Focusing on writing is tough. Here is how to be creative even when surrounded by distractions.

In this article you will learn how to overcome interruptions and innovate your writing.

Interruptions Kill Creativity

Here are some ways to take on that next great project of yours. You know the one I’m talking about. The idea that’s so good you can count on it to pay the bills. It’s a great idea.

But with so many interruptions, you haven’t started. You’ve thrown together a pile of notes But … Interruptions. E-mails. Texts. Phone calls. and tweets get in the way.

And what part of the day or night are we going to do this?

Remember, you are not merely writing a book or crafting a speech. You are going to create a work of art. Your masterpiece will be funny, lyrical, persuasive, memorable. You want to help others. Not too much pressure, eh?.

The Key to Creativity

You can’t expect to pull off this creative event just by blocking an hour or two out each day. The way to do pull it off is to unleash the muse inside of you. The muse is that part of your brain from which your creativity flows.

One way, I’ve found, is to stimulate the muse with external stimuli that lures him out. As I explain in my storytelling manual, The High-Impact Writer: Ideas, Tips and Strategies to Turn Your Writing World Upside Down, there are easy ways to welcome the muse.

6 Tools to Unlock Your Muse

Sounds

The sound of water is a popular stimulator of the muse. I wrote my best story — my marriage proposal column in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (“Dog’s not all I need to fill hole in my life”) beside a babbling brook in an Arkansas forest. Water sounds can also unleash the muse in showers, baths, even smart phone apps that cost $1 and recreate water sounds. Other sounds work, too. What’s your sound?

Music

Music works for almost everyone. Everything I write has its own theme song. Use your music player to tap your writer’s muse. Create a writer’s playlist of songs that get you going in the direction you want to go. Play those songs every time you sit down to create, and you’ll train your muse to come out when it hears the music.

Driving

Of course, some of your best ideas come while driving and listening to music on the radio. Your muse is stimulated by the steadiness of the road. Keep a cheap digital voice recorder in the car to grab ideas because you won’t remember the good lines later. See, the muse never sticks around.

Middle-of-the-night thoughts

Eight hours a night, you’re sleeping. Yet your muse remains on high alert. Before you nod off or even in the middle of the night, if an idea pops, grab that pen and pad that should ALWAYS be nearby. No need to turn on the light. Write in big block letters, several large words to a page, so you can translate it the next morning.

Movies

For the same reason, I never go to a movie without a pen and paper in my pocket. Movies are the best stories, and they sometimes trigger a million-dollar idea. I write in big block letters — or try to sit in an aisle seat with a safety light.

Read great stuff.

Read your favorite book before you start. Set your bar high. Get your mind thinking like a great writer by preparing like a great writer. Tap the muse. Lure him out, and don’t let him get away.

What do you think? How do you focus on your writing and unleash your muse?