Social Media Sabotage

I'm writing this in hopes that it will inspire me to take my own advice.

Why is it so blasted hard to find or create specially allotted writing time? I mean, even an hour or something everyday where all I do is write. Every morning I wake and say, "Today I am going to write." And then the day gets away from me as I waste time on Twitter or Facebook or whatever other social media platform I can dream up.

Before I know it it's time to take the little one to school and then off to work for a couple of hours, then go pick up hubby from work. Then I think, okay, well I'll write before dinner, but of course the house is chaos after we get home and it's impossible to do anything and then it's time to cook supper. And then of course we must eat and then clean up and then relax from the craziness of the day, (social media can totally wipe a person out) and then it's time to give the child a bath and read her a story and then get her to bed. But of course, she doesn't go to sleep. She keeps coming out of her room. She forgot this or that, she needs water, she needs to pee, she just doesn't want to go to sleep. And I am thrown even more off kilter, even though all I've been doing is playing on Facebook or Twitter. Damn social media.

Finally, when it's quiet, I think, okay. Finally. I open the laptop and stare at the page. Look at the words I wrote earlier, (like a few days before) and stare blankly as if seeing them for the first time. And thinking, God, this is a waste of time. Then my head is fuzzy and I'm feeling tired, (again from all the social media) and then I think, I need to just relax. Watch a little TV. Put the phone away, turn off the internet. Stay away from social media. So then, I watch TV. Clear my mind for just a little while and before I know it that little while is a long while and either I fall asleep on the couch or give up and go to bed. No writing that day.

While I'm in bed, I keep going over my story scenes. Where I'm at, what I need to add, what I can take away. I develop a plan of action for the next day.

And guess what happens?

Start over from the beginning of this post if you're not sure where I'm going with this.

Which makes me wonder...we're told to build a platform, get people to follow you, to like your work, to become loyal fans so that when you do publish that great novel, you'll have sales. But we spend so much time building that platform when is there time to write?

I know, I abuse it sometimes. Most of the time. Use it as an excuse not to write because of fear maybe? Fear of finishing the blasted work. Fear that it's gonna suck, or worse, it's going to be great and we're going to be thrust into some kind of spotlight.

You know what I'm getting out of all this? Writers are tortured souls, more melodramatic than any drivel we could write.

Get over myself. Write damn it. Stop making excuses and just do it. What will be will be but at least it will be done.

And now I've just wasted a whole lot of time writing this post and it's almost time to get the child off to school.