Today, I have finally forced myself to write. I have a huge problem with procrastination, and I'm going to have to over come it if I'm going to become a professional writer. Being a writer is a job, just like flipping burgers at the local fast food joint is a job. You have to work at it everyday, and you have to do your best everyday. You have to have commitment to it. You can't sluff off--just because you're working for yourself doesn't mean you can goof around, would you do that on your regular job?
Despite all this, I've found tons of reasons not to write. "I'll write tomorrow, I want to watch this TV show." "I'll write tomorrow, I want to spend time with my family." "I'll write later, I want to take a nap, I'm tired." "I really need to reorganize my sock drawer." "Instead of writing, I should really be looking up conspiracy theories involving Elvis Presley, Judy Garland, and a male street poet named Lucille."....anyway...
The point is, I need to get a handle on this problem. It started with my school work, and it's creeping like the Blob into everything else I do. Writing is just first casualty. Soon I won't want to do anything except sit on the couch and breathe, who knows when that will be infected too?!
But today I forced myself to write. I wrote 815 words. It's not 5,000 words like Holly Lisle, but it's something, it's a start. Now I have to keep it up. My goal is 500 words a day. That's it. I know it's not a lot, but at the moment, I've average 815 words for this week, and 0 for last week.
I'm giving myself a little leeway this week because my great-aunt died Thursday, and I've been trying to help my family keep it together. Today was her funeral. She was a sweet lady and she was always so proud of me. I'm glad she could find out that I got into college with a full ride scholarship before she passed. It made her day.
The fact that I managed words today tells me something. Writing is a kind of therapy for me. I wrote, and as I wrote, I felt better. I lost myself in the story, and I don't know if the words are right, but they felt good. I hope that I'll keep up the words everyday.
Wish me luck.
EDIT: a music video in honor of my great aunt
1 comment:
Grats on writing. I was a procrastinator as well. Where the procrasination really begins to show up is in the editing. I always wanted to move along to another project rather than edit. My last children's book took about 50 hours to write, and 250 to edit.
Write slowly, but write daily. I am learnign that motto the hard way. It cuts down on editing time.
Feb 11, 2007, 10:14 PM
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