this week's installment of the revision diaries (confessions of an author on a deadline!) reads a little like a Goofus and Gallant episode.
side note -- Goofus and Gallant, for those who did not grow up with Highlights magazine, are two boys who get placed in a situation with choices. Goofus always chooses the irresponsible path, while Gallant is more thoughtful.
side note to the side note -- as a kid, i always pronounced it Goofus and Gal-AHNT, because i'm fancy like that.
totally off-topic tangent -- when i was growing up, G&G were drawn with pencils in black and white. but i just checked out the website for Highlights magazine, and those boys are full-color computer graphics now! and guess what else? you can totally play a G&G "choose your own adventure" game online! i played it... twice.
okay, back on topic!
Friday, i was oh-so GalAHNT. i wrote and revised and wrote and revised again. new scenes. reworked scenes. continuity checks. word choices. i stayed on schedule and did not get distracted. very responsible author this day.
Saturday, i woke up a Goofus. i was exhausted from two full days of revisions and decided to put off writing until the afternoon. i ran errands, did chores, chilled out with Handsome. typical Saturday stuff. except this was not supposed to be a typical Saturday, because the Tic-Tock-Deadline-Clock waits for no weekend!
of course, my day got away from me until only the evening was left. at that point, i had to choose between revisions and poker night with friends.
i won the first game, lost the second. net gain: fifteen dollars.
Sunday, the Gallant on my shoulder came to the rescue. i wrote from practically sun up to well after sundown.
and... i finished.
i know! crazy! i so didn't deserve the satisfaction of being done after my Goofus Saturday, but there it is. i reached The End - again. and then i panicked. Goofus and Gallant were perched on each of my shoulders, having an argument:
Goofus: we're done! press send and let's go celebrate.
Gallant: maybe we should have a crit partner look at those scenes we're still concerned about first.
Goofus: naw! we're tired of revising. let's play some more poker.
Gallant: but we haven't fully addressed that one issue our editor mentioned. let's go back to page one and --
Goofus: you're boring!
Gallant: maybe i am, but if we work just a little harder, hopefully no one will say the BOOK is boring.
*poof* Goofus disappears in a ball of smoke.
actually, i compromised. Gallant isn't always right, and he is a little boring sometimes. so i sent the questionable scenes to a crit partner and took Monday and Tuesday to be a Goofus. i hit the gym, hung out with my gal pals and relaxed with Handsome.
Wednesday, i spent all night dealing with that issue Gallant had mentioned until i was satisfied.
Thursday, i thought long and hard about a possible big change i had proposed to my editor and ultimately decided against it (because, among other reasons, i realized my editor is much much smarter than i am.) i tossed out my outlined changes and polished up the newly revised manuscript instead. and THEN i pressed send. Goofus and i are going to have a blast this weekend.
so that's the end of the Revision Diaries for now.
i'm in uncharted waters on this path to publishing, but i hear there are often several rounds of revisions, then copy edits, then bound pages, ARCs, etc... so i expect this "author on a deadline" will have more confessions to come.
Showing posts with label procrastination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label procrastination. Show all posts
Friday, August 26, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
The Revision Diaries (2)
...week two in the chronicles and confessions of an author on a deadline!
so, as promised (to, um, myself), i truly began revising on Sunday. it was going great. i was trucking along, knocking down those skinny little post-its page by page for a couple days - until i hit a scene that stopped me in my tracks.
this scene needed a fix similar to a scene i'd already revised, so i attacked it in the same way - trimming back paragraphs here and rewriting the language there. but it wasn't working the same as it had worked for the other scene. and no amount of shaking my laptop could shimmy the words into their proper place.
so i got up and walked away for the first time since i'd really started revising.
but unlike with first drafts, or even revisions for my agent or crit partners, when i can walk away for as long as i need to... i knew i couldn't pause for too long. when writing/revising on a deadline, you can only let something sit and stew for so long before - in the immortal words of Tim Gunn - you have to "make it work."
so even though i wasn't sitting at the laptop, whatever i was doing, i forced myself to be thinking/scheming/mentally revising. i schemed while i played iSlash on my phone. i thought hard while watching the Real Housewives of who-knows-where. and i mentally revised while making dinner with Handsome.
(isn't it funny how much thinking/scheming/mentally revising all have in common with procrastinating? huh. wierd.)
but seriously, it was during one of these moments of obvious procrastination that the lightbulb went off. i knew how to fix the scene. i had to completely rewrite it - my first big full-scene makeover in this revision.
but AH! here was a new problem.
i am not one who can edit a single scene in multiple sessions, bouncing in and out of the chapter over the course of a few days. i have to do things in chunks. i needed a good block of time to write the scene AND make sure it was polished, so it wouldn't read like a first draft. but at this point, i was thick into my work week with other obligations looming, and i had not budgeted my week-day writing time for a marathon session - merely for a few sprints.
so with that deadline clock Tic-Toc-Taunting me, i set aside the manuscript for two whole days.
fortunately, i was able to use vacation days from work during this revision period, so i started again Thursday, with 4 full days of nothing but writing time stretching out before me.
and oh boy, did i rewrite that scene! it took the better part of my Thursday and kept me away from the gym and other chores i had hoped to slip in on my day off. but i got it done, and then i went back to sprinting - and smashing those post-its.
today i have a new scene to write and another scene that needs a big re-write, so i hope to be as productive as yesterday.
the only hiccup in my plans will be the carpet cleaners i scheduled to be here this afternoon.
but even if i only write 5 words while they are here, i'm sure i'll still get more done than if i had spent the entire day off cleaning the carpets myself.
i'll be back next week with another installment. (and probably sometime before that when some other random blog post inspiration strikes - i.e. when i need to walk away from the revisions again.)
so, as promised (to, um, myself), i truly began revising on Sunday. it was going great. i was trucking along, knocking down those skinny little post-its page by page for a couple days - until i hit a scene that stopped me in my tracks.
this scene needed a fix similar to a scene i'd already revised, so i attacked it in the same way - trimming back paragraphs here and rewriting the language there. but it wasn't working the same as it had worked for the other scene. and no amount of shaking my laptop could shimmy the words into their proper place.
so i got up and walked away for the first time since i'd really started revising.
but unlike with first drafts, or even revisions for my agent or crit partners, when i can walk away for as long as i need to... i knew i couldn't pause for too long. when writing/revising on a deadline, you can only let something sit and stew for so long before - in the immortal words of Tim Gunn - you have to "make it work."
so even though i wasn't sitting at the laptop, whatever i was doing, i forced myself to be thinking/scheming/mentally revising. i schemed while i played iSlash on my phone. i thought hard while watching the Real Housewives of who-knows-where. and i mentally revised while making dinner with Handsome.
(isn't it funny how much thinking/scheming/mentally revising all have in common with procrastinating? huh. wierd.)
but seriously, it was during one of these moments of obvious procrastination that the lightbulb went off. i knew how to fix the scene. i had to completely rewrite it - my first big full-scene makeover in this revision.
but AH! here was a new problem.
i am not one who can edit a single scene in multiple sessions, bouncing in and out of the chapter over the course of a few days. i have to do things in chunks. i needed a good block of time to write the scene AND make sure it was polished, so it wouldn't read like a first draft. but at this point, i was thick into my work week with other obligations looming, and i had not budgeted my week-day writing time for a marathon session - merely for a few sprints.
so with that deadline clock Tic-Toc-Taunting me, i set aside the manuscript for two whole days.
fortunately, i was able to use vacation days from work during this revision period, so i started again Thursday, with 4 full days of nothing but writing time stretching out before me.
and oh boy, did i rewrite that scene! it took the better part of my Thursday and kept me away from the gym and other chores i had hoped to slip in on my day off. but i got it done, and then i went back to sprinting - and smashing those post-its.
today i have a new scene to write and another scene that needs a big re-write, so i hope to be as productive as yesterday.
the only hiccup in my plans will be the carpet cleaners i scheduled to be here this afternoon.
but even if i only write 5 words while they are here, i'm sure i'll still get more done than if i had spent the entire day off cleaning the carpets myself.
i'll be back next week with another installment. (and probably sometime before that when some other random blog post inspiration strikes - i.e. when i need to walk away from the revisions again.)
Sunday, August 14, 2011
The Revision Diaries (1)
OR: Confessions of an author on a deadline!
you know what you should do when you get your editorial letter? you should totally, ABSOLUTELY, commit to a new blog mini-series.
because that's responsible.
and a good use of your time.
ahem.
here's the deal. i thought it might be fun to share my editing crazies with all of you here on the blog. this is partly to make sure i AM, in fact, blogging during this time and not letting the space go dark. it also gives me an excuse to blog exclusively about revisions, which will be all i can think about for awhile. prepare for the descent into madness.
The Revision Diaries, Week 1:
my ed letter arrived on a friday, while i was at SCBWI. everyone told me you should let the letter sit and sink in for a few days, so i figured that was perfect timing. i'd just get started when i got home.
48 hours later, i was skipping the one free meal at the conference and an entire afternoon of sessions in order to sit in the lobby for a few hours, reading my manuscript and taking notes. (guess i'm not one for sitting and stewing!)
i spent the first few days back at home doing the same thing - reading and taking notes. all of this prep work is good, i told myself. i'll really be organized and ready when i actually start to edit.
eight pages of handwritten notes later, it was time to get back into the book and really start to work. BUT WAIT! the manuscript pages with my editor's notes had just arrived. naturally, i had to write out all new notes for myself based on those pages. really, you can't be too prepared.
the next friday, i talked to my editor on the phone to discuss revisions and bounce ideas back and forth. it was a great convo. i took lots of notes. i am so ready to start working, i thought.
(meanwhile, somewhere in the background, a deadline clock is ticking away. one week gone.)
finally, saturday arrived. my first full day to devote to editing. but i was TOTALLY UNPREPARED! i simply HAD to rush over to the office supply store to stock up on multi-colored Post-Its in all sizes. and as long as i was there, it made sense to pick up a 3-ring binder and new red pens and highlighters.
now i could REALLY get organized!
i spent a good half hour using a hole-puncher on my pretty manuscript pages. then i used my fancy new Post-Its to color-code my manuscript, page by page, with each color representing a different thread of things that need to be changed.
look how pretty! you can see how much work went into all this, right?
and do you know how many words i had actually edited in my manuscript at this point?
zero.
on the one hand, i do think it is CRITICAL to organize and prepare. at this point, i have my letter and my notes memorized, which should make the writing part much easier.
on the other hand, i confess, this first week was partly an exercise in procrastination. i find it very difficult to START revisions, because it means taking that polished manuscript - the one with every word spelled right inside of its perfectly-formatted one-inch margins - and tearing it apart. it's hard to take the thing you once called "done" and go back to calling it a "work in progress."
but it's time. i could not possibly be more organized. today, the REAL editing begins.
you know what you should do when you get your editorial letter? you should totally, ABSOLUTELY, commit to a new blog mini-series.
because that's responsible.
and a good use of your time.
ahem.
here's the deal. i thought it might be fun to share my editing crazies with all of you here on the blog. this is partly to make sure i AM, in fact, blogging during this time and not letting the space go dark. it also gives me an excuse to blog exclusively about revisions, which will be all i can think about for awhile. prepare for the descent into madness.
The Revision Diaries, Week 1:
my ed letter arrived on a friday, while i was at SCBWI. everyone told me you should let the letter sit and sink in for a few days, so i figured that was perfect timing. i'd just get started when i got home.
48 hours later, i was skipping the one free meal at the conference and an entire afternoon of sessions in order to sit in the lobby for a few hours, reading my manuscript and taking notes. (guess i'm not one for sitting and stewing!)
i spent the first few days back at home doing the same thing - reading and taking notes. all of this prep work is good, i told myself. i'll really be organized and ready when i actually start to edit.
eight pages of handwritten notes later, it was time to get back into the book and really start to work. BUT WAIT! the manuscript pages with my editor's notes had just arrived. naturally, i had to write out all new notes for myself based on those pages. really, you can't be too prepared.
the next friday, i talked to my editor on the phone to discuss revisions and bounce ideas back and forth. it was a great convo. i took lots of notes. i am so ready to start working, i thought.
(meanwhile, somewhere in the background, a deadline clock is ticking away. one week gone.)
finally, saturday arrived. my first full day to devote to editing. but i was TOTALLY UNPREPARED! i simply HAD to rush over to the office supply store to stock up on multi-colored Post-Its in all sizes. and as long as i was there, it made sense to pick up a 3-ring binder and new red pens and highlighters.
now i could REALLY get organized!
i spent a good half hour using a hole-puncher on my pretty manuscript pages. then i used my fancy new Post-Its to color-code my manuscript, page by page, with each color representing a different thread of things that need to be changed.
look how pretty! you can see how much work went into all this, right?
and do you know how many words i had actually edited in my manuscript at this point?
zero.
on the one hand, i do think it is CRITICAL to organize and prepare. at this point, i have my letter and my notes memorized, which should make the writing part much easier.
on the other hand, i confess, this first week was partly an exercise in procrastination. i find it very difficult to START revisions, because it means taking that polished manuscript - the one with every word spelled right inside of its perfectly-formatted one-inch margins - and tearing it apart. it's hard to take the thing you once called "done" and go back to calling it a "work in progress."
but it's time. i could not possibly be more organized. today, the REAL editing begins.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
making the time to write
Inquisitive friend/family member/acquaintance/stranger: How do you find the time to write?
Me: You make the time.
sounds simple enough, right?
take a few minutes, sprinkle in some seconds and a big helping of hours... and voila! you've made time.
or if you're not so great at following recipes, you can do as your friend/family member/acquaintance/stranger suggested and find the time. maybe time just slipped in between your couch cushions or got pushed under the bed. really, it has to be around here somewhere...
no?
yeah, making and finding time hasn't really worked for me either. here's why:
there are only 24 hours in a day.
there's just no getting around it. i have personally tried to squeeze an extra few minutes out of that last hour of the day, and still the clock flips to Midnight, and a new day begins.
see, when we writers tell people we "make time" to write, what we're really saying is:
we make sacrifices; we make tough choices; we make ourselves sick from lack of sleep.
if you're anything like me, you have a day job that makes it impossible for you to write for 9 hours out of the day. you also require a minimum amount of sleep. (for me this is about 6 hours a night with the occasional good solid 9-hour slumber thrown in to catch up.) it's also hard to avoid about 2 hours each day of eating, driving, attending to personal hygiene. (please do not neglect the hygiene, i beg of you.)
so we're up to what? 17 hours out of 24 gone. well that leaves a full 7 hours! surely that's plenty of time to write.
yes, by all means spend your 7 hours writing.
OR - start subtracting the time you spend:
attending your children's dance recitals and sporting events, talking on the phone to family and dear friends, paying bills, cleaning your home, running errands... those 7 hours are disappearing right before your eyes.
making/finding time to write is HARD, and you have my empathy. it's all about figuring out a schedule that works for you. maybe one day you spend your 7 free hours running errands and doing chores. another day or 2 or 3, it's all about attending to your family. but some days - some days - you will find that those 7 hours are wide open. and then you have to choose. you can spend those hours catching up with your TIVO, connecting with people on social media, playing your favorite video game, lounging by a pool, reading, working out.... the list is endless.
but at some point, you have to choose writing.
and to make this choice, you should enjoy writing as much as you enjoy all of those other things. it doesn't have to be your top priority (like family - or hygiene!), but it should be A priority.
for example, i love TV. i mean, i looooooove TV. whenever Handsome suggests we cancel cable, i get a clutch in my chest. don't take away my TV! but i am equally entertained - and a hell of a lot more fulfilled - by writing. so about 80% of the time, i will choose writing over television. that means, while i TIVO my soap opera daily, i only watch one episode a week and delete the rest. other shows have been wiped from the recording schedule altogether.
as a writer, cutting back on TV was my first step toward making time, and i've never regretted it.
i've also sacrificed having a spotlessly clean house. "picked up" and "not obviously dusty" are now good enough.
i let my roses get 5 feet tall before trimming instead of obsessively sculpting them at a perfect 3 feet every few weeks.
i found the time to write in my rose bushes and under the pile of dishes in the sink.
and still i don't write every day. heck, i don't even write every week. i take long breaks between drafts to catch up on life and recharge the creative batteries. and i don't beat myself up about it. i know i am capable of choosing to write, so i give myself permission to sometimes choose something else instead.
holy long-winded post!
all of this is to say... whatever sacrifices you are making, however you are stealing your moments, you are doing OKAY! you don't have to write as often as anyone else. you don't have to feel guilty for sometimes choosing yourself over your characters. as long as you are making some time to write, you are on a good path. some days you'll find more time, some days less, but set your own pace. and - above all - write as often as you need to to scratch that creative itch, but only as often as you can and still love it. make the time to write because you want to.
Inquisitive friend/family member/acquaintance/stranger: But how do you make the time?
Me: *sigh* Let's just say I borrowed this time turner from my friend Hermione...
Me: You make the time.
sounds simple enough, right?
take a few minutes, sprinkle in some seconds and a big helping of hours... and voila! you've made time.
or if you're not so great at following recipes, you can do as your friend/family member/acquaintance/stranger suggested and find the time. maybe time just slipped in between your couch cushions or got pushed under the bed. really, it has to be around here somewhere...
no?
yeah, making and finding time hasn't really worked for me either. here's why:
there are only 24 hours in a day.
there's just no getting around it. i have personally tried to squeeze an extra few minutes out of that last hour of the day, and still the clock flips to Midnight, and a new day begins.
see, when we writers tell people we "make time" to write, what we're really saying is:
we make sacrifices; we make tough choices; we make ourselves sick from lack of sleep.
if you're anything like me, you have a day job that makes it impossible for you to write for 9 hours out of the day. you also require a minimum amount of sleep. (for me this is about 6 hours a night with the occasional good solid 9-hour slumber thrown in to catch up.) it's also hard to avoid about 2 hours each day of eating, driving, attending to personal hygiene. (please do not neglect the hygiene, i beg of you.)
so we're up to what? 17 hours out of 24 gone. well that leaves a full 7 hours! surely that's plenty of time to write.
yes, by all means spend your 7 hours writing.
OR - start subtracting the time you spend:
attending your children's dance recitals and sporting events, talking on the phone to family and dear friends, paying bills, cleaning your home, running errands... those 7 hours are disappearing right before your eyes.
making/finding time to write is HARD, and you have my empathy. it's all about figuring out a schedule that works for you. maybe one day you spend your 7 free hours running errands and doing chores. another day or 2 or 3, it's all about attending to your family. but some days - some days - you will find that those 7 hours are wide open. and then you have to choose. you can spend those hours catching up with your TIVO, connecting with people on social media, playing your favorite video game, lounging by a pool, reading, working out.... the list is endless.
but at some point, you have to choose writing.
and to make this choice, you should enjoy writing as much as you enjoy all of those other things. it doesn't have to be your top priority (like family - or hygiene!), but it should be A priority.
for example, i love TV. i mean, i looooooove TV. whenever Handsome suggests we cancel cable, i get a clutch in my chest. don't take away my TV! but i am equally entertained - and a hell of a lot more fulfilled - by writing. so about 80% of the time, i will choose writing over television. that means, while i TIVO my soap opera daily, i only watch one episode a week and delete the rest. other shows have been wiped from the recording schedule altogether.
as a writer, cutting back on TV was my first step toward making time, and i've never regretted it.
i've also sacrificed having a spotlessly clean house. "picked up" and "not obviously dusty" are now good enough.
i let my roses get 5 feet tall before trimming instead of obsessively sculpting them at a perfect 3 feet every few weeks.
i found the time to write in my rose bushes and under the pile of dishes in the sink.
and still i don't write every day. heck, i don't even write every week. i take long breaks between drafts to catch up on life and recharge the creative batteries. and i don't beat myself up about it. i know i am capable of choosing to write, so i give myself permission to sometimes choose something else instead.
holy long-winded post!
all of this is to say... whatever sacrifices you are making, however you are stealing your moments, you are doing OKAY! you don't have to write as often as anyone else. you don't have to feel guilty for sometimes choosing yourself over your characters. as long as you are making some time to write, you are on a good path. some days you'll find more time, some days less, but set your own pace. and - above all - write as often as you need to to scratch that creative itch, but only as often as you can and still love it. make the time to write because you want to.
Inquisitive friend/family member/acquaintance/stranger: But how do you make the time?
Me: *sigh* Let's just say I borrowed this time turner from my friend Hermione...
Thursday, September 23, 2010
while on sub
while on submission to publishers, it's important to keep your mind off the process by finding other things to occupy your time.
the most common advice online is to write something else.
yeah, that's all well and good and probably what you should be doing, but for me - it's not a great distraction, because working on my WIP makes me think about writing.. which leads to thinking about other books i've written.. which leads to thinking about the book that's on sub.. which leads to obsessive email checking!
i find these distractions much healthier:
1) remodel your bathroom.
- start by planning just to paint. then, of course, notice some water damage that has to be dealt with first and proceed to hire a contractor to tear out a wall and part of your ceiling. hire another contractor to replace your skylights so the water damage does not return. after this, decide there's no point in painting without a new bathroom door to complete the look. have Handsome spend a week rebuilding the door and the entire frame. spend days and days repeatedly dusting up the debris left behind by this work. also, have Handsome photoshop the heck out of your bathroom, so you have a vision before painting. tape off the entire bathroom so it's completely unusable, then proceed to lose all interest in the project.
(because, um, how can you possibly worry about painting when your book is on sub and you have to go check your email?!)
2) take a vacation that requires 4 plane rides and two long car trips.
- be sure to get lost in the car on the way to your destination so that you have to concentrate on arguing with your family and navigating with your cell phone.
(turn right here. now turn left. uhhh... what's that? i don't know the next road. i turned off google maps to check my email. i'm on sub, you know!)
3) reprogram your tivo.
- use entertainment magazines to chart your fall TV schedule. settle on the couch, prepared to program, and notice Handsome has hooked up a PlayStation 3 to the TV. great! video games will be a perfect distraction! demand Handsome show you how to use it. then, naturally, discover the coolest thing the PS3 does is surf the web - turning your TV into the world's largest computer monitor.
(omg. do you know what website would look awesome on a 50-inch monitor? my email inbox.)
4) focus on your day job.
- pay particular attention to your email inbox at work. 600 emails a day is a lot to wade through. it's a great time suck to keep your mind off sub.
(and you'll get to it... right after you check the (1) message in your gmail inbox.)
the most common advice online is to write something else.
yeah, that's all well and good and probably what you should be doing, but for me - it's not a great distraction, because working on my WIP makes me think about writing.. which leads to thinking about other books i've written.. which leads to thinking about the book that's on sub.. which leads to obsessive email checking!
i find these distractions much healthier:
1) remodel your bathroom.
- start by planning just to paint. then, of course, notice some water damage that has to be dealt with first and proceed to hire a contractor to tear out a wall and part of your ceiling. hire another contractor to replace your skylights so the water damage does not return. after this, decide there's no point in painting without a new bathroom door to complete the look. have Handsome spend a week rebuilding the door and the entire frame. spend days and days repeatedly dusting up the debris left behind by this work. also, have Handsome photoshop the heck out of your bathroom, so you have a vision before painting. tape off the entire bathroom so it's completely unusable, then proceed to lose all interest in the project.
(because, um, how can you possibly worry about painting when your book is on sub and you have to go check your email?!)
2) take a vacation that requires 4 plane rides and two long car trips.
- be sure to get lost in the car on the way to your destination so that you have to concentrate on arguing with your family and navigating with your cell phone.
(turn right here. now turn left. uhhh... what's that? i don't know the next road. i turned off google maps to check my email. i'm on sub, you know!)
3) reprogram your tivo.
- use entertainment magazines to chart your fall TV schedule. settle on the couch, prepared to program, and notice Handsome has hooked up a PlayStation 3 to the TV. great! video games will be a perfect distraction! demand Handsome show you how to use it. then, naturally, discover the coolest thing the PS3 does is surf the web - turning your TV into the world's largest computer monitor.
(omg. do you know what website would look awesome on a 50-inch monitor? my email inbox.)
4) focus on your day job.
- pay particular attention to your email inbox at work. 600 emails a day is a lot to wade through. it's a great time suck to keep your mind off sub.
(and you'll get to it... right after you check the (1) message in your gmail inbox.)
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
master procrastinator
i got a question in the comments yesterday about how to get past writer's block that's not really writing or story related but more of a "personal motivation issue."
let's call it: Lazy Writer Syndrome.
the first rule of LWS is... it's not your fault!
what i'm going to say will probably be frowned upon by many disciplined writers, but i'm being serious here.
being a little lazy is a personality trait, just like being charming or kind. (this guy with a fancy medical degree disagrees with me, but whatever.) the point is, laziness is something that comes naturally to a lot of people, so i don't want anyone out there suffering from LWS to feel bad about themselves.
however, just like any less-than-desirable personality trait, it may be negatively affecting parts of your life... like say, your dream of finishing a manuscript.
so you need to find ways to combat it when necessary. and i have some tips/ideas/suggestions to do just that. but first let me tell you why i am qualified to make these suggestions:
i too suffer from LWS!!
i am a natural procrastinator. i'd even go so far as to call myself the Master Procrastinator.
it is part of the reason i obsessively make lists. if i didn't, i would simply never get anything done. i would put it all off until "tomorrow" - with the definition of tomorrow being the day after i die. but my desire to be a writer is much stronger than my desire to put things off, so i have had to come up with ways to get motivated to write.
and here they are.
1) my NUMBER ONE suggestion for combating LWS is to read - not just any book - your book.
back up a chapter or two and read up to where you left off writing. reading is free of obligation. there's no pressure to write. however, i find - 90% of the time - by the time i read up to where i stopped, i'm into the story enough that i'm now in the mood to write. i almost always end up writing at least a few hundred words on the nights i tell myself i'm just going to read.
2) as i mentioned in yesterday's post, sometimes the words are just flowing. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THESE DAYS!
if you are having a moment when a scene just keeps writing itself in your head - but DARN IT you have other things to do! - this is when you should utilize your skill of procrastination by... putting off everything else!
the laundry and dishes can wait until tomorrow. TIVO will hold on to your favorite TV show for a few more hours. dump the entire "to do" list over to tomorrow and write those words NOW, while they are coming. if you bang out a few thousand words in one night, you'll have written as much as many more disciplined writers do in a week.
3) take a writing "staycation."
this worked wonders for me when i was doing revisions for agents who requested changes. i wanted to get them done on some sort of deadline, so putting off writing was not an option. i took a couple of days off work, cleared my schedule of any chores or obligations and forced myself to spend entire days writing. it definitely felt like "work" on these days, but the end result was a lot of satisfaction in my high word count!
(this worked for me because i am not one of those people who can write in the ten minutes i'm waiting for my takeout food order or in the 20 minutes it takes to get my car washed. i don't operate like that. much admiration for the writers who do. it's just not me. i need to be immersed.)
4) goals and rewards.
you need to muster up a little will power for this one, and i confess i'm not too good at it myself, but when i do it, it works.
real housewives of new jersey is on? set the TIVO and tell yourself you only get to watch it tonight if you write for an hour first (or finish the chapter you're on or whatever). just set a goal, and use the thing that would normally distract you from writing as your reward. this one works for me, because once i start writing, i usually get absorbed and forget all about the "reward." i generally end up spending even more time writing on these nights than i planned. for me, "goals and rewards" is really just about giving yourself a reason to get in the chair and write, when writing alone is not motivation enough.
5) finally, i go back to what i said yesterday - it might not be a case of LWS so much as a case of slumping story.
if you're really not AT ALL motivated to write, take a look at your manuscript and ask yourself if people would be motivated to read. you might be surprised to discover the problem was in the manuscript all along.
anyone else have ideas to share about getting motivated and making time to write? this master procrastinator can always use more help!
let's call it: Lazy Writer Syndrome.
the first rule of LWS is... it's not your fault!
what i'm going to say will probably be frowned upon by many disciplined writers, but i'm being serious here.
being a little lazy is a personality trait, just like being charming or kind. (this guy with a fancy medical degree disagrees with me, but whatever.) the point is, laziness is something that comes naturally to a lot of people, so i don't want anyone out there suffering from LWS to feel bad about themselves.
however, just like any less-than-desirable personality trait, it may be negatively affecting parts of your life... like say, your dream of finishing a manuscript.
so you need to find ways to combat it when necessary. and i have some tips/ideas/suggestions to do just that. but first let me tell you why i am qualified to make these suggestions:
i too suffer from LWS!!
i am a natural procrastinator. i'd even go so far as to call myself the Master Procrastinator.
it is part of the reason i obsessively make lists. if i didn't, i would simply never get anything done. i would put it all off until "tomorrow" - with the definition of tomorrow being the day after i die. but my desire to be a writer is much stronger than my desire to put things off, so i have had to come up with ways to get motivated to write.
and here they are.
1) my NUMBER ONE suggestion for combating LWS is to read - not just any book - your book.
back up a chapter or two and read up to where you left off writing. reading is free of obligation. there's no pressure to write. however, i find - 90% of the time - by the time i read up to where i stopped, i'm into the story enough that i'm now in the mood to write. i almost always end up writing at least a few hundred words on the nights i tell myself i'm just going to read.
2) as i mentioned in yesterday's post, sometimes the words are just flowing. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THESE DAYS!
if you are having a moment when a scene just keeps writing itself in your head - but DARN IT you have other things to do! - this is when you should utilize your skill of procrastination by... putting off everything else!
the laundry and dishes can wait until tomorrow. TIVO will hold on to your favorite TV show for a few more hours. dump the entire "to do" list over to tomorrow and write those words NOW, while they are coming. if you bang out a few thousand words in one night, you'll have written as much as many more disciplined writers do in a week.
3) take a writing "staycation."
this worked wonders for me when i was doing revisions for agents who requested changes. i wanted to get them done on some sort of deadline, so putting off writing was not an option. i took a couple of days off work, cleared my schedule of any chores or obligations and forced myself to spend entire days writing. it definitely felt like "work" on these days, but the end result was a lot of satisfaction in my high word count!
(this worked for me because i am not one of those people who can write in the ten minutes i'm waiting for my takeout food order or in the 20 minutes it takes to get my car washed. i don't operate like that. much admiration for the writers who do. it's just not me. i need to be immersed.)
4) goals and rewards.
you need to muster up a little will power for this one, and i confess i'm not too good at it myself, but when i do it, it works.
real housewives of new jersey is on? set the TIVO and tell yourself you only get to watch it tonight if you write for an hour first (or finish the chapter you're on or whatever). just set a goal, and use the thing that would normally distract you from writing as your reward. this one works for me, because once i start writing, i usually get absorbed and forget all about the "reward." i generally end up spending even more time writing on these nights than i planned. for me, "goals and rewards" is really just about giving yourself a reason to get in the chair and write, when writing alone is not motivation enough.
5) finally, i go back to what i said yesterday - it might not be a case of LWS so much as a case of slumping story.
if you're really not AT ALL motivated to write, take a look at your manuscript and ask yourself if people would be motivated to read. you might be surprised to discover the problem was in the manuscript all along.
anyone else have ideas to share about getting motivated and making time to write? this master procrastinator can always use more help!
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