Interruptions While Writing


When you write at home do you get interrupted? I’ve heard it said that you wouldn’t get interrupted if you worked in an office. Well, I’ve worked in an office, and I did get interrupted, just not from my family. I think we all get interrupted.

They key for me is to not let it happen at critical moments. At work I could shut my office door. At home, maybe there isn’t an office door.

Here’s what did the trick for me. I explained why a 10 second interruption hurt my writing.

When I’m writing, I hold 2, 3 sometimes 4 ideas in my head at a time. If someone says “Do you know where the (blank – and you can fill in whatever blank is) is?,  the ideas in my head crash to the ground and shatter. I then spend the next idea picking them up and putting them back together again.

This description seemed to work and now I’m left alone unless there is a true emergency.

Now all you need to do is define a true emergency.


6 thoughts on “Interruptions While Writing

  1. You are right, Kristina. I am fortunate to have only my husband in the house with me now and he is very good at seeing whether I am writing or doing drivel jobs like banking or actually holding ideas in my head, as you say so well. If we don’t train them, who will?


  2. What a great way to explain what happens when ideas come crashing to a halt! That is so true. Sometimes I feel like I’m building a house of cards with my words, and a poorly timed phone call will bring them all tumbling down, never to be rebuilt exactly the same way again.
    I’ve found that the best way to avoid interruptions is to write late at night, or early in the morning, when the rest of the world is asleep.
    While they are dreaming, I am writing. 🙂


  3. Kirsten, great for you that you can write early or late. I do better after a run in the morning. I wish I could write while everyone is asleep. I’ve don’t that for a summer at the cottage, and then had to nap later in the day!




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