I don’t know about you, but I like to try things out. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I’m from the Show-Me state. So if someone says doing XYZ will lead to ABC, I want to try it for myself. Does it actually lead to that? (I’m talking about things that are reading or writing related.)

It all started many months ago. My mom was reading a book (not unusual since she always has several books started) and it was talking about the affects of getting lots of little bits of knowledge (from social media and the internet) and how it affects our ability to focus for longer periods of time. The author was skeptical and did an experiment. She pulled off her favorite book (I think it was a Dickens’ book) and tried reading it. She really struggled with being able to focus. She was bored, it was hard to pay attention, and she wasn’t enjoying it like she had before.

All this got me thinking. I had already discovered there were times I wrote better and focused easier than others, but I hadn’t ever stopped to really think about why.

So I started off on the Great Experiment. Okay, it wasn’t fully an experiment, and maybe it wasn’t so great, but I did discover some things. And here’s what I found out.

1. Limit Little Info Bites
   I don’t do social media except for being able to keep up with some friends on Instagram, I don’t have facebook, or twitter, or any of those other things. And I use Goodreads for reviewing books not as a social place. But I do watch videos on YouTube. Sometimes they are vlogs of people I am interested in, but often that leads to little things here and there about this and that. All those info bites might be fun, and maybe I might sometime use one of them in a story, but mostly they just clutter up my brain making writing a chore, and story telling difficult. A vlog now and then doesn’t bother me, or even a few “extra” things once in a while is okay. But if I start a steady diet of YouTube it quickly affects my writing both in my ability to actually write, and my ability to write well.
   
   
2. Keep Word Tank Filled
   If I don’t read good, well written books, my writing isn’t as good. I don’t feel as though I can write well. It’s hard work to get the words out even if I know what the scene is. But if I make the time to read even twenty minutes, the words come a whole lot easier. (And if I’ve used up that 20 minutes on YouTube instead of reading . . .)
   
   
3. Steady Habit but Allow Breaks
   When I get out of the habit of writing, it can be hard to get back into it. Even just making myself go in the other room and writing something can feel too much. If I keep up the habit of writing every day (Mon–Sat), then I can allow myself a day here or there to take off writing for some reason or another. Maybe someone is going to be over, or maybe I’m just feeling tired and dragging. It’s okay to take a day off because I am in the habit and a day off now and then is okay.
   

When I am striving to be intentional about limiting my tid-bit info watching, working on keeping my word tank filled, and allowing only a few breaks in a steady habit of writing, I get a lot more writing done and actually finish stories, make huge progress on different projects, and enjoy story telling again.

What about you? Have you ever set about to deliberately test how social media, reading or the lack of it, affects your writing? Maybe you have something else instead of social media that distracts you. Pinterest? Chatting with friends online? Do you get into a steady habit of writing or is it just hit and miss whenever you feel like it?