So Erika (a.k.a. Human-Mom) was doing some typing the other day with her three cats sitting on her like tiny royalty. Every time she tried to reach the keyboard it seemed like there was a cat’s butt in her way. Distractions, am I right?
Such are the tribulations of a writer.
And yet. Erika loves those cats. Even though they’re assholes by her own (rather frequent) admission. You can see why she loves them though. Look at those faces.
Distractions
At the same time as the cats were making it difficult to write, Bach’s first cello suite was reaching the climactic moment of that gorgeous Sarabande. Erika had to stop for a moment to listen. Then when she went to put her hands back on her keyboard, she found that one of the cats had full-on sat itself in the middle of her lap. Was she to use it as a wrist-rest? Or shoo it out of the way? (Good luck with that. When a cat doesn’t want to move it’s like it’s like moving water with a sieve.)
Anyway, while they were sitting there bothering their Human-Mom, Big Cat, Middle Cat, and Little Cat were asking each other questions about distractions that help. Things like music and the warm cuddly high-functioning-sociopath on your lap. Yeah they’re distractions, but sometimes we need distractions to cancel out other distractions.
Hot Distraction-on-Distraction Action!
For instance that distracting music you’re listening to could be masking the thoughts that would otherwise be creeping around the edges of your brain: “This isn’t good. I don’t know why I’m writing this. These characters suck. I need a snack…” And that warm cuddly feline can make you feel like your writing is a collaborative activity.
So in this case, distractions actually serve to cancel each other out! I like to picture the good distractions seducing the bad distractions so that the bad distractions themselves get distracted.
What do you think, writers? What good distractions do you need when you’re writing, and what bad distractions do the good distractions protect you from?
Script by Adam Katz
Cinematography by Erika Grumet
Executive Producer: Rocket
Starring Frob as Big Cat and Widget as Little Cat
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Description
Two cats, a large orange and a small grey are sitting on a cushion. Probably because Human-Mom stole her lap for some reason. It’s okay. She’ll be back. Meantime, the large orange asks the small grey: “Do you ever get off Human-Mom’s lap when she needs to do something?” The small grey reacts indignantly: “What are you talking about? It’s my lap! Just because it’s made from her legs.”
