt<\/strong><\/p>\n Go someplace very distracting…and write! Don’t put on headphones and listen to music — see if you can block out everything and focus on your writing.<\/p>\n For somebody juggling a job and life with their writing, there are going to be distractions. Doesn’t it make sense to learn to deal with them, instead of fighting them?<\/p>\n Tomorrow’s Writing Prompt<\/strong><\/p>\n Something I never did until last year, and it was so much fun!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Earlier this week, I had been writing for 45 minutes before I realized that the landscapers at the apartment where I live were working right below the window where I sat. When I stopped to get some water, I heard the construction crew across the street with the jackhammer. I knew they were there, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[3,27,59],"tags":[65,14],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}