When life throws you an unexpected curveball, knock it into something out-of-the-park awesome.

Being interrupted is my biggest pet peeve in the world. Especially when I’m writing.

Interruptions are just some of life’s curveballs, though. They seem to be targeted especially toward a writer’s writing, and sometimes there’s nothing we can do about it.

A family crisis. An accident. Something unplanned.

We should always make writing a priority. We need to let our family know when our writing time is and carve out that time into our schedules. Even then, there are still some interruptions we just can’t control.

But why let those interruptions be in vain?

If I can’t write when I plan to, I find a way to take the interruption and make it count for something.

I believe you should, too.

I’m begging to be pinned. Just hover over me!

(Note: At the end of the post, I give away a free PDF you can download that turns all the information in this post into an actionable worksheet with writing exercises to help apply research to your writing right away.)

TURNING INTERRUPTIONS INTO WRITING RESEARCH

1. Negative Emotions

(because I don’t know why positive emotions would keep you from writing)

I almost didn’t write this post.

I had just had a discouraging conversation, hit writer’s block, and wanted to scream in frustration because of how late I was getting started on my to-do list.

Negative emotions can keep you from doing a lot of stuff.

While most of the time we just need to suck it up, press through and work anyway, there are a few times where we’ll never be productive unless we have a change of mindset.

In times like those, you can still do something.

• Harness the emotion

I’ve always felt that it’s fine to have emotions, as long as you don’t let them have/rule you.

Harness that emotion; how does it feel? How can you describe it? What analogies could you use to help describe it?

I felt like my heart had morphed into a dark blue orb of heaviness that was weighing down my chest.

Learning how to accurately describe emotions in writing is no further away then turning to our own emotions.

I’m begging to be pinned. Just hover over me!

Harnessing your emotions and describing them is like a real-life writing prompt to make your own characters’ described emotions more powerful.

2. Family Interruptions

I must be wearing a big sign on my forehead that says “I’m hard at work! Come interrupt and talk to me!”

Kidding. I’m glad my family enjoys my company.

And when they take it upon their blessed selves to come say hi in the middle of work, take advantage of the interruptions by…

• People-watching

I love people-watching.

It’s like a reality TV show… in real life. I could just stare at people all day long and be extremely amused.

What is your family member’s body language when they’re talking to you? Does it reflect the emotion in their voice? What little quirks or idiosyncrasies do they have? How can you accurately describe action beats and character movements in this way?

• Practicing the torture you put characters through

My characters get interrupted by people all the time.

I just plotted a scene in which my protagonist and love interest finally figure out how to decipher censored letters full of important information… and are immediately interrupted by the antagonists.

I’m begging to be pinned. Just hover over me!

So when interrupted by family, put yourself in your characters’ shoes.

What kinds of thoughts are running through your head? How badly do you want to shove people out of the room and get back to work? How antsy do you get? How can you convey these reactions in your characters?

3. Responsibilities

Most people knock out school and chores before writing. And I generally do get school knocked out beforehand, too.

But in my family, we usually stay available throughout the day to help my mom with whatever she needs.

So right in the middle of this blog post I’m called to take the trash out!

In cases like this…

• Take inspiration from your surroundings/setting

How does the pen-scratch against paper sound? How does the ground beneath your flapping flip-flops feel when you roll the trash can out? What interesting details do you note about your surroundings?

I’m begging to be pinned. Just hover over me!

Searching out details in real-life settings is good inspiration for searching out details in your story‘s setting to help really make it pop and immerse readers into it.

(Just make sure to focus on writing the pertinent details of your story’s setting.)

4. Outings

This is the worst.

During the unexpected week I had to take off of writing, I had to spend one entire day out of the house and unable to focus on my writing.

Again, I people-watched.

We were doing a big family project, so I enjoyed watching my family interact with each other (and me—gimme allll the attention now that I’m not busy!), what they did when no one was watching them, and their cute little quirks.

You should also…

• Describe the weather.

Setting description is fun for me, but I almost always forget the weather. It’s the most overlooked part of my scene outline.

So when I had to drive with my family to go shopping instead, I paid attention to the weather and described it in my mind.

How does the weather feel against your skin?

Does the sun burn your arms, the wind sweep your hair off your shoulders, or the cold bite at your bones? Does the humidity make sweat drip down your back?

How does the weather change the appearance of your surroundings? When the sun goes behind a cloud, is it colder and darker? Or is there relief from the summer heat?

My series is set in Japan, and Japan’s summers are almost exactly like Florida summers (where I live). The first book in my series is set in summer, so I always get a kick out of feeling the weather for myself and pretending I’m in Japan.

And then my favorite:

• Be on the listen for witty quips.

I write down every epic quote or witty quip there is.

No, literally.

I have thousands of notes written down in my phone.

Whether they’re epic one-liners, sassy comebacks, mic-dropping Scripture verses or witty responses, I always jot them down.

I’m begging to be pinned. Just hover over me!

I love taking inspiration from things people say and infusing their emotion into my own prose and dialog.

Plus, the stuff people say is so interesting. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they talk, subjects they avoid, the way they say something, or even the way they look while they say it!

Just like I keep an eye out for setting details and a feel out for the weather, I keep an ear out for neat lines.

5. Other

The power goes out. Describe the darkness.

You get sick. How does the throw-up scraping against your throat feel? (Sorry. ?)

You made it to the coffee shop and completely forgot your laptop. Harness and describe the emotion, people-watch, listen for witty quips, note the surroundings… just take notes on life.

CONCLUSION

Don’t let those moments in life where you can’t write be in vain.

Take full advantage of them and turn them into valuable times of research and real-life experience, no matter what has pulled you away from your WIP.

In fact, this is made easiest by a workbook I made.

It compiles all the information in this blog post and puts it into a simple, helpful strategy to use.

It will immediately help you take advantage of those interrupts and turn them into productive, effective time of research.

Instead of mentally taking notes of stuff, I can keep this handy little PDF in my phone or even print it out and keep it on hand and actually write my notes on it.

I’ve even included helpful writing exercises to take your research and apply it to your writing immediately (if you write fiction).

Since there’s nothing I love more than a good giveaway, this is completely free and available to anybody!

I hope it helps you! Just click the button below to get it.

Do writing interruptions ever drive you crazy? What do you think of the workbook?