My Top 5 Distractions from NaNoWriMo

Last updated on 24 June 2025

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Attention: NaNoWriMo shut down in 2025. Char over at The Plottery has a succinct blog post about the closure and what happened. I encourage you to read it. You can still, of course, do your own writing challenge like NaNo once was, and I think this post will still be helpful for you.

The NaNoWriMo distractions that come too easily

“With great NaNoWriMo writing comes great responsibility.” – Me, circa 2016

A responsibility to sit down and write. A responsibility to get your word count logged on the site. A responsibility to battle with plot holes and characters misbehaving. A responsibility to not get distracted.

I don’t get distracted too easily, however, I find if I’m doing NaNoWriMo, the time of year when I really can’t afford not to be writing, then there are certain things that just pull my attention away. It happens mostly when I’m writing a scene I don’t want to be writing, or I’m struggling with something, or I’m not happy about it. Even if I have the best NaNoWriMo resources in the world, or have the top tips at my fingertips … It happens!

Distractions happen to the best of people, so I thought today I’d share some of my NaNoWriMo distractions so you feel like you’re not the only one.

1 | The Internet

Especially Buzzfeed, Instagram, Pinterest. It’s like they know that NaNoWriMo is happening and want to do everything in their power to make me lose. Not having the internet is the best way to avoid such things of course, which is why heading to a cafe with limited to no WiFi is a real bonus. Or use a computer with an expired security programme so that you’re too scared to even turn the WiFi on for fear of the world hacking into your entire life, or worse, steal your story.

2 | Books

Yup. Other books are a distraction. I know that I’m trying to write one, but the one I’m reading at the moment is just too good. Put the book down, friends. Work on your own. Sigh.

3 | Food

In particular, recipes. Thanks to Pinterest (argh! See point 1) the world is your baking tray, your non-stick pan, your egg beaters, and yes, your oysters. But there just isn’t time in the NaNo day to be drooling over chocolate cake stuff with strawberries, or garlic shrimp pasta. (Side note: Not together. Please never stuff chocolate cake with garlic shrimp pasta.) Thankfully, this is all avoided if you get rid of number 1.

4 | Other People

It doesn’t even really help if I go to a cafe to write. I’m a sucker for people watching. I usually head to the airport hours earlier than I need to just to sit and watch people. Creepy, but I’m being honest with you all. Even if I’m away from friends and family, and I’m surrounded by strangers, I still get distracted by them. I wonder what coffee they’re drinking, who that is they’re meeting with, what subject they’re studying for school or Uni, and what they think of that book they’re reading. It’s a disaster.

5 | Home

Home is the worst distraction. Possibly because there’s the internet, books, food, and other people all at once. But it’s also that I get distracted by other things I have to do, or that pile of junk that needs sorting, or I see a movie I just have to watch right then and there. It’s a mess, and it’s definitely distracting.

It seems the only way for me not to give into NaNoWriMo distractions is to put me in an internet-less white box of a room with nothing but a word processing dunger of a laptop for company. Then the only option I have is to look at the screen and write.

It’s a miracle I’ve made it through NaNoWriMo before.

What are your main writing NaNoWriMo distractions? Or distractions in general?