Poetica Magazine

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I was once at a writer's conference and the speaker told us that she purposely writes on a computer that has no Internet capability.  She said that if she had Internet on her computer, she would never get her writing done each day; she'd spend the whole day playing.  I understood that well enough since even at that time I had a little eBay problem and would check my email or click on various news items on my home page, wasting time, and putting off writing each day. 

Now, of course, the Internet is much more packed.  Now there's Facebook, which for me has become a kind of email for everyone I've ever known and for everyone I know now.  There's real estate to look up, since my husband and I are on a never-ending quest for another house that meets both of our needs:  it will be nearly free (for him) and have a view and no HOA (for me).

But there are legitimate things that the Internet can do for a writer.  I get my subscription to Publisher's Weekly and Publisher's Lunch on the Internet.  These publications provide me with information about what's going on in the publishing industry and, specifically, which agents have sold books - and of what genre - to which publishing houses.  As a writer, this information is essential. 

When I'm ready to shop my book around, it will help me find an agent that is interested in my genre; it helps me see how memoirs, in my case, are selling to publishing houses; and it helps me see which publishing houses are buying them.  For example, if celebrity memoirs are the only memoirs being published and I'm not a celebrity, that's not a good trend for me, as a writer or as a reader.

I wish I could say that all my Internet distractions were always so legitimate and career-oriented.  And I wish I could say that I, too, am going to disable the Internet on my office computer so I can concentrate on my writing only, but I can think of a lot of reasons why that's not a good idea, from the fact that some of my work, such as blogging, occurs on the Internet, to the fact that sometimes I need to do legitimate research there for whatever I'm working on. 

Making sure that my fool-around time is matched by my work time is my goal for now.  

Thanks for reading JWorld Cafe, the Poetica Magazine Blog

Linda Pressman, Blog Editor