Crashes Outside Cause Train Wrecks Inside

I know. I know. The title is a bit Daily Planetish. But what I want to talk about today is distractions. In the life of a writer it's so easy to let your mind wander. I mean, seriously, this is a profession born of embracing your imagination, feeding it chocolate, giving it crayons, and then peeling its childlike genius form the walls. However, there is a fine line between embracing your imagination and letting it go wherever it wants.

I often notice that outside distraction is one of the most commonly talked about issues that writers face. This was definitely the case for me last night. Here's the picture. I was sitting complacently writing at my computer and rocking out to some really old fun music. I hear a loud boom from outside. Pulling my headset off, I ask my wife about the sound. She peeks out out the window and says that some guy ran off the road and took out our bushes. He finally stopped when the tree that he clipped blew out his front tire. I run out the front door to check on the drunk motorist and am relieved to learn that he is alive and well. Now, we sort through this fiasco for about 45 minutes. When I come back inside, my incomplete sentence is staring at me from the nearly blank page starting Chapter 18. A full hour of mind clearing later, I have continued on ten whole words. Ugh. My wife makes the subtle and ribbing comment that I haven't been writing very much... Really? At that point, I decided to call it a night for writing.

I share this story to intimate, as many of my writer friends are keenly aware, that outside distractions can cause pretty hefty distractions inside. My question to all of you is this: How do you 'get in the zone' after being distracted? Along the same lines, what kind of distractions can you see right now from your writing desk?

While many authors may be quite content to write bit by bit, I write action oriented fantasy. When I write it's like a movie playing in my head. I just put motion into words. As such, having uninterrupted access to that cinema is crucial to the fluidity of my writing. Especially if writing some big climactic scene (like Chapter 18).

So that's my take. I firmly believe in creating a clear space (at least mentally) in order to write. And in considerate drunk motorists irritate the daylights out of me.