Wednesday 4 August 2010

I Should be Writing


Woke up nice and early today and thought I'd get on with some writing before breakfast.

First though I had to check my emails... then just a quick look at Twitter... while I'm at it I'd best check to see if there are any comments on the blog. Oh look, it's mid-morning already and not even had breakfast yet. Getting a bit stressed now as I've wasted half the morning.

Breakfast eaten and several cups of coffee drunk so it's time to get back to start writing. But first I need to do a quick bit of online research. Oh it's lunchtime and now I'm really stressing, that's half the day gone and zero words written. I'll have lunch and then start all fresh and raring to go this afternoon.

The laptop's fired up after an extended lunch break and I'm good to go. I do a few neck rolls in preparation to do battle with the wip. But it's a bit difficult to concentrate with all that washing up sitting there from lunchtime. Perhaps I'd better do that first then I can write without being distracted...

And so the day goes on with one excuse for not writing after another.

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating just a teeny tiny bit, but does any of this sound familiar? Why do we spend hours carrying out displacement activities to avoid doing the one thing that we really enjoy?

Is it fear? Either fear of failing and having your baby rejected by all those agents and publishers. Or fear of success and having your baby out in the big wide world without you there to protect it? Or are you looking for perfection and don't think anything you write will ever be good enough?

By the way, it's funny how a deadline can stop you procrastinating. The fear of what will happen if you don't deliver your manuscript or article on time is pretty damned scary!

Brian Clark looks at the different types of fear and procrastination in The Nasty Four-Letter Word That Keeps You From Writing and below are a few of his tips:

  • Realise that every time you fail, you’ve become a better writer.
  • Recognize that each failure brings you one step closer to success.
  • Remember, you’ll never please everyone. You only have to find and please your audience.
  • No one will ever be perfect, so let it go.
  • Action beats inaction every time.
  • Accomplishing anything feels better than accomplishing nothing.
  • What’s the worse that could happen? Often, it’s not really all that bad.

So, how about you? Do you find yourself procrastinating when you should be writing and do you have any tips to cope with it?

5 comments:

Mardel said... [Reply to comment]

hey, Hi! I followed you over (creepy?) from Escape Between the Pages - I loved your comment about the latest you tried to read from LKH. I feel the same quite a bit.

I saw that you are writing also. Have you been published yet?

What types of romance do you write? I burned out on the romance genre, though I still read an occasional romance novel (Lynn Kurland, Julie Garwood, Jude Deveraux, Jennifer Cruisie and occasionally Catherine Coulter).

Would you compare your writing style to any of the authors I've listed? I don't mean do you think you're just like them. Do you use humor?

I guess in my awkward way, I'm trying to find out if you write historical, contemporary, more like chick lit, or just a good story with humor and romance. Or....do you write the style where all the characters think about is um,...er...body parts? LOL

I hope I don't come across as rude, but I'm interested in what you're writing. :)

Mardel said... [Reply to comment]

Forgot to add - that is a seriously cute video you posted. Even though I don't watch Family Guy (often - I've seen an episode or two) I love the baby Stuie (stewy?LOL) character. Best part of the show.

Jude said... [Reply to comment]

Hi Mardel

Thanks for dropping by. I love reading books with a paranormal theme. But that can cover anything from a historical hero meets modern heroine timeslip type novel to stories with a feisty (bit of an over-used word that) heroine fighting demons and vampires.

Because those are the books I enjoy reading, those are the stories I write. I suppose my writing style would be described as irony rather than humour.

I'm unpublished at the moment, but one day...

Video's fun isn't it. I got the link from someone on Twitter.

Thanks
J x

Sarah Callejo said... [Reply to comment]

What I've found is that the more time on your hands, the less things you get done. So I need to fit in lots of things in the day to get things done. I've been procrastinating for a month, but I've set myself a target which makes me focus. Good luck with your writing Jude.

MANDY said... [Reply to comment]

I totally get it. I am a teacher and have my summer off. But it seems that I get more done when I'm working and busy as heck! I have begun doing a little bit of article writing myself this summer. It seems that it's always the middle of the night when I get a thought or inspiration. I now have papers upstairs and down in case I get inspired. Please visit me on my blog at www.mandysescape.blogspot.com
Good luck!

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