The Procrastinator’s New Year’s Resolution

The Procrastinator’s New Year’s Resolution

Okay, I suck at New Year’s Resolutions.  I can’t really think of one thing I’ve accomplished based on some yearly promise.  Of course, I know why this is… I’m a procrastinator and I give myself a whole year to get my resolution done.  Yeah.  Not a good idea.  Things change – work gets crazier, kids’ needs fluctuate unpredictably, priorities shift.  It’s easy to dismiss an unspecific goal, with a good enough reason, over the course of 365 days!

“Unspecific goal,” about that:  Taking one of the things I’ve learned in my many years in Weight Watchers, goals are important, but staying motivated is even more so.  As a writer, it’s kind of funny to spend so much time with my characters goals, motivation, and conflicts, but not enough on my own.  However, I’ll save that tangent for another day.

Goals are important, but if it’s something like “I want to save $20,000 this year,” without following it up with a plan, nothing will magically make it happen.  Instead, motivation dwindles and it seems impossible.

I know all this, but still get myself caught up in the same cycle, and it’s becomes a “maybe next year.”  This year, there are so many things I want to accomplish, and right now I am extremely motivated, so I am striking while the iron is hot!

A recent conversation with a friend brought up the merits of planning days in advance – like a calendar at work, but making sure to allot time for all your goals.  Example: Write from 8:00-9:00 – or even just 15 minutes, as long as time is devoted to the goals each day.  So I am going to give it a try – after all winging it hasn’t helped.

I’ve also realized I have too many things vying for my time and it can be overwhelming.  Passing thoughts, like; clean out nightstand, look up romance beat sheets, pick up highlighters.  In order to keep track of all these tasks coming to mind randomly throughout the day, I’ve dedicated a small notepad to keep track of them and clear up some mental space.  We’ll see how it goes!

Panster to Plotter

I never considered myself much of a plotter.  The word "outline" brought up visions of high school English and Roman Numerals, and those memories were enough to send me running in the opposite direction.  I proclaimed myself a panster and reveled in the freedom of flee flowing words... that went nowhere.

I have finally admitted, my pansting is the reason I have way too many half finished stories begging for attention.  The reason I spend hours writing, yet take years to produce a single work.  Well, that, and my full time job, raising two kids, etc.  Come to realize, it's exactly because I have limited time pansting isn't working.

Since I tend to look at things academically, I started to research plots and plotting and found as many different methods as there are genres of literature.  Everyone has an approach and it has lead me to believe it's highly individual and one shouldn't rely simply upon adapting a single method.

For me, I had started doing what made sense to me... Once I had an idea, I wrote what I imagined to be the back blurb of my story.  Then started expanding and expanding upon this, filling in details with each expansion, until I had my characters fleshed out a bit and part of the plot.  Still there was something holding it back from being truly useful.

Then I came upon the Snowflake Method and a light bulb went off.  It has the basis of what I had done on my own, but it's a far more orgaized method focused on character and plot in a useful format.  It also goes beyond the free flow of ideas and takes it a step further into plotting scenes.  I'm not going to go through all the details (I don't think that's legal!), but if you're interested, I suggest you check it out here.

Anyway, the point is, if you're a panster struggling with direction in your story, struggling because your conflict isn't strong enough, I'd suggest you try fleshing out your story in a manner comfortable to you.  Find what works and finish that book. 😘

Back to Basics

Every year I vow to keep this blog up to date... sorry about that. Everyone says a writer needs to blog. Well, thankfully, it's not an absolute requirement. Otherwise, I'd be in serious trouble!

So what am I up to - Parenting, writing, day job. Basically the usual. What I haven't been doing, and I know this is going to shock many of you, is reading! 

I've been so busy with the day to day stuff, and devoting any surplus time to writing (or, sadly, procrastinating), that I've neglected my impressive TBR pile. It kind of sneaked up on me - after all it hadn't been a conscious choice to not read, it just happened. As with anything I've forgotten, slipped or skimped on, eventually something started to feel off. This may sound unusually dramatic coming from me, but everything seemed dull. Going through the same motions everyday, my energy toward writing dragged... something was missing. Then I glanced at my bag of books, from the last writers' conference I attended, and realized it was reading. I hadn't been fueling my passion, or taken enough down time in the evenings. 

Immediately, I reached into the bag, and pulled out Tessa Dare's, Do You Want to Start a Scandal. I devoured it, I loved it, I laughed, I rooted for the couple, I recommended it to a friend. All those simple things that make reading a pleasure, and what a difference it made! I'm here after all. :) 

When giving advice to newbie writers, most authors often include reading extensively, I cannot agree more. 

What about you? Have you ever found you haven't been reading and missed it?

Writing Speed Bump

Change is good, or so they say.  Every time I think I've incorporated my two jobs (writing and the one that pays the bills) chaos happens.

Chaos is my life right now.  Work (the day job) is... changing.  I'm not exactly sure yet if it's for the better.  However, it doesn't change the fact that I have more on my plate, putting in longer hours - whine, whine, whine.  I'm thankful for my job and all that.  Really I am.

The longer hours are killing me.  Thankfully my husband is a huge help.  He will cook dinner - and so what if it's frozen fish fillets, it counts.  He makes sure the kids' homework is done and gives them showers.  I'm lucky!  

I just wish I had more time.  Who doesn't?

The biggest part about all this, though, is I don't feel very creative.  At the end of the day my mind is a disarray of thoughts and it's hard to get into my characters' heads.  But I am trying.  This story really wants to be told, and I want to tell it!  

Sorry this post isn't exactly uplifting, but it's real.  Nothing comes easy - that includes writing. But I also suppose that is why it's so rewarding.

I'm My Own Worst Boss

 

Everyone told me to treat writing like a job.  I'd need to show up and actually work, as I would for any other employer.  There should be goals and deadlines.  A plan.  In other words, I need to be productive.  It’s all very true.  But…

 

I have quickly found, I’m my own worst boss.

 

Ironically, I’m a manager at my day job – you know, the one that actually pays the bills.  I have eleven people who report directly to me and I hold a great deal of inter-departmental responsibility on top of that.  You’d think I’d be a better boss to myself when it comes to writing.  Not so much.

 

If you’ve ever worked for someone else, then you know when you have a bad boss your job can go downhill pretty damn quick.  This applies when you’re self-employed, too.  Part-time, Full-time, it doesn’t matter.  Bad leadership is bad business, period.

 

 

The Good Boss

 

We recently held a Leadership in-service at work and they discussed topics such as, What qualities make up a good boss? 

 

• The top answer is leading by example – pretty hard to do when your “example” is what you’re trying to improve.  But there are other authors out there who are emulation worthy.

 

• Fairness was also somewhere near the top.  And I don’t think fairness means a six hour marathon of Arrow on Netflix as a reward for surviving the Monday through Friday routine.  So I began thinking, it’s really not fair to the characters when their author is slacking off, is it?

 

• Other qualities that I can recall were recognition, organization, and conflict resolution (which isn’t that just handy).  You get the drift; all of these are applicable to writing as well.

 

So this is part of the new mindset I’ve been trying to keep when it comes to writing.  To be a better boss to myself.

 

 

Excuses

 

Maybe you’re lucky enough to not have a certain affliction, but apparently I’ve got it bad.  It’s called procrastination.  And it’s usually followed by the excuse “I don’t have time.”  Yes, I do.  And if you’ve said this – you probably do, too.  Not probably – there’s time.  But like anything else it doesn’t magically jump up and identify itself.  So the challenge is to start being honest. 

 

“I don’t have time because I watched six hours of Arrow.”

 

“I don’t have time because I spent an hour scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook.”

 

“I don’t have time because instead of writing, I decided it was a good time to google HTML for blogger.”

 

All true stories, by the way.  And I did learn a lot about HTML – love Google.  LOL.  But it’s not getting the story written and that’s the bottom line. 

 

 

What about you?  Suffer from procrastination, or find yourself without time like me?

Keeping up the Tweets!

It’s pretty hard to keep up tweeting about my book during the day when:

     1) I don't know how to schedule tweets in advance.

     2) I have a full time job.

If you have a solution to either of these dilemmas, please chime in by leaving a comment.

Okay, okay - so maybe you won't be able to solve my chronic NeedAJob disorder, but if you know how to schedule tweets, that would be a great help. :-)

On a side note, I just saw a tweet from someone that basically said; “Hey authors, you gotta have a contact link…”  Ooops!  I think she was talking about me!  So I just added one.  LOL.  I’ll get the hang of this eventually.

Speaking of... please follow me on twitter: @tara_andrews1