The Things I Do to Avoid Writing by Susan Sands

Most days I sit down in front of my computer screen with the very best intentions of writing like the

wind. BUT, I get sidetracked. Do you? Like any other kind of work,  some days, I do almost anything besides what I should.

And I rationalize that it's necessary. I mean, a good social media presence is a vital part of the author's brand, right? So, there's the quick run through to see what's happening in the world. A lot, most days, let me tell you. And it's important to find something cute or funny (for me anyway) to post on my timeline on FB or IG first thing. Then, there's the never-intended quick stop that can turn into a hellish black hole of Twitter. I try to look away, truly I do. Don't even get me started on the dog and cat videos.

Sometimes I have a quick look to see what books my author friends are reading and recommending, what BookBub's got on sale, and who's released a new book. Y'all, this stuff is legit and it takes time.

By this time, I might need a snack or a bathroom break. I know you're nodding because you understand what I'm saying.

I do write a lot of words. Some days more than others. But it's a process and it takes me a while to gather my courage to open that Word file and get back into the story that's been calling to me in my sleep. By the time I finally do, I'm more than ready to tackle my plot hole, my next complicated scene, or whatever the day's writing holds. Do I take breaks? Yes. But I also hold myself accountable to a word count and deadlines.

Best to all my writer friends out there, and I'm in awe of those of you who can resist the rabbit holes of excessive research and other dastardly temptations to stray from your manuscript.

Happy Writing!

Susan

Now We Wait! by Susan Sands

If asked to identify my most self-defeating trait besides procrastination, it would be IMPATIENCE, hands down. While I work to portray a calm outward demeanor, I have an internal screaming banshee who is rather hard to live with. Are we there yet?

I'm impatient with drivers who do dumb and dangerous (and incredibly slow) things on the road. And people in general who show no desire to move out of the general flow of humanity. I work at it. I really do. And I'm terribly hard on myself when I can't produce words when I'm writing.

So, you can imagine how this being on submission thing is for me. It's like watching paint dry in the rain. Molasses in winter. And the new book went out to editors just over a week ago. So, yes I understand this is going to take awhile. Don't "they" say we detest in others what we don't like in ourselves? Um, yes. Those who make me wait. But I procrastinate in starting work a new book while I wait. So, I am at the same time annoyed with myself for dragging my feet while others aren't as snappy as I'd like them to be.

I'm breathing deep breaths (of yellow pollen here in Georgia) currently. And settling in to start my new novel. And checking Instagram frequently. And Facebook. And Twitter. And Pinterest.

But I have a great new premise and I'm outlining currently. So, yes, I'm working at it. And taking my Allegra while I breathe the tainted air.

I hope you are finally enjoying a little Spring weather where you are. I hear there's still snow out there. No thank you. I'm also impatient for warmer weather.

Take care, y'all!!

Susan

Procrastination

 I spoke to a local group last month. Their theme for the meeting was procrastination.

It's not something I have a lot of experience with. I work for myself.  My only boss is me. I am probably my most exacting taskmaster. 

How do I get everything done?  I think the fact that I don’t have a lot of time helps.  I squeeze writing in between family and extended family and now school. It’s a tight space. There’s no time for writer’s block. There's no time to procrastinate. So when it’s time to write, I write. Even if it’s utter crap. (In writing that’s called a crap draft.) Here’s the thing, you can fix crap, you can’t fix a blank page. That same sense of get it done applies to more than just my writing. It's pretty much how I get through life in general. I wanted to put my thoughts on avoiding procrastination in concise terms for the talk. Here's what I came up with.

Love What You're Doing: I started a discussion about procrastination with my pottery professor. He said something very profound. Paraphrasing here…Artists don’t procrastinate because we love what we do. So maybe that’s something to think about. If there’s something in your life you’re always putting off, maybe it’s time to ask why? Some things just need done. Cleaning. Cooking. Chores. But life should also be filled with things we love. Things we feel passionate about. Maybe if your life is a series of putting it off as long as possible it's time to find something you love and can't wait to do. You'll get through the things you have to do faster in order to get to the things you love doing.

Nike…Just Do It: This isn’t just for the writers out there. It’s for life in general. Most of you follow my new love of pottery and have read about my promise to make 50 bowls—which grew into 100 bowls—for an Empty Bowl fundraiser.  My first bowls are inelegant, but the later ones were so much better. I set a deadline for myself and just did it. But even in the midst of it, there was a sense of accomplishment. I learned so much. So if you’ve said you’ll do it, or you have to do it, do it.

BUT Know your limits and set priorities.  When I started writing, I prioritized my life and my time. Family first, writing second, everything else after that.  There was this mom at school that constantly bugged me to come to salad bar days. Now, I volunteered often at school. When the kids wanted me there, that was my priority. They didn't care if I was at salad bar. So I went, but not often.  When this mom made a crack about me just sitting at home all day, I didn't justify my writing career. I just smiled and said, I don't chop lettuce and left it at that.  It might not always seem like it, but I know my limits and I try to avoid biting off more . . . uh lettuce than I can chew. I also know where my priorities are. That helps. For me it was always family first, then writing. Now it’s family, writing, pottery.

Set realistic goals. If you say you want to write a novel/build a rustic log cabin/run a marathon by the end of the year, you’re setting a lofty goal. I think goals of that size seem insurmountable and make it easy to procrastinate. But something more reasonable…write a chapter a month/find some wooded land to buy/run a 5K...those are doable. Breaking a large goal into smaller components helps.  When I'm writing I don’t think about the 300 pages. I think of it by the day. 10 pages.

Newton’s first law says a body at rest will stay at rest unless some force acts on it. Maybe that’s a boss or a spouse, but I think the most worthwhile source is internal. So maybe the best way to fight procrastination is to ask yourself why you’re putting something off and find a solution. Carve our more/specific times. Or even don’t do it. It's okay to decide something isn't working for you.

Perfection: I've already mentioned writing crap drafts. The lesson there is to allow yourself to not be perfect. Allow yourself to realize failure is an option, but not trying isn’t.

Pressure: My friend Susan and I were talking about procrastination. She works best under pressure. I do not. Realize how you work best and use that to get it done.

Next time you find yourself procrastinating, I hope you take a moment and ask yourself why. . . then find some solution.

Holly

PS. Have you missed our most recent Trippin' with Holly and Susan? You can catch up with them all on YouTube.

Michelle Styles: Curing my writing resistance (or attempting to)

One of the things about being a writer is that sometimes the words flow easier than others. It can be for a variety of reasons but I know I am in trouble when I keep finding excuses to do other things. There are often really good excuses for procrastinating. The trouble with procrastination is that the manuscript doesn’t get written if you are busy doing something else.

Over the past year, I have noticed my daily word count which used to be respectable has started becoming more and more pathetic. I didn’t have full blown writer’s block, but I definitely had resistance. So when a writer friend mentioned she was reading a book  Around the Writer’s Block by Roseanne Bane about the science of the brain and writer’s block, I knew it was something I had to read.

After all why write, when you can read about why you might not be writing?

 To my surprise, Bane has some very sound things to say about why a writer (any writer) might be avoiding writing. It has to do with the way your brain works. When you are under stress, your limbic system takes over. And even though you think you are in charge, you are really in panic mode. The big revelation for me was that I did not need to know why I had gone into panic mode, simply to acknowledge that I was and to refocus so that my cortex, the higher functioning part that allows me to write could take control. It was about recognising the pattern, rather than finding the source. She pointed out that acknowledging the fear is there is more important than examining precisely what the fear is.

She suggested a three part strategy – breaking your work down into process time, product time and self care as all three were important for writing. I was pleased to see with my daily exercise habit, I was doing good on the self care. But what was immediately clear — I had fallen down was scheduling my process time – ie free thinking time where my hands were doing something and my mind was allowed to think.  For a variety of reasons, I had stopped keeping a journal and had not done much needlework recently. I have started doing these things again and it is helping.  15 minutes of freewriting about whatever pops into my head first thing in the morning is great. Also instead of focusing on word count, I am focusing on the magic 15 minutes. For me this means working in 15 minute stretches where my focus needs to be on the work in progress. It is also the realisation that product time does include freethinking time, research, editing, revising and not just the raw word count.

It does take time to rewire your brain, particularly if it has been used to behaving a certain way. You need to keep doing the new habits so you can force out the old ones. I know this to be true from when I first started exercising seven years ago. You have to schedule and force habits until they become second nature.

In doing the magic 15 minutes when nothing is allowed to interrupt,  I have found that about the 7 minute mark, I have really have to refocus or I will find a reason to check my email, FB or something else. Until I had done this experiment for a few days, I had not really recognised that I did that.  But I can work for 15 min at a time and so I have started doing a series of 15 minute stretches. The net result is that my word count has gone up considerably  instead of stagnating and I am making significant progress on my latest Viking. 

Bane has a lot to say on rewards and finding out about your Saboteur. She also maintains a website and blog on engaging your creative brain which deals with some of the issues.

 I throw this out there in case someone else is suffering – not from writer’s block from resistance. I suspect the theory can apply to anything that you want to do well.

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romances for Harlequin Historical in a wide variety of time periods. Her next Viking set historical Sent as the Viking’s Bride will be published in January 2019. She is also brilliant at finding new and unusual ways to procrastinate but is currently hard at work on her next novel. You read more about Michelle and her books at www.michellestyles.co.uk

Jennifer Gracen: Transitions

In both my writing life and my personal life, I find myself lately at yet another point of transition. I’ve had to push myself out of some of my comfort zones. And even though I know that I’ll be rewarded with growth and success of several kinds on the other side if I do it, my inner self hates doing it. That inner self alternates between whimpering, grumbling, procrastinating, throwing temper tantrums, and having full blown anxiety.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

Why do we let fear hold us back, even when we KNOW the outcome will be to our benefit?

In my writing life, it’s been trying a new angle of writing. Writing some scenes in a way I haven’t before. The character in question demanded it. I had to go to a place with him that I haven’t in prior books. And it’s scary, because writing is such a personal art. Even though it’s the character saying and doing these things, not me, there’s still that aspect of feeling like I’m putting myself out there for everyone to see, naked and vulnerable.

In my personal life, I’m job hunting. Long story short, after being a SAHM and also working from home doing freelance, it’s not enough anymore. I haven’t worked a typical office job in fifteen years. So, it’s more of the putting myself out there, feeling vulnerable, all of that... it’s damned uncomfortable, and it’s a process that can really get me down sometimes.

I recognize that in both pursuits, there’s a fear of failure. Not just failure, either, but failing in spectacular fashion, with images of going down in flames over the side of a cliff as I freefall into choppy, shark-ridden waters. That fear is what makes the inner voice do all those yucky things and makes me twist and whine and, and... And ultimately it doesn’t matter, because I have to do these things. Period, end of story.

We all do.

 

Yes, pushing out of comfort zones brings growth, strength, and goodness. We know this. But it’s really hard. Because we are hardest on ourselves, and change is scary.

So I figured I’d talk about it. Hearing that others endure these growing pains and whispering doubts, to know someone else is struggling with it too, maybe makes someone feel not so alone as they go through something similar. Maybe it’s you. So...

Okay. Strapping my sword and shield back on. I got this. You got this. See you on the other side, fellow warrior.

Eve Gaddy: Procrastination Redux

Yes, I've talked about procrastination before. But since I'm procrastinating again it seemed like a good time to write another blog about it.:)

I'm sure there's a very good, subconscious reason for procrastination. For instance, last night, instead of writing (which I hadn't been doing all day because I was, you guessed it, procrastinating) I flipped on the TV to the show Nashville. No, I don't watch Nashville but something caught my eye so I started watching the last ten or fifteen minutes of the episode. And I heard a song that I not only love but that is a great song for the playlist of my current book. Fate. Or magic. Or maybe kismet. It's called Longer by Clare Bowen and Sam Palladio. Here's the link. http://bit.ly/1IDRdvA . I also post a song for the day on my social media sites and this is a brand new song I can post. Good thing all around, right?

See, there was something in the air that told me to watch it because I needed a song that will drop me right into my story. When you are highly distractible a trigger song is very helpful. And yes, I'm highly distractible. Where was I? Oh, yes, procrastination.

Today I found I couldn't write a scene until I knew a particular word one of the characters would use. (A twenty-eight year old cowboy and the word, I now know, is awesome.) Anyway, I had to email my friends, ask my kids and solicit suggestions on my Facebook author page for "the perfect word." Sometimes I'm able to write a word that's close and just make a note and come back to it. That might read something like this: good-looking (not exactly but sorta, more like hot but not that either, FIND WORD)

Yesterday it was the pool table. My characters are playing pool and I needed the perfect pool table. Very cool, over the top antique pool table. I found it fairly quickly but I wanted to be able to put that picture on the website for the new series that the story is a part of, and the only pictures of that table I've found are copyrighted. This involved an exhaustive look through the Internet and on a list of websites with royalty free images and that sort of thing. So far I haven't been able to find it.

Sometimes I simply don't want to do something so I procrastinate--I'm talking about writing mostly, but of course, it carries over to all facets of life. But very often I find there is a reason I can't do X, Y or Z and when I procrastinate I find out what that reason is.

Then there's the ultimate tool of procrastination. The Internet. Email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram... and one that's particularly addicting, Pinterest. Everyone knows that pinning pictures on Pinterest is a necessary part of a writer's creative process. Honest, it's not just procrastination. I really need to look at all those pictures of hot guys . . . After all, I write romance.

Listening and learning: another way to procrastinate

Until earlier this year, I will admit that I was only vaguely aware of podcasts and podcasting. However, then Harlequin began to put editorial podcasts on its website and I started to listen. And a new procrastination tool was born. You can download them to an ipod or you can do as I do and listen via your computer.
The editorial podcasts are basically two editors talking in depth about one particular line. Each podcast lasts between 20 -40 minutes. They are not only interesting from a writer's point of view but also from a reader's point of view. Ultimately they are a masterclass in what each line is about.The editors have tried to explain what televisions shows/movies the line is most like. Romance used Love Actually to sum up the line -- lots of stories each month but each being about love. SSE chose Brothers and Sisters.
At the moment, the recent podcasts have been from the London office. So Senior Editor Tessa Shapcott and Editor Sally Williamson explained the differences between Modern and Modern Heat as well as the difference between Presents and Presents Extra. Presents Extra are grouped around a specific theme. And they talked about titling and why titles are chosen the way they are. With the Historical podcast, Sr Editor Linda Fildew and editor Joanne Carr talked about popular time periods, themes and heroes. In the most recent podcast on Harlequin Romance, sr editor Kim Young and editor Meg Lewis dispel some of the myths about the Romance line as well as explaining what it is about the line that makes it so special. They also explained that within the line secondary characters provide flavouring. This is different from some of the other lines where secondaries play key roles. Medicals should be coming up next Thursday.
Earlier podcasts included ones on Nocturne, Blaze, Superromance, Intrigue, Special Edition, Desire etc. And the intention is to do all the lines.
For me, it has been an education in what makes up series romance, plus I have discovered several new authors. And as it is sort of working, I can justify the listening. I know when I listened to the historical podcast, I came away with a ton of notes about how my latest books could be improved. And in several places, I thought -- ah that is what my editor meant when she said xyz.
Has anyone else listened to the podcasts? Or does anyone know about any other good podcasts?