Recently as a little science experiment, I unplugged. I woke up early and instead of checking the usual sites online – e-mail, college football blogs, ESPN/CNNSI, etc. – I dove into writing. At lunch, I tried the same tactic. By the end of the day just using little spaces in my schedule, I managed almost 3,000 words of writing. None from a new chapter either, it was all beefing up chapters I’d already written.
If you think about it as band-width, not filling up the noggin with sports tidbits from spring practice reports or the latest on Drudge means there is more room for story ideas, plot lines, character development and the like.
I read a story in Atlantic Monthly a couple years ago on how Google, and the Internet in general, is changing the way we read. In effect, it’s shortening our attention span. We want tidbits and 24/7 news, from a wide array of outlets, and we want it now. I hope this doesn’t filter in to the way we read fiction or good non-fiction, but it’s certainly an uphill battle during the daily grind, staying focused instead of succumbing to the all-out blitz of information that’s out there.
One day of unplugging resulted in almost 3,000 words for me. I see the results, just hope I can stay with it.
