Sit at computer, bring up blank page, make a cup of tea. Sit at computer, look at blank page, do the washing up. Duration: 1 hour. Word count: 0
If this sounds like your typical writing pattern, you’ve got company. The sudden urge to do housework, rearrange books, check your bank statement- when you really ought to be writing is known as ‘Displacement activity’.
Displacement activity, all the stuff you do that is not the stuff you are SUPPOSED to be doing, is the bane of a writer’s life. Avoidance is probably a more readily understood term, but doesn’t sound half as writerly. What happens is a little ‘displacement monkey’ in your mind distracts you from the task at hand, by urging you to ‘make another cup of tea/check the TV guide/your bank account/ebay/post on this blog : ) rather than crack on with that difficult piece of dialogue you’re trying to get down.
I don’t believe displacement activities are wholly bad. They sometimes happen for a reason. Perhaps what you’re working on needs time to settle, or percolate in your mind and, after you’ve bought those gloves on ebay, it will all come together. However, I think I’d get a lot more writing done if I didn’t have an Internet connection in my office.
Still, I know a few writers who keep their displacement activity on hand – as another creative hobby such as painting, and they believe one such activity complements and feeds the other. So, they may start painting and then half way through THAT activity they’ll turn back to their writing as a displacement activity for their painting and so on…
As with everything in writing, if you find your displacement activity works for you, then go knock yourself out with it. If it is a hindrance, then find a way to stop it distracting you such as getting a room with no internet connection. I recently heard of an app called ‘Freedom’ which will block your internet connection for an hour, making you get on with that section you’re meant to be finishing today… maybe I need to try it out right now… bye…
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About suehealy
Literary Manager at the Finborough, Sue Healy is an Irish playwright with a track record in stage and radio. Her most recent play, Imaginationship (2018), enjoyed a sold out, extended run at the Finborough and was later selected for a staged-reading at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough.
Her previous stage productions include Cow (Etcetera Theatre, 2017) and Brazen (King’s Head Theatre, 2016), funded by Arts Council England. Her short plays have been performed at the Criterion (Criterion New Writing Showcase), Arcola (The Miniaturists) and Hackney Attic (Fizzy Sherbet Shorts by Women). Her radio work includes nine plays broadcast on BBC Radio 4 (Opening Lines winner), WLRfm and KCLR96fm.
She has been a finalist for BBC Scriptroom 12, Eamonn Keane Playwriting Prize, Nick Darke Award and Old Vic 12 New Voices. Her screenplay was shortlisted for the Shorelight Award.
Sue’s prose has won The Molly Keane Award, HISSAC Prize, Escalator Award, Meridian Prize and has been published in nine literary journals and anthologies including: The Moth, Flight, Tainted Innocence, New Writer, Duality, HISSAC, New European Writers. She has been writer-in-residence on Inis Oírr, Aran Islands, and at the Heinrich Boll Cottage on Achill Island. She has also benefitted from annual artist residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, and at Ginestrelle, Assisi in Italy.
An academic with a PhD in modern theatre history, specifically the Royal Court Theatre, Sue has presented her research internationally. She has been awarded the John Hodgson Theatre Research Trust bursary, the Fund for Women Graduates (FfWG) and a fees scholarship from the University of Lincoln.
She spent eleven years in Budapest, editing Hungary A.M. She has a PhD in modern theatre history (Royal Court Theatre) and is a UEA Creative Writing MA alumna. Sue is currently an Associate Lecturer in Playwriting at the University of Lincoln and the University of Portsmouth. She tutors Creative Writing at City Lit.
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March 16th, 2014 at 10:05
Yes I suffer from displacement activities I’m currently searching for a cure.
March 16th, 2014 at 13:23
One working cure is to have three wonderful children. By the time you actually get to your desk, and can sit down for more than five minutes (this is usually in the late hours of the night) you already have the first lines of what you’re going to write practically falling out of your head.
March 16th, 2014 at 13:23
It’s true what you say about painters. I use painting/drawing as a displacement for my writing and vice versa. There’s still a certain amount of discipline required for both though!
March 16th, 2014 at 19:04
I think I’ll try that App!
March 16th, 2014 at 20:32
Displacement Activities, has a whimsy sound, but the effects?
March 17th, 2014 at 03:41
Lately I’ve found that if I back away from the internet, go find something to read on paper that has a different “voice” from internet users and writers (preferably fiction), and then come back 15-30 minutes later to what I was trying to write, it helps jump-start my brain and words start flowing again. Weird effect, but it’s been working for me.
March 17th, 2014 at 12:48
I want that desk! I think my issue at the minute is a need a new chair for my desk as my daughter stole mine and I have been using a rocking chair which is fine except it encourages you to lean back and relax far too often.
March 17th, 2014 at 15:32
Currently animal/house sitting before going on holiday, and had a plot synopsis due in today. Spent most of yesterday cleaning and rearranging the kitchen. The synopsis got finished around half 3 this morning, but I have to say the kitchen looks all the better for it 🙂 Who needs sleep anyways…
March 21st, 2014 at 05:25
This was an incredibly helpful post. I knew that I tended to avoid starting work by finding other things to do, but I had no idea there was a name for it. Right now I’m just trying to find an activity that works. Maybe guitar practice, since I fail at getting going on that too.
March 21st, 2014 at 20:29
So it has a name, that act of pulling us away from the moment and the words? So very nice to know I’m not alone and no worse off by doing laundry.
March 24th, 2014 at 19:34
I have a whole spread of displacement activities, but I find gardening is the complimentary activity to writing, you can allow the weather to push you gently between that and the writing.
April 20th, 2014 at 03:18
I’ve tried to ‘displace’ on writing. What I mean is that I have a main story that I am working on (novel, actually), and then I have a secondary story that I work on when I am stumped/weary of/avoiding my main story. It works out occasionally, through often I use displacement to distract me from both.
I wish I could draw or paint to my satisfaction! I have often thought that illustration of my stories might help me keep up with them, but so far it’s only been good enough to help flesh out complex scenes for writing.
May 7th, 2014 at 05:40
Thoroughly enjoying your writing…and some good advice!