Tips to Focus When the World Is on Fire
By Diana Giovinazzo | January 31, 2025 |
In 2020, I started writing my second novel, Antoinette’s Sister, just two weeks before the lockdown began. While everyone else was baking bread or picking up new hobbies, I was locked away in the very room where I’m writing this now. Admittedly, disconnecting from the outside world was physically much easier back then than it is now, but the same principle still holds true: put the writing first.
And though we are no longer in lockdown, the world feels like it’s in another tailspin—whether it’s the news, social media, phone calls, or people telling us we need to be somewhere or do something (I know I have a slew of unanswered emails and a basket of laundry waiting to be folded). Disassociating from the outside world can be harder than it seems. So below are some of my tips to help you block out distractions and focus on your writing:
DON’T BE ASHAMED TO PUT YOUR WRITING FIRST
Go ahead and read that sentence a few more times. I’ll wait. Ready? Alright. Ask yourself if a professional, any professional, would put off their work hours. Or if they would respond to every non-work-related phone call/text/email. What are their office hours?
Whether or not you’re published yet, you are a writer. Writing is not just an art form—it’s also a business, and it matters to you. Treat it that way. Don’t expect the world to make room for your writing, because it won’t. Whether it’s early in the morning, late at night, or while the kids are at school, find a time that works for you and guard it like a dog with a new bone. Anything that can wait until you’ve met your daily writing goal can wait.
HAVE A PHYSICAL SPACE
In Stephen Kings memoir, On Writing: A Memoir on Craft, he mentions that he likes to place his desk at the center of his room. But not having a dedicated writing space doesn’t have to be a deterrent—after all, Agatha Christie wrote at her dining room table in between homemaking duties. Physical memory helps train the mind to recognize when it’s time to write. Which leads us to…
MENTAL SPACE IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS PHYSICAL SPACE
There was a reason why I locked myself in my office. It was the one place I could go where I wouldn’t be distracted by the tv or even social media. I would place my phone on the other side of the room in my little “nest” where I wouldn’t be distracted by any of the above temptations.
Social media is the biggest time-killer, especially when it comes to the precious few hours that you have to write. Don’t be afraid to do a media cleanse. I promise you those internet “hot takes” will recycle themselves so you can pick them up on the next round. Or as one of my friends does, download an app like Opal that blocks your social media apps so that you can focus on what you need to focus on. Even if you have to lock your phone in a cabinet, do so. If it doesn’t serve your writing, it doesn’t serve you.
DEVELOP A PRE-WRITING ROUTINE
Joan Didion would review her work in the evening before dinner, then in the morning she would “retrace” her steps before she moved forward. John Steinbeck started his writing day by sharpening twenty-four pencils. Umberto Ecco would read his emails, then review what he wrote the previous day, then write till noon. Maya Angelou liked to write in hotel rooms.
Me, I have my coffee, go over what I want to accomplish that day, and read my work from the day before to get started. It’s like doing a warmup exercise. Athletes don’t rush onto a field without warming up, why would I want to start my writing without warming up first? It sure as hell makes that blank page a lot less scary.
The point is that these routines help train our brains to cue in to the fact that it’s writing time. Whatever routine works for you, use it to fuel your focus and push the outside world out the door.
WHAT ABOUT SOUND?
Some of us need complete silence to write, while others require some background noise. I fall into the latter category. Without music, my brain ends up everywhere but on the work I am supposed to be doing. Music is my lightning rod, drawing me into a meditative state where I become fully immersed in the world of my book, leaving no room for distractions.
On the flip side, if silence is what works for you, embrace it. Create as much quiet as you need, for as long as you need. Immerse yourself in your book completely—let it fill your senses and shut out everything else.
Blocking out the world isn’t always going to be easy, nor is it going to happen overnight. It takes practice and dare I say, a little bit of self-care to recognize that world around you might be burning, you can control just a little space that is all your own.
What do you to block out the outside world so that you can focus on your writing?
Diana Giovinazzo is the co-creator of Wine, Women and Words, a weekly literary podcast featuring interviews with authors over a glass of wine. Her debut novel, THE WOMAN IN RED, released in 2020, and her second novel, ANTOINETTE’S SISTER, released in 2022. You can find her in the Los Angeles area with her menagerie and husband.
[coffee]
So timely, it’s eerie. Is anyone else struggling to focus right now? I am.
Thank you so much for the sage reminder–and for the practical tips on how to shut out the world and prioritize our writing. This is a post I’ll definitely return to!
Alas, I have recently discovered Substack, a site packed to the walls with writers, pontificators, comedians, historians, professors, journalists … you get the idea. And when something jumps out at me from the torrent of words—something I wish I’d written, or something that I think I should follow up on, It’s so easy to click a couple of buttons and know that I’ll receive more wisdom or advice from that person.
It has been weeks since I had a clear inbox. My office looks like it was abandoned after an FBI search. I have to move things to put a cup of coffee down. It is not unusual at all for me to be wearing my bathrobe at 2 p.m. This has to stop. Tomorrow.
Hahaha, I have Substack as well. And while I am preferring it to other means of social media, it still have to rangle it like the others.
Yeah, I understand the lack of focus. If I start on my email, I’ll not get to writing things until late afternoon. The fun of Substack and all the interesting people on there and saying outrageous things on Quora to get all the trolls riled up is fun. Other than those, I stay off social media sites. I’m not into being censored because I disagree with the owner of the sites. So I force myself to go to work when at home in my office before opening my email.
As to sound, I love music so I do have music or solfeggio sounds or soundtracks from games in the background.
The outside world can be a very big seductive carnival! And I can’t afford the ticket.
For the routine:
I have a WRITTEN list of prompts.
The first step is to block the internet with Freedom for five hours (unless I’ve had a late start).
Then I start going through the prompts on my list until everything is loaded back into my brain (assuming it is on – a big assumption for me some days, since it’s damaged by chronic illness), and if I can get the first couple of steps done (read, figure out where I am when life has destroyed the last few days…), the routine – which I’ve perfected since the beginning of the century – draws me in.
What is very hard for me is that I almost have to start from scratch every time I lose a day or two, and some months I will restart it seems every other day.
But you don’t finish and publish novels of 167K and 182K without being persistent, stubborn, and having a routine – so I know I can finish this trilogy if I just keep showing up for work.
In some ways it actually helps to have all these barriers: I keep daily very detailed notes (lest I forget anything I already figured out). I am an extreme plotter (lest I waste words on detours). And I use every helpful tool (except AI) I have found, so that the substrate under the writing is solid and is always there: if I have time and brain, and nothing hurts TOO much, I’m writing.
I don’t waste the ‘good time’ if I have ANY choice in the matter.
We have to fall in love with our work, that helps us go back to it. WE HAVE TO BELIEVE IN IT. But that is very hard, especially when you query and nothing moves you ahead. And though there are those roadblocks, I still believe in my work, always come back to it. And as for news and the noise all around us…there is nothing better than letting one’s novel block that all out. Thanks for your post.
Thanks for these tips, Diana!
I don’t particularly like to cook, so my son, a former chef (coincidence? I think not.), showed me how to prep. Now, if the onion is already chopped during a spare moment or the dry ingredients premeasured while listening to the tail-end of a podcast, I will actually make that recipe I’ve been planning instead of defaulting to something quick and easy.
Same with writing. I try to prep at the end of the day for my morning writing stint. I’m in the revising stage, so if I plan to work on dialogue, I might review some craft articles and create a punchlist of things to look for. When I was in the writing stage, I’d leave myself notes on things to keep in mind when I started the next scene, maybe do a bit of necessary research. Anything so that I won’t procrastinate before I start because–look at that!–I’ve already started.
Thanks for the reminder that getting ready to write is as or more important AND can be done the night before. I tend to waste that time, as not ‘good enough’ for writing or thinking, but there’s definitely a small amount of getting started I could do, even with the tenth of a brain that might remain at that point.
Shall try – I need SOMETHING as a kickstarter lately.