Distraction Thy Name is Family

Every writer has distractions. It's just the cold hard truth. The phone rings, the dryer buzzes, your stomach growls. It's all a part of life. To add to some of our lots we have families. Children, pets, and spouses. How we ever get any writing done is a mystery. Tell me if any of this sounds familiar.

1. Typing happily, my son playing with his cars and Duplos until he decides that it would be fun to play instead with mommy's laptop power cord. Distraction.

2. The cat is chilly and so decides to take up residence on your laptop keyboard. Distraction.

3. The dog tied up outside takes exception to a rabbit on the opposite side of the yard. Distraction.

4. The dear spouse who can't find something or suddenly decides that now is a great time to do such and such project and needs your help.

Anything ring a bell? Families, as I am slowly learning, are a huge word count eater. Don't get me wrong. I'm not mad or upset but it certainly can be frustrating. Especially when you're in a groove. You know what I mean. You've finally hit your stride and typing or writing at an awesome pace with the story just flowing from your fingertips when *BAM!* a distraction occurs. You go and take care of whatever it is that needs to be done but how to get back into that awesome groove? What do you do?

I know for myself it's never an easy thing to get back into the groove. I usually have to step away and write something else for a bit...a blog post or something (yep, it's why I'm writing this one now!) and come back to it again. For me I haven't found an easier way but I wonder if other ways exist. What do you do to get your writing groove back? Will you share it with me?