Fannish Fifty Challenge: Post # 36: fanworks amidst distractions

[ride_4ever]

This is directed to fanworks creators and fanworks consumers who, like me, have trouble with writing or reading in the midst of distractions.


I have VAST (Variable Attention Stimulus Trait) which makes it hard for me to write fic or read fic in environments where there is noise and activity around me. It is best for me to do my writing and reading in a solitary and quiet environment. I can't always get that...and I'd like to hear from others in similar situations who may have developed coping mechanisms that allow them to engage with creating fanworks or consuming fanworks in spite of a less-than-ideal environment.

Comments

[brightknightie]

FWIW, I frequently use "noise reduction earmuffs" (meant for machine shops and power tools) to write at my workplace, and sometimes also at home. They don't completely block all sound -- I will hear a fire alarm, of course, and it's amazing how one's own name spoken will penetrate -- but they do sort of smush down all the noise and speech in the vicinity into one-note, ignorable, background, white noise.

These are the pair I've been using for the past decade.

Folks at work who are not writers often assume they are "noise-canceling headphones" and that I'm listening to music. Nope. :-)

[ride_4ever]

Thank you kindly! Great suggestion! I'm going to try these or something like them!

[corvidology]

Shooting ear muffs. As in ones designed for shooting.

[ride_4ever]

Thank you kindly! Great suggestion! I'm going to try these or something like them!

BTW, have you ever done shooting practice on a range where you used ear muffs like these? (With writing some police procedurals I've often thought I should get some shooting range experience to inform my writing about shooting.)

[corvidology]

Long ago and far away.

As you know, we have very strict gun laws in the UK and I'd never seen one in person* before moving to the States for grad school where one of my flatmates' sisters was a deputy sheriff and I went to the range with her a couple of times out of curiosity.

*Strict gun laws but one of my close friends was the daughter of a farmer so I'd seen his shotgun.

[ride_4ever]

Well, even though I have always lived in the States, where we have those less strict gun laws, I have never seen a gun "up close and personal" except in the holster of a police officer or a licensed security guard. I have never seen someone in person actually holding a gun. Did you do shooting practice yourself when you were on the range with the deputy sheriff?

[corvidology]

Yes, yes I did. It helped that the flatmate's sister and I became very good friends and through her I became friends with a homicide detective and the assistant pathologist.

I was told I did okay for my first time -- I hit targets, probably helped that I studied archery -- and the detective complimented me on not blinking when I fired the handgun. He said that's one of the things that makes him nuts in movies is when supposed crack shots blink every time they fire.

I elected not to return although I was invited. Guns are definitely not my thing.

[amedia]

First of all, I feel for you! You are such a gifted writer, it must be painful to have ideas you want to get out onto paper or a screen, and find yourself in situations where you just can't. *hugs*

I have ADHD, classic female type (tm), which means that it's easy for me to tune out the world and disappear into a fantasy (especially when I'm supposed to be paying attention to something else). I used to get a lot of fic writing done by bringing a notebook and a pen to the con suite, and let people jabber around me while I tuned them out and wrote. (It helps that people were usually discussing Sentinel or Supernatural or some other fandom I wasn't interested in.) I understand, however, that technique doesn't help you.

I also found it good to write when I was in my hotel room by myself, which usually happened for at least a little while even when I was (as is usually the case) sharing a room.

I've also been known to write - not on my work computer because I'm paranoid, but by hand, in notebooks - during slow times at work. I don't know if you ever get slow times at work, and I haven't had any recently, but I mention them just in case. Just carrying a notebook around with you in case you get ten or fifteen uninterrupted minutes can allow you to take advantage.

[ETA: I usually have time at home to write by myself, especially if TODS is listening to podcasts or reading or what-have-you, since he uses the den for that while my computer setup is in the bedroom. I tend to think of conventions as your natural habitat because that's where we usually see each other!]

I wish I had more and better suggestions. I feel for you!!! *hugs*

[ride_4ever]

TYK for your supportive -- and flattering -- comments!

Yes, I've found "alone in a hotel room at a con" to be a very good time for both writing fic and reading fic, and I have also done handwritten fic in a notebook when there are some slow times at work (but things happening around me at work are still too much of a distraction even when it's "down time" with my own work...so I have to go lock myself in the staff washroom to get the quiet and isolation I need in order to escape distractions).

[seleneheart]

Headphones with music that I can write to coming through them.

[ride_4ever]

Yes, I know of people who can write while they hear music playing, but that doesn’t work for me because for me it's either listen to music OR write...the music is another distracting sound for me. (I do, however, listen to one or another single song over and over and over prior to writing if the lyrics are representative to me of a prompt for a fic.)

[verushka70]

Okay, so what has worked for me a few times is to go to a deserted diner (like the Steak 'n Egger at Central Ave & Ogden; there's also one at Central & 26th St, but that seems a lot busier) with my laptop.

If I go to the one at Central & Ogden during off-hours, I'm usually the only person there. I've been there 1-3am; I've been there at 3pm in the afternoon; both times I was the only person there. The few other people who come in seem to "eat and get out," as the sign used to say at Ed Debevic's. Many times I've been there alone, someone or some people have come in, they've ordered, they've eaten, and then they've left... and I am still there, alone again.

The waitress usually has the radio on, there, however. Which leads to my other solution: a white-noise generating app on your phone, and wired earbuds to provide it right to your eardrums, and block everyone else out.

Most of the white-noise apps you can get on the Google Play store are loaded with ads and trackers. But the FOSS (free open source software) apps I use aren't.

But you have to turn on the "install from unknown sources" setting on your phone to install them. That setting is how Google prevents you from installing any free open source software that isn't on Google Play, but it is also how it protects you from malware. In theory.

So let me know if you are interested in the latter, and I'll send you links. They're all installable with the Droid-ify app which installs FOSS apps from Github.

In no particular order they are: Chromadoze, Noice, and sleepsweet
One of them, I can't recall which right now, simulates noise like the noise of an air conditioner or a fan. So if you can write at home totally alone with the sound of your AC, furnace, or a fan going, the app can mimic that.

[ride_4ever]

Interesting to read how you utilize public spaces combined with your tech knowledge of apps, but I don't have any problems with writing in public spaces like restaurants and coffee-shops -- I used to do that when I had a schedule that provided me with more time to easily be away from home -- the sounds in public spaces are like "white noise" to me. Nowadays I don't have that kind of time flexibility on a regular basis, so really what I want is something to block some of the at-home distracting noises and I think I'm going to try some of those noise-cancelling earmuffs mentioned elsewhere in this post.