In the last few weeks I’ve been thinking about the importance of ignoring. As writers a lot of things can get in your way. Distractions and fear and overwhelming details.

So, I believe part of being a good writer is the ability to ignore.

You have to ignore distractions to sit down and write every day. You have to ignore your fear to get to your true voice. And you have to ignore certain details to illuminate others.

Ignoring Distractions

Ignoring is as central to writing as discipline. Without it, you’ll get distracted by emails, texts, social media, or news. You’ll get distracted by the constant barrage of content online. You’ll prioritize other people’s communication over sitting down and creating your own.

A few things that work for me: I schedule a specific time to check email, block time on my calendar to write, and put my phone on silent. You would block your calendar and put your phone on silent for a meeting. Why not do it for writing? A meeting with yourself to write.

I also find that writing in the morning before anyone is awake takes the pressure off to respond to outside communication.

Ignoring Fear

Knowing from experience, it’s easy for us writers to invite fear into our space. She’s a lot like the nosy neighbor who thinks you do nothing right. You usher her in for coffee, knowing full well she’ll criticize your furniture, lighting, and overall cleanliness. And if she doesn’t hate the setting, she’ll surely let you know what’s wrong with all of the characters in the neighborhood.

Eventually you learn that the nosy neighbor has her place, but it’s not a coffee date with the first draft. You learn to ignore her until editing requires her more refined take. And even then, you only invite her over for short stretches. Otherwise, she’ll consume you with far too many suggestions and some of them are not as good as she thinks they are.

Ignoring Unimportant Details

To learn to write well you have to learn to ignore certain details. That way, you can illuminate other more enticing descriptions.

Consider a take on two beautiful sentences one of my favorite authors wrote. In this instance, Stephanie Garber is describing a saloon. I’m going to start with a detailed version of these sentences, which I entirely made up and condensed into one sentence. I want to give you an idea of how laborsome writing every single detail would be. Here you go. Try not to cringe.

Inside the saloon, to the right of the front-facing piano that looked out on clientele who danced in the center while wearing top hats, their left arms encircling right arms, portraits of Legend hung on the wall.

I was bored out of my mind writing that sentence. Why? Because it’s a boring sentence! I also got bogged down in what the descriptions meant. Whose arms were doing what, and the piano was where? Who cares? It doesn’t really matter where the piano was. You don’t want to read it as much as I don’t want to write it. It’s too detailed and yet somehow not detailed enough. I didn’t ignore the boring parts and describe the important ones.

Now, let’s learn from a master. Stephanie Garber writes, “Tonight they were in an otherworldly version of the saloon inside the Church of Legend. Countless portraits of artists’ imaginings of Legend looked down on them as a spectral piano player tapped a quiet tune, while ghost-thin patrons clad in colorful top hats danced around.”

Wow, I’m swept away. She’s included enough details that I can see the room, but not so many that I feel like I’m reading a blueprint. Ignoring some details to focus on others allows readers to envision the setting but also put their own take on it. As Stephen King says, “Description begins in the writer’s imagination but should finish in the reader’s.”

Including the right details while ignoring others also allows the pace to continue without the reader pausing to identify the way every action plays out. You’re not in yoga class. You don’t need to say that the character moved her left hand forward and her right foot back. Then she returned her hands and knees to a tabletop position and moved her right hand forward and her left foot back. It’s hard enough to follow in class. No need to struggle with it on the page.

I’m reminding myself as much as you, consider this permission granted to ignore. Ignore distractions so you can carve out space to write. Ignore fear. She has better things to do than comment while you’re writing your first draft. Ignore unnecessary details. They’ll confuse you and the reader.

Ignore to become a strong writer.

Photos by Joanna Kosinska and Hannah Grace