Stephen King changed how I handle interruptions

Yesterday, I wrote about balancing creating work with a business.

Photo by Vadim Bozhko on Unsplash

Building on that theme, today I’ll cover managing real-world intrusions.

Respondents to last week’s survey said they struggle with finding time to write or create content because of, you know, life.

I’ve been working from home since 2015. I’ve three kids, aged 7–19 (okay, arguably that’s two kids and one adult!).

For a few years, I found real-world intrusions stressful, such as our youngest coming into the office looking for help with his Lego set.

Say hello to a life interruption!

Then, Stephen King saved my sanity and my hairline, with one sentence from his book On Writing:

“Life isn’t a support system for art, it’s the other way around.”

So, I started writing down a line or two about these intrusions in a journal app on my phone (Day One). Often, my entry was just a single sentence or a snippet or dialogue.

That was far more valuable than doomscrolling X or the news on my phone. When I’d more time at night, I turned these fragments into 300 or 400-word vignettes. Later, I started getting up early to expand these vignettes into…