Why I Block the Internet When I Write

(Am I the only one who can't stay off Zillow?)

Zillow, The Real Real, email, hotel sites, are like donuts to me—I can’t stop gobbling them. And doing this kills my writing.

I realized pretty early in my writing career—around the time when I first got wifi at home—that the temptation to check email and scroll all over was going to kill my ability to write if I didn’t get a handle on it. The temptation of the internet is like living across the street from my favorite donut shop. (Which is a true story—I’ve never met a donut I didn’t like, and one summer I lived across the street from my favorite donut shop and could see it from my apartment windows. I ate donuts every day.)

I cannot resist . Like, I cannot resist the call of Zillow, or the idea that if I check my email for the 25^th time in the last 10 minutes that the email I’ve been waiting for my whole life, promising me buckets of money and/or the publishing opportunity of a lifetime, will have arrived. So when I have access to the internet and apps and devices, I do not write. I do not think. I do not do. I get sucked down into a black hole of scrolling and toggling and shopping and house porn.

At first, I felt horrible about myself for my lack of willpower. But then I learned something chilling about this inability to resist:

Did you know that apps, smartphones, Netflix, basically any social media platform in existence, are designed by using the same theory that goes into SLOT MACHINES?!

It’s not wonder I have trouble getting words onto the page. Suddenly, with the advent of all the above, it’s like I’m surrounding myself with piles of donuts then making myself promise not to take even a single bite of one.

So, I began to take drastic measures—and it changed my writing life forever.

I began unplugging the internet the moment I got up in the morning (that’s when I write). Like, I physically would go into the office where the router is, reach around the furniture and boxes, and unplug it from the wall.

One of the responses I got when I told people I starting doing this was: Why don’t you just turn off the airport on your laptop instead?

Well, isn’t it obvious?! Because with the touch of my finger I can immediately turn it back on! I need mountains of effort between me and Zillow. And me and email, etc. I need physical blockades. Just like me with donuts—I cannot live across the street from them. I. Just. Cannot.

The reward of this daily effort , of actually unplugging the internet?

Hours of uninterrupted writing and reading time. I’ve written many books this way.

In fact, since the dawn of wifi at home, this is how I’ve written all my books. It allows me the space that my mind needs to be creative, to finish a whole chapter in one morning, to simply get words onto the page. It also helps my sanity. Being constantly interrupted—allowing the internet and apps and social and mindless scrolling and shopping and house porn to constantly break into our creative spaces. It not only kills our ability to get anything done, but also makes us feel bad about our productivity. More than this, it clutters up our writing time and our brains and interrupts that story we were telling. (Remember that story we were telling?)

I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that so much access to our devices and the internet and socials is destructive to our creativity. There is a pleasure in focus, in getting lost in a book or what we are writing, and creative focus and flow feels good. But when we allow ourselves to be constantly interrupted and our creative time is totally fragmented we deny ourselves that pleasure.

One last caveat: During the pandemic, my husband began to work from home so I could no longer physically unplug the internet for hours. I downloaded Freedom to my laptop and now that’s what I use when I’m in Brooklyn to block the internet. Also, I know what you’re thinking: these days, because of unlimited data plans, unplugging the internet at home is moot because you can just use your phone. Well, put that thing away when you’re writing! Like, away-away.

• If you live in a house with two floors, put it on the floor where you aren’t.

• Get a damn lock box for that thing.

• Have one of your children keep it away from you (and wouldn’t they so enjoy keeping Mom or Dad in check with their phones! Ha, how the tables turns.)

• Place physical barriers between you and that creativity-interruption-machine.

Make it a part of your daily writing ritual. It will be hard at first, but you’ll get used to it. And as far as excuses go—like, what if I have to look something up while I’m writing? (I get this question a lot). Well, make a note to yourself and look it up later! The internet and its many glories will be there in two hours. It’s not going anywhere.

Just try it. Your writing will thank you for it. Then you will thank yourself for it!

(Coming soon: what it’s like to not have internet on one whole floor of my house!)