Escape the News Cycle and Focus (With Help from Your Guilty Pleasure Movie Characters)

As November approaches, you might be struggling to find both the time and the mental energy to write. One of the most distracting (and often disheartening) impediments to your writing can be the endless news cycle. Today, author, editor, and writing coach Kendra Levin shares some tips from your favorite guilty pleasure movies on how to focus on your writing next month:

The news cycle has become the addictive reality show we love to hate (or maybe just hate to hate), and it’s easy to feel like skipping even one day of it means missing crucial information. The idea of unplugging from it entirely for a whole month might seem a bit unrealistic. On the other hand, to do NaNoWriMo this year, you’ll have to find some way to partly disconnect from the endless stream of media. But in a world that is increasingly full of extremes, is it even possible to “partly disconnect” anymore? Four favorite fictional characters show us how to set boundaries for November so you can strike a healthy balance between news junkie and hermit in the woods.

1. Make a declaration of your priorities for November.

Inspiration: Bridget Jones from Bridget Jones’ Diary

As powerless as we often feel in the face of the news, one aspect of our lives we do have agency over is how we spend our time and how we expend our energy. Before NaNoWriMo begins, take a little time to set your intentions. Think about the month ahead and consciously rank your priorities: what’s essential, what’s important, what’s optional—and bucket everything else as, at least for this one month, “unimportant.” You may want to post this ranking somewhere close to hand as a continual reminder.

2. Limit your daily (or weekly) allotment of news consumption—and be specific.

Inspiration: Cher from Clueless

Instead of giving yourself free rein to read, watch, or listen to the news, ask yourself the following questions: How many minutes per day do I want to consume news media during NaNoWriMo? What will help me be most focused on my writing: to consume news before, during, or after my writing hours for the day? What media sources do I want to limit myself to during the month of November? Use your answers to these questions to set boundaries you’ll stick to.

3. Turn the dial on your social media WAY down…or turn it off entirely.

via GIPHY

Inspiration: Andrea Sachs from The Devil Wears Prada

It’s a platform for self-expression, a way to communicate with friends and strangers, and a legitimate source of behavioral addiction. It’s also a giant time-suck and a constant reminder of the most dramatic and most anxiety-making aspects of the day’s headlines. Need I say more? For the next month, back away from the feeds. Your novel (and your psyche) will thank you.     

4. Don’t get burnt out, get fueled!

via GIPHY

Inspiration: Bernadine Harris from Waiting to Exhale

Let’s say you do take a peek at today’s headlines… and your immediate response is any combination of the following: shock, horror, rage, dread, terror, grief, resignation, or something similar. Instead of being dragged underwater by these anguished emotions, how can you use them as fuel for your writing? How can you infuse your characters with what you’re feeling to make these fictional people more real and to fill your manuscript with the crackle of genuine emotion? Turning your reaction to the news into fuel for your art is one of the healthiest ways to process it, for your body and psyche. And it’ll increase your word count.

Finally, when the struggle to find a workable balance between writing a novel and absorbing the ceaseless blows of the latest news feels like too much for you, don’t forget to give your brain an occasional respite. My top suggestion: re-watching a favorite movie.

Kendra Levin helps writers and other creative artists meet their goals and connect more deeply with their work and themselves. She is an editorial director at Penguin, a certified life coach, and author of The Hero Is You . Visit her at kendracoaching.com and follow her @kendralevin . To win a coaching session with Kendra by supporting NaNoWriMo, check out the Night of Writing Dangerously !

Top photo by Elijah O'Donnell on Unsplash.