How to Not Get Distracted by the Internet

Hey, it's me, random person on the Internet who's going to teach you how to ignore me! Okay, not really. But I want to address something every young writer in modern-day first-world countries experiences: Getting distracted by the Internet.

Research is the subtlest form of procrastination. My "Writing Resources" Pinterest board has over 500 pins on it. Are they useful? Eh, well, probably. Did I waste a whole lot of writing time saving random information on stab wounds? Most definitely.

Don't get me wrong, research is necessary, even for fantasy, where writers have a lot of liberty to make stuff up. But imagine this: You're writing a scene, just plugging away at that word-count and doing great, when along comes a quandary. You don't know what drowning feels like. Or how people in the 1700s made tea. Or exactly how to describe the size of a cat. (Bigger than a breadbox? Is your cat larger than average? Smaller? AHH!!)

Our first inclination these days is to whip out our phone or open a new tab and type a question. Millions of sources of information on first aid, martial arts, herbal remedies, name definitions, and historical recipes. Unfortunately, in order to do this, you have to stop writing. And once you stop, you have to build up that momentum all over again. Newton's Laws apply to writing:

1. A writer in motion tends to stay in motion. A writer procrastinating tends to stay procrastinating.

2. Engagement = conflict x stakes

3. For every hero, there is an equal and opposite villain.

(The other two are also important, but it's the first one that matters right now.)

Anyway. What's a writer to do? Do you sacrifice your precious time, or your precious accuracy? Neither. Put a placeholder.

Some writers do this when they don't know a character's name. Just call 'em A and figure it out later. I do it when I need a very particular word, but I can't think of it at the moment: I put a similar word in brackets to remind me to look it up later. You can also do this with details that you don't remember: Wait, did this guy sprain his right wrist, or his left? Put your best guess in brackets and move on.

It doesn't have to be that detailed either. One of my friends puts ELEPHANT in all caps when she needs to go back and find a synonym. That way it's easy for her to see.

Moral of the Story: Don't get distracted by the Internet's vast wealth of research. Instead, use brackets. Or elephants. P. S. Brackets are these things: [] Not to be confused with this: 🐘

Reward for Reading: My writing-related search history.