The Writing Process

To those of you who are not serious writers, these questions might have passed through your thoughts a time or two. Why is a quiet secluded spot the best place to do some earnest writing? And, why doesn’t a writer like to be interrupted when writing? Focus and concentration is the short answer.

Sometimes an interruption is not a problem for a writer; however, at times even a slight distraction can be the cause of a lost idea, a thought, mental picture, notion, or concept. The loss of concentration often means, what was starting to form in the mind, starting to become clear, has now dissipated, vanished, most of the time never to reappear or be heard from again. Ideas are like bubbles; the slightest disturbance can cause them to dissipate rather quickly.

Ideas just float around, having no definite direction, destination or purpose, just going wherever the wind takes it. To capture one, to make it conform to your thoughts at times is very trying. Ideas to a writer are like small pieces of ivory soap floating in a swift-moving stream of water. They are hard enough to catch without an interruption, and even if you manage to grab onto one, it may break apart, dissolve anyway, and be lost, even though trying hard to cling to it. And if you are distracted for even a short period of time, the piece you were attempting to capture before your interruption is now just floating away and out of reach.