Summary: Curious writers are generally creative and productive, and able to achieve their writing goals—all while having fun. This is no surprise to you—I say it every week! Curiosity can fuel our writing projects and our writing lives so we can create our best possible work.<br> <br> But curiosity can also send us off willy-nilly with no plan or accountability, distracting us from deadlines and keeping us from wrapping up projects. In fact, every once in awhile, curiosity ruins my writing. And if you’re not careful, it can ruin yours, too.<br> <br> Here are five ways curiosity can ruin our writing.<br> 1. Too Curious about our Environment<br> Interruptions and distractions can throw us off, but outside distractions alone aren’t always to blame. Sometimes what threatens my productivity or the depth of my ideas isn’t the distraction so much as my curiosity about the distraction.<br> <br> Let’s say the phone rings. Someone else answers the phone, so I don’t have to lift a finger from the keyboard. And yet, a minute later, curiosity kicks in and I’m distracted from my work:<br> <br> "Wait, who called? Is it a reminder call from the doctor? Will I have to make an appointment somewhere?”<br> <br> Or we’re listening to music in the cafe or the coworking space or we have our own headphones on and start to think, "I wonder who wrote that song? What’s that line?"<br> <br> The notification dings on the phone. Curiosity is behind that knee-jerk response: “Should I check who sent that, or can it wait?” Or, “Isn’t that my Words with Friends notification?”<br> <br> So it’s not only the distractions that distract—it’s our curiosity about the distractions that can disrupt a writing session.<br> Solution:<br> Try asking a question out loud about the writing project to distract from the distraction and bring yourself back to the work. It reminds the brain where to direct its attention, like: “What would make this section stronger?” or “What am I trying to say here about the topic?” Redirect your curiosity about the environment over to re-engage with the work.<br> 2. Too Curious about the Next New Program or System<br> Have you found yourself curious about systems? This is like Shiny Object Syndrome.<br> <br> It’s when you’re curious to try a new organizational tool, word processing program, or productivity app, and you spend a few hours researching it, downloading it, messing around to understand how it works. Then you spend another hour moving all your information over.<br> <br> You're kind of slow using it at first because you’re still adapting, and just when you gain some momentum, you hear about another system and find yourself drawn to give it a try. And you go through the process all over again.<br> <br> All the while, you could have been writing.<br> Solution:<br> Productivity experts will tell you this about those alluring systems: The best system is the one you already use. Pick one. Commit. And resist anything that’s interrupting your writing.<br> <br> Don’t worry if Trello’s color scheme isn’t your favorite or Evernote’s tagging system feels a bit cumbersome or Scrivener looks a lot cooler than Google Drive. If Google Drive is working well, stick with that. Curb your curiosity next time someone entices you to try something else.<br> 3. Too Curious During the Research Stage<br> Curiosity is a friend to the research process…to a point.<br> <br> Driven by insatiable curiosity, we research and research and research for a short story, novel, article, or essay, and we follow interesting tidbits that branch out to more and more interesting tidbits. In reality, if we stepped back and took a look at our notes, we might see we already have what we need to get busy writing the story to meet the deadline.<br> <br> Our curiosity about the subject matter can drive us deep into rabbit holes, digging up interesting but unnecessary information instea...
