The Doctor Is In

Every Friday this blog becomes a couch when the writer's therapist takes over.

Dear Dr. O’Doherty:
I believe I do my best work when I go each morning directly from bed to my computer, writing in a semi-sleep state. Now, however, I've become accustomed to checking my email and chat groups before beginning to write. I suspect that this is having a negative effect on the quality of my writing, but I find myself unable to curb what appears to have become an addiction.

Can you help?

Addicted

Dear Addicted:
You have identified a paradox common to the lives of many writers. Writers tend to be social by nature. We are fascinated by the intricacies of human interaction. We spend a significant portion of our lives exploring and documenting the significance of a word, a glance. We celebrate and dissect relationships. Yet, for the most part, we work alone, in silence. There are no staff meetings, no water coolers, no casual chats in the hallway.

The desire to ease this isolation through checking email or surfing the Internet is a natural one. I am the last person to advise you to give it up. (Certainly you must continue to visit this site, for example, and especially on Fridays!) It does sound, however, as though you would benefit from exploring possible factors underlying your “addiction,” and from reorganizing your work habits accordingly.

First, think back to when you first noticed that your Internet habit was interfering with your writing. It may be that you got sucked into frequent email exchanges and chat room participation simply through the hypnotic hold that such activities tend to exert over those who are trying to complete other work. It is possible, though, that there was something else going on. Perhaps the piece you were working on evoked an uncomfortable emotional response, prompting the desire to escape, or a difficult personal situation made it attractive to extend your online hours. Or maybe what you were writing isn’t what you really wanted to write. Try freewriting about what was happening in your life when your “addiction” first got out of hand. (For a great discussion of the process of freewriting, check out Susan Ito’s December 16 entry on her blog, Reading, Writing, Living.
If you are able to identify an issue (or several) that seem to have contributed to the acceleration of your habit, write about those as well. Naturally, if you uncover issues that you can’t resolve this way, you may wish to speak with a professional, but it’s most likely that simply identifying and exploring them through writing will get you back on track.
Whether you arrived at your current less-than-ideal situation through simple capitulation to the attractions of the Internet or for more complicated reasons, it sounds like it’s time to revise your work habits. Since you work best directly after awakening, commit to writing for at least an hour first thing in the morning, before you go online. If you can stretch this to 90 minutes or 2 hours, that’s even better.

When you do take a break, keep the window with your writing work open, or, if you write your drafts longhand, keep the pad on your lap. Sometimes the word or idea we have been searching for pops into our heads the moment we direct our attention elsewhere.

Decide beforehand how much time you wish to spend on the Internet. Half an hour is usually reasonable, but you may require longer or shorter breaks. Whatever you decide, stick with it. If you tend to lose track of time, invest in a kitchen timer. Return to your work at the prescribed time, even if you are in the middle of an absorbing discussion, even if your best friend has just sent you a weepy email about her romantic breakup or accusing you of neglecting your friendship. Remind yourself that if you had an office or factory job, you would be expected to go back to work at the end of your break regardless of the state of your personal life. Then, after another hour or two (assuming you have the luxury of writing for several hours at a stretch), take another break. After a week or so, you will have fine-tuned your schedule, and it will begin to feel natural to you.

In creating and following such a schedule, make sure you don’t push yourself past the limits of your creative energy. The point of structuring your time isn’t to punitively chain yourself to your document until a certain number of words have been forced out, but rather to create the conditions that will allow you to produce your best work.

Bitch Ph.D. blogged recently about her struggle to stick to a writing schedule, and invited readers to share their experiences and suggestions. Most commenters at her site are college professors trying to squeeze academic articles into their teaching schedules, but many of their suggestions are applicable to other kinds of writing as well. Scroll down to “Embrace the Irony” for her post—but be sure to do this on your scheduled break time, and set your timer!

Susan O’Doherty, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with a New York City-based practice. A well-published author herself, she specializes in issues affecting writers. Send your questions to her at Dr.Sue at mindspring dot com.

Comments

[Jozef Imrich]

Thank you for another great literary salvo ...

By the way, direct link to Susan Ito’s December 16 entry on her blog, Reading, Writing, Living is below:

http://readingwritingliving.blogspot.com/2005/12/freedom-of-freewriting.html

Bitch Ph.D. link did not work for me in the text of your post http://bitchphd.blogspot.com/

[Dr.Sue]

Josef, thanks so much! If there were a Bloggie for Most Technologically Impaired Blogger, I know I would win. I appreciate your link therapy.

[Dr.Sue]

I meant Jozef, sorry. Definitely time for more coffee.

[katharine weber]

Another great column.

[Barbara W. Klaser]

This is a great entry. I have this problem too. I've found two things work to keep me writing and blogging.

1) I do my fiction writing on a laptop that never gets connected to the Internet.

2) When I'm strong enough to be self-disciplined, I save Internet use for the end of my writing day.

I'm only sporadically disciplined enough to follow the second rule, but if I manage to make the connection a reward rather than a morning routine, I get a lot more done.

[Kate Maloy]

I've read all of Dr. Sue's columns and am always impressed by the depth, empathy, and imagination in her responses. I too have a problem with the temptations of e-mail and online chatting, but it never occurred to me to try anything but self-flagellation. Now I think I'll give these gentler remedies a try.

[Dr.Sue]

Thanks so much, Katharine, Barbara, and Kate. Barbara, I love the idea of writing on a laptop without an Internet connection. I'm going to try that!

[kristin ohlson]

Sometimes I have to unplug my internet connection and put it down in the basement. At least, that makes me get a little workout if I can't seem to work another hour without checking my email or my favorite websites.

One of my New Year's resolutions is engage in more fruitful procrastination. I don't think I can eliminate it.

Thanks, Dr. Sue.

[Dr.Sue]

Kristin,I love the idea of "more fruitful procrastination"!