I often procrastinate. I have anxiety issues, tend to overthink things and that leads to less productivity. People say when emotions run high it is easier to write. I don't know who is saying these things because they aren't true in my case. I need to be in a stable mindset to write anything. And these days, a healthy mindset is hard to come by. Insecurity kills any hope for creativity and success which is why it is important for me to overcome it.
@OurJud I agree, even when you seem to have the entire chapter summary in your head and know exactly what's going to happen, the opener is always a huge struggle. Not just for the first chapter, either. I tend to switch between scenes and characters in chapters, so I have to find a new opener a few times in just one chapter. But once I do get writing, I'm up and away.
Openers have never been a problem for me, it's maintaining the flow I can't do. Like my bladder, my brain has a slow flow-rate problem.
[QUOTE="OurJud, post: 1609316, member: 10705" Men have flown into space, landed on the moon, turned once-fatal diseases into a mere inconvenience, and yet I can't string 70,000 bastard words together![/QUOTE] That sentence alone proves that you're a good writer, and an entertaining one at that. It made me laugh out loud in agreement and want to shout "Yes!" Especially the "mere inconvenience" part. Hang in there, Jud.
That's totally happened with me when it comes to my current project. Had to drop it for several months while my laptop was out of commission and now I'm looking at it going "Who are these people? What the hell was I doing?" Luckily I took a lot of notes. Writing fast definitely works better for me. Just gotta do it.
I'm posting a follow-up on this. I just finished some pre-publication research on the impact of task switching on productivity. The research is exploring trends in national impact over time, but it's based on a body of research on individuals. The results are similar to what you can review in Dave Crenshaw's nonfiction publications (eg: The Myth of Multitasking) The mean average is 24 minutes to resume task focus. There's a normal distribution - some people need less time to recover focus than others. Age is a factor. Practice is a factor. There is evidence for biological predisposition. I'm probably two strikes out of three with this: I'm 49, and have always been vulnerable to distraction damaging focus. On the other hand, my day job requires me to switch attention a thousand times a day, so I do have some practice. Nevertheless, if I'm only slightly worse than average getting back into it, I could be taking a 50% productivity hit by writing an hour a day instead of a full day once a week.
Jeff goins says that he aims for 500 words a day because its easier to do than procrastinate about. He also says that he get more done in a scheduled hour totaly dedicated to writing cut out of a busy schedule than he does in a day of unstructured activity due to the focus and intensity ... both of those are working for me. Also the tip of having a second computer on which you only write... so when you sit down at it your brain says right, I'm here to write (rather than forum, facebook, email and other timewasters)
Unplugging the router and taking the phone off the hook while you're supposed to be working as well as making up for yourself a dedicated office area in which to write helps also.
I do the latter - I need internet access for stuff like looking at maps .... e.g My protags are making a road trip from Florida to Wisconsin while wanted by the security services ... I know florida and wisconsin reasonably well but currently they are traversing Missouri and Iowa and since i can't afford the time or the money for a research trip google street view is the next best thing to keep it real
Admirable maybe, but I don't know how he comes to that conclusion. Procrastination means not having to sit down and write, which is infinitely easier in my book.
For me it does take a lot of work to procrastinate, because I have to justify it to myself. "Oh, I need to do the laundry, Oh, that wall needs painting, Oh, maybe I should shovel the walk again...No. Damn it, I'm just going to write my words and then sit down and enjoy myself with a clear conscience."
I wish I could think like that. Alas, for me, it's, "I'll check the forum, now I'll watch some snooker. Yes, but you should be writing - your book won't write itself. Yeah, whatever. I'm gonna make some coffee. But you should be writing. Yeah, I know but I can't be arsed. Okay, you win." And another writeless day goes by.
It is not so much that I am a slower writer but that I lack longer bits of time where I can have uninterrupted work time. I can sneak off to a nearby coffee shop now and again but for the most part, my time is divided between my job, my wife/son and sleep.
so make it harder - consequences - Make a public commitment that if you miss x deadline you will do xyz that you don'y want to do (donate £500 to WF, tell your wife you'll do the hoovering for a month, make a donation to a political candidate you hate, whatever) Full text of that suggestion, also Mr Goins, here https://goinswriter.com/get-writing-done/
I guess you need to look at your goals, as well - if you're not enjoying the writing itself, if it's something you're reluctant to do, maybe there's no point? I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself because I committed to a deadline with a publisher for the end of this month and I did it deliberately, to ensure that I wouldn't "slack off" as I often do during September and October when I'm busy at work and the weather is still good enough to tempt me outside. And it's working--I'm getting the words down. But I'm not really enjoying myself. It feels more like a duty than a pleasure. I'll keep doing it because I don't want to let the publisher down and because I want the money, but as long as I have a full time job that provides me with my income, I have to remember that writing is a hobby. I don't want to have two jobs. I don't want to have to do two things. So for other hobbyist writers, maybe we shouldn't be following the lead of people who are, I assume, full-time writers?
I think you have found it more of a stressful endeavor, than one you enjoy. A fair amount may be due to the pressure of time constraints of a deadline. I think this would in effect cause your writing to suffer, as a result of your feeling it more a burden than a pleasure.
I think the writing's fine. I think it might be pretty good, even. But, yeah, I'm not enjoying the process as much as I usually do.
The above is exactly what happened to me when I turned dancing into a full-time job after a couple of years, so I know what a disappointing and sad feeling that is. It really does suck when something you've always been passionate about becomes something you have to slog through. {{{hugs}}}
It depends how serious they are about being a writer ... if its just supposed to be a bit of fun and they aren't enjoying it then fine give up and take up bowling instead. If its actually something they want to be good at then they need to accept that it takes work and its not always fun. If you look at someone who runs competitively as a hobby they enjoy the overall experience which is why they do it, but do they really enjoy getting out of bed to train at 5am when the winter rain is driving in their face with a 30 knot wind behind it ? Chances are not, but they do it because thats what a runner does, and if they don't train then they won't improve and won't get the rewards they want. I did a walk along Hadrian's Wall for the Alzheimer Association a couple of years back - the walk coordinator shared the concept of types of fun - type 1 fun is where its fun while you are doing it playing games, eating nice food, having sex etc , wheras type 2 fun is where its 'fun' looking back at it or to have achieved it completing a marathon, climbing mount everest, completing the walk ... but while you are doing it is can be hard or painful at times For me being a writer is type 2 fun , and writers write, even when they don't feel like it
I think for me it's the combination of two jobs - when I write "full-time" over the summer I'm happy as a clam. But I'm busy at work and I want to come home and relax, not write!
Also I'm currently reading Bruce Springsteen's autobiography. He tells a story in their about how he first started doing bar gigs with Steelmill (the band that would eventually become the core of the E street band) , first gig they did they charged a dollar per person on the door , and made three dollars. Imagine if they'd just said "this is shit, we're wasting our time" and given up on the dream. The following week they made 6 dollars, week after that they made 25, a couple of gigs later they were making 3-400 dollars every time they played and the gig was at capacity.
These tactics may work for procrastination, but not for schedule challenges. I wouldn't want to propose that for schedule management, as so many people don't have that kind of disposable cash, or disposable time. For example, if I underproduced this month because I have too many competing household chores, how would adding more household chores increase my word count next month? If I underproduced because I had to work too many extra overtime shifts to make my rent, how would donating money help me write more next month? There remains the fact that some people do not have time to write, and we have to learn this through experimentation and failure. In my case, I set public writing goals, which I did not meet. I moved the goals down, down, down, down, down. And now even an hour a day looks iffy. I don't have TV, don't play video games, don't have social media accounts, don't have anything that would generally fall into the category of time wasting. I'm down to work, exercise, chores, family, and sleep. I'm not cutting any of those. I have had to accept that my writing volume is going to be too low to become revenue-generating until I take early retirement from my day job. My writing goal for now is to develop skills and possibly networking (eg this site), although that last bit is looking more like a stretch goal now.
