…to my complete inability to get anything done writing-wise. Something that eliminates a lot of my tendency to procrastinate, and allows me to focus on a project for a short period of time. What is this magical solution? Setting the timer on my phone for 30 minutes.
Yes, this is something super-simple that I probably should have thought of before, but I didn’t. I was trying to bribe my Muse into coming to work today, and said “Okay, if I can just write for 30 minutes, I’ll be happy.” So, I set my timer for half an hour, pulled up my manuscript of The Fall, and started writing. I managed 3-4 pages before the timer beeped. It was a short enough time period that I didn’t get distracted, but long enough for me to actually get something accomplished, which made me feel about a thousand times better than my usual “You lazy bum, you didn’t get any writing done at all today!” vibe.
It worked so well that I tried it twice more. I managed to revise an entire chapter in the zombie story from 3rd-person to 1st-person POV. And I also did 14 chapters in the revision outline for the Werewolf story (less than ten to go). It may not work for everyone, but it’s worth a shot.
If anyone has any other ideas, ways to get over the lack of inertia and start working again, I’d LOVE to hear them!
Tomorrow Is Another Day 
I love the timer idea! I guess I’m using a modified version of that- saying, ok I will write until my next task (going to work, shuttling a kid somewhere, making dinner). I started that when I heard a quote from Kate White, who wrote her first book in just ten minutes a day. I tend to think in all-or-nothing terms, like I must WRITE today ALL DAY. Which usually gets me nothing.
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Thanks! That’s a great idea, too. Nothing else has been working for me lately, what with work and school and everything else. Small chunks of time seem to be all I can handle right now.
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