Can Facebook zap your writing time?

How much time do you spend going on Facebook? Or Twitter? Or reading emails? What about the news headlines? If you're a writer, and you're working on a script or a novel, or any creative writing, you need or should be writing almost every day. But are you?

Now even I can blame myself for going on Facebook, headline news, emails, off and on all day. They're time zappers. We writers have to find ways to stop letting things like that get in our way of actually writing. So what can I do to stop that? Well, I'm going to try something, that I hope I can actually do. It might be hard for me.

But here's what I propose, I'm going to limit how many times I go on these sites. Perhaps it's one time a day, where I check all my emails and Facebook, and headlines, and that's it. No cheating and allowing myself to go on more. But can I really do that? It's really tempting when it's just a click away! Especially when I'm writing a script, I need some brain vacations to come up with other ideas, so going on Facebook is so mindless, it's the perfect way to take a break. But am I using up valuable time that I could be writing instead? Maybe I spend more time on there than I would if I just took a break. But let me start with at least one day, and go from there. Perhaps I can go a week like this. And before I know it, maybe add a lot more writing time in my day, and then it can become a habit. And I'm going to blog about this tomorrow, so I'm held accountable. It's a scary thing being accountable. But it keeps me from cheating at least.

And what about my cell phone? It dings every time I get an email. Like it's calling me, taunting me. "Check your emails," it says. But how many times are they even from someone I know? 90% of them or more are from stores that want me to purchase things that I probably never would want any way. But maybe I can turn off that ding so I don't know about it. What I don't know, won't hurt right?

There's also the cell phone calls, or home phone calls. When I'm serious about having writing time, I don't answer my phone at all. It's so simple to go, "Oh, my friend Lucy is calling! I haven't spoken to her in ages!" And then get stuck yapping about who knows what, and before you know it, your window for writing time has vanished. So me personally, when I sit down to write, I let it go to voicemail. That's what it's for, people! You can always call them back. I promise, you won't lose friends.

Now another time zapper for writers, is watching TV. I can't tell you how many writer friends have favorite TV shows they watch all week long. I would tell them, if you have time to watch TV, you have time to write. Or some friends who would work full time jobs, and then when they get home they're too tired to write at night. Well guess what? You can't be a writer if you're not writing. That's how I even came up with my blog title, "Screenwriter Writing" because I can't tell you how many writers I've known that just never make time to write. I'd even tell them, "if you have 20 minutes where you're not doing anything, write in those 20 minutes." Because, if you were to write 20 minutes every day, by the end of the year, you'd have something! A first draft of a script, or a book, many short stories, who knows! But you can't get there if you keep making excuses.

I've seen and met many people who say they're going to write that script, but just never do. Life always seems to get in the way. But does it need to? Do you really want to write that script? Are your actions and priorities helping you fulfill your destiny? Sure it's fun to post on Facebook, but will you remember what you wrote on there 30 years from now. Or is that script you're dying to write, the next big movie waiting to happen. Only you know. But you'll never know if you don't get it on that paper.