I so love your sense of humor. As far as advice - the best advice I've ever been given about procrastinating is this, DO WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT FIRST. People as a general rule follow the law that things in motion tend to stay in motion, things at rest, stay at rest. If I weed the garden first in the morning I'll still be out puttering around the yard at lunch. If I sit down and work on my book first thing in the morning I tend to still be working on it right up until I absolutley have to go do something else. So don't start with the unimportant stuff or you'll never find time for the important things.
Actually, I think what the Tourist is saying is pretty on-topic. It's relevant enough to the main topic of the thread, and even if it's slightly off, it's interesting enough on its own. Also, I remember reading that you can make your creativity come out on demand. Yeah, MissRis, the weather is very uninspiring. It's been pretty rainy of late, and it makes me just want to putter around.
Since it's your thread, then you ought to know. Besides, attacking a postulate is not a rebuttal. I'm sure there are some writers who can only be stimulated with putting things off to the last minute and then forcing momentum. Perhaps it's the thrill. And I'll even grant you that a well thought out arc or outline can make this habit pay off. Colleges are filled with guys who got good grades by pulling all-nighters. It doesn't work for me, not only in writing, but in any pursuit in life. My mom never got that 'fear' doesn't work for all people. Some folks just get angry. That's not the mindset I want when dealing with characters I love. I want good plot developments. I want snappy, realistic dialog. I want the reader to be transfixed by the story. Crappy writing is for PM warnings.
Oh the weather has been distracting... sunshine just begs for barbeques, beer, and patios. Sorta hard to stay in chained to the computer.
I know, I just got home. Bright and sunny now, a good ride, but a tad windy today with severe storms coming. I think the wife will be home in two hours so I decided to take on the computer while waiting. I have a review to write, and with the computer issue, it's overdue. But Gonissa's OP point also effects my performance on a review. I want it to be thorough and well written. I do not want the author to say, "Well, this treatise dates back to the day that stupid biker wanted to ride. Yikes, it's probably slapped together!" I know the author from PMs, e-mails and telephone calls, and anything other than my best would not be right.
For shame - you broke the alliteraion. Sunshine just begs for barbeques, burgers, beer, and backyards. And not necessarily in that order! Still, you can keep a memo book in a back pocket or in a purse. Or a digital voice recorder. While you wait for the burgers to brown.
I always find it best to create an imaginary friend who you talk to? Its like playing chess by yourself. Its amazing how you can say a sentence in your mind and create the conversation! Also get a notepad and write down everything! I always find the best sentences are when I am busy working. So on my breaks. I sit in my car and write them down.
Now, let me get this straight. Your advice to me, a guy with numerous voices already ping-ponging around inside my Swiss cheese cerebelum, is to create yet another entity into the fold of the insane calvacade already residing there. And they say I need therapy. Wouldn't it be more advantageous to just have one of the fragmented illusions already haunting my persona to just shut up? I'm just sayin'...
Well, since I don't believe in nonsense like muses, or writer's block, or having to wait until I'm 'inspired', I can turn my creativity on and off at will. It's just a matter of sitting down to write, and I do that 2-4 hours every day. But I find these kinds of idiotic threads amusing. Like it's a game to see how many stupid cliches can be drummed up -- writer as a slave to the muse; writer as a tortured soul, ad nauseum.
See my quote in my signature: "Writers aren't exactly people...they're a whole bunch of people trying to be one person." - F. Scott Fitzgerald Writers are schizophrenic in nature, I think.
I'm sorry, MissRis, I didn't know if that was really a quotation from a member here or just another scream-within-angst from a mystical intrapersonal hyper-sexual delusional mattress-thrasher. At least, I think I'm actually typing a response...
It sounds to me like this problem extends beyond writing. If the OP had said he/she doesn't feel creative, then that would strictly be writing issue, but what pursuit, be it athletics, art, or some other profession doesn't require discipline? If we take sports, for example, of course you're going to have good and bad days. Those few(relatively few) days you'll be on fire are what you're training for every day. It don't matter how good you're feeling one day if you gas out a few minutes into the game, or you're a little too slow, too stiff, or your aiming is off. You might even see yourself in your mind performing some miraculous feat but it just doesn't come out, because your body isn't prepared. Same thing applies to writing. You might possess the divine spirit one day, but if your writing abilities are only so-so, due to lack of continual progression, no one's going to feel that inspiration but you. The beauty you see is not going to come out because you're not capable of transferring those creative feelings properly into words yet. So, that's why you force yourself to do something every day, for those few days where you can really make it count. If we accept this line of thinking, then the best thing for the OP to do is to learn goal setting, which of course is a topic of its own.
I designated Friday night for writing. I just always have my phone with me just in case ideas strike, which always happen. And I realized that I'm a night owl, making my life easier since I don't have to force myself during the day. If I get stumped on a scene, I skip lol or write another story. Better yet, set a goal. I have a to-do list, lololol. And um, since I get bored easily, I distract myself by having several tabs open (not fb). Writing dabbles could help. Find prompts online or in your ipod. Quotes in tumblr might spark something. Get busy, I clean my room. If all else fails, read. Right now, I'm writing in front of the tv ^^
Well, I don't think this will work for everyone but lately, whenever I've been slacking such as Facebook, YouTube, Playing Games or just straight off sleeping for no apparent reason, I've had one thought pop up in my head: "What are you doing? Why Slack off when you can write a perfectly good Story?" And then I continue to remind myself how worthless my life is or would be if I didn't write anything Of course this is just me I find it kind of a bit better to write when I'm threatened by myself. Of course i'm not saying this is a suitable method for many it's just my way of convincing myself I should write.
Ya' know, guys, we might be focusing on the wrong thing. Maybe it's just a good case of boredom or the need for some new direction. Sure, lots of guys eat the same food everyday, but most do not. We like variety. Except for me and Einstein, probably few of us wear the same style of clothes everyday. Perhaps we are just tired of the same "flip on the computer and work" routine. This might be as simple as having too much chocolate cake. I have lots of other hobbies. Perhaps a cure for this condition is going outside and riding your bicycle. I even hate to suggest this for our elf authors, but you might trying talking to a girl.
This has happened to me just this week. Every morning I switch on the computer, open all usual windows and bring up the stories I'm working on. After I've checked emails, face-book and twitter I start to write and nothing comes. This week I will start of them again.
Me, too. The only difference is my choice of social media. I'm on the bikers' exchange called "In-Your-Face-Book." LOL I have been doing the same thing going on three weeks. At first I thought it was just one tough chapter, and once written I'd be my old self. That didn't happen. The computer was no longer a joy. Writing became a job. So I began doing what I'm doing now--doing my normal morning routine, not working on the story, but talking with other writers in forums and "keeping my hand in." I'm even mod (of sorts) on another creative writing forum. I have the title Enforcer. And I've become satisfied with that. I was even discussing possible plot changes when my wife and I were in the truck, so the clouds might be lifting. Having a bad reaction from a vaccination didn't help, but that's also passing. The choice I made was deciding what I wanted to accomplish. Did I want to write obvious drek just to say I was a writer, or did I want to create something decent. I made a point to clear my head of this issue when I go riding. The bike is the 'recess,' the computer is the 'classroom.' My guess is that in a week or two everything will fall in to place. Or it won't...
It took me 3 days to write the first chapter of the first draft of my dissertation. That was only 1,000 words. What was I doing for most of those 3 days I have no earthly clue aside from going out with friends. I had to literally force myself on the third day to write 400 words. Put some Jazz on, cup of coffee, and forced myself to work. It was the longest 400 words of my life, but after that the next 3,000 words came mysteriously easy. Annoying. This was a dissertation of around 7,000 words that took me a good month to write and redraft some times before it was ready to hand in. And a good few months of research went in to it before hand. My best tip for sitting down and just writing is to listen to music without lyrics, cup (or bottle) of a preferred beverage, and really work at working. I don't buy that to write you have to find it easy all the time, or have to be inspired all the time, that's a load of crap. Writing can, at times, be very hard work, so don't be so hard on yourself.
This is where I think I have an advantage. I'm retired, I don't have to work. And since I retired early at the age of 51, I'm used to the routine I have. That's the part that's "my life." The writing is icing on the cake, and if it flows, well then, I've had a productive day. If I'm in the slump as now, no one is going to starve. Yesterday we had bad thunderstorms, and I sat quite contented in a coffee bar reading magazines. For this reason I ofter wonder if "forcing something" is akin to making yourself sleep during periods of insomnia. You become your own worst enemy. I've read where insomnia is best served by getting out of bed and doing something, you'll fall asleep easier. By forcing yourself, the bed becomes a prison and the cycle propagates. The same thing with the computer. I'm goofing off, so what?
I kind of envy your position. I wish I could write what I want, but I can't. I freelance for a newspaper, and now that I'm no longer a student (finished uni on Friday) I'm looking for a new, better job. Real life can be so damn intrusive.
