Novellist and short story writer Cate Kennedy tackles the issue of how distracting the internet can be in her essay for the latest Overland.
Like most of us with full inboxes and too many Facebook invites, Kennedy finds it difficult to make mental space to write, but advises “Clearing a space away from the great cacophony of online chatter requires a certain vigilance.”
While she acknowledges that the internet had brought a wealth of information within a few mouse clicks, Kennedy reflects that we’re becoming trapped in too much information that prevents us from writing. “What strange times we live in, that it almost feels an act of subversion to reach behind the computer to pull out the cable, sit in the silence with a blank page, gather your nerves, and start.”
The full essay appears in Overland 199.