Breaking Habits

 The rewrite of  the next Yarn Retreat book continues.  I'm thinking of calling it Danger Looms.  I won't go into detail, but it seems I forgot what day it was in the manuscript and the time was all screwed up.  Like things were happening out of order. Trying to fix what  I have written is not nearly as satisfying as writing.  So, I ditched a lot of what I'd written and wrote it again.  Surprises happened.  Characters started doing things on their own and interacting with each other.

I found another secret to staying in the flow.  I leave my phone in another room.   It was too easy to let it distract me.  I can't blame the phone.  I was the one who picked it up and started scrolling though whatever.  It only took doing it once to break the habit.   

I started prying myself away from my phone at other times.  It  is amazing how easy it was to do that.  The hard part is that it is not black or white.  I used to drink Diet Coke all the time and literally had a bottle of it next to my bed.  I decided that I didn't want to have anything with artificial sweeteners  anymore.  And that was it.  I stopped drinking Diet Coke completely.  I think even I was surprised that I didn't miss it or consider having it occasionally   I did the same with cigarettes. It has been over thirty-five years and I never once missed smoking.  I totally surprised myself with that.  I guess I did it with becoming a vegetarian over forty years ago.  

The trick is  to have my phone available, but not use it as a distraction.  I see how easy it is to blindly keep scrolling through Facebook posts as through there is an end.  Or even to be tempted by clickbait  half written headlines.  I will have to learn to tell my curiosity to stand down.

 In the meantime, I'm using crossword and mystery logic puzzles when I need a distraction.  At least those have the benefit of exercising my brain. and giving me the feeling of satisfaction of completing something  I thought I couldn't do..