The other day I glanced out the window overlooking the shed where we store the animal feed.  Our younger cat was crouched at the bottom of the steps, and a bulbous form with a long tail was protruding from the end of his muzzle.

Good, the next-to-last thing I want is mice eating up food meant for livestock and pets (the last thing I want is them moving into the house with us).

As the cat proceeded to play with his fresh snack for the day, he repeatedly looked away as though he heard something or wondered if anybody was watching (which I was, but not where he could see me).  Although he appeared easily distracted, his tasty tidbit never succeeded at escaping.  The activity reminded me of my own predicament with writing.

Coming up with ideas for the next book has never been a problem.  What is a problem, however, is the next book has a tendency to intrude while I’m writing the current one.

While working on the four-part End of an Age series, this was actually a bit useful.  Knowing what was coming next helped with setting up scenes in the current book.  But now that I’m drafting part four, the next novel (totally unrelated) keeps creeping into my thoughts when I’d rather stay focused on the present tale.

And the fact I’m serializing a “prologue” to the next book doesn’t help.  I’m feeling easily distracted….

This is also the month of NaNoWriMo, when many writers are trying to meet the challenge of spitting out 50,000 words in a readable context.  And plenty of them are also trying to cope with distractions.

We could take a lesson from the cat:  No matter how many times we look away from our work, it’s never out of mind.  No matter how many times it may appear our projects will escape, we always jump back on them.  Persistence, persistence….

Okay, it’s time to stop distracting you and get back to that writing project.  I’ll bribe myself with enjoying a savory treat when it’s finished … although I prefer mine well-done….