I HAVE THE ATTENTION SPAN OF A MENTALLY CHALLENGED PARAKEET

The setting is around me. I can feel the words, sentences, dialogue bubbling to the surface of my mind. It's here; I get one sentence out, then two. I'm feeling it when... Is that poo I smell?


There is my sorta potty trained toddler smiling at me from behind the TV. Her favorite spot to do the doo. I get up, shuffle over to her, and ask her why she prefers to go behind the TV than in the toilet. Next comes cleaning her and the underwear (yikes), and five minutes of extreme unpleasantness I would not wish on anyone. Then after she's changed, and the clothes are soaking in oxyclean, I finally sit down and... nothing. The scene is totally gone from my brain.

This and similar instances of writing interrupted take place quite frequently for me. I don't have my own office (we live in a tiny one bedroom), our neighbors can be loud as we can't shut our windows (no A/C), we have one desktop computer, and with twitter, facebook, and now G+ it can be so hard for me to just focus.

Don't get me wrong, I love where we live and my little family, but from a "getting my novel done" point of view, our current set up can be rather frustrating at times.

The biggest thing that bothers me is that I realize the problem isn't with my environment at all. It's with me. I'm just not disciplined enough. I don't have a schedule. I get distracted easily. I lose track of what I'm doing easily. I swear my brain is starting to fall out of my ears.

Some days I just want to give up. I figure at this pace I'll never get it done. I've had three days in a row, and one damn scene I'm trying to build, but I can't get it right. Everything I write is total crap and I've re-written it I don't know how many times.

How on earth does anyone stay focused? What do you do to stay focused on your writing? Advice would be welcome.