Category: reasons I’m not writing

Inspiration vs Motivation

Have you ever been so excited about a new story that you jumped out of bed, raced to the computer, and spent hours with your fingers flying over the keyboard as the story poured out of you and onto the page? Yeah, me neither. Well. Let me modify that statement a tiny bit: I haven’t had this happen to me lately. It’s happened, but it’s been a good long while. Say…years. Oh, I’ve written (some). I’ve completed stories. I’ve had new ideas I’ve been excited about. But never to the point where it completely took over my life. As a matter of fact, I have a new story idea right now that I’m really excited about. Sadly…I have no motivation. Seriously. It’s my semester break. I have plenty of time to write. But I haven’t. Not a single word. I have a phase outline of the first chapter. I know a bit about the world and the characters. I have more than enough to start. I just…haven’t.

I need to find my motivation. My Muse (inspiration) is probably waiting at the keyboard for me. All I need to do is show up and be ready to work. Tomorrow. I’ll start tomorrow.

Fighting the urge to procrastinate–or maybe it’s just laziness

I’m a writer. I…write. Except, for that last year and a half, I haven’t written much of anything. Sure, I’ve been working and going to school, but there’s been a fair amount of time wasted watching stupid stuff on TV, playing Words with Friends, being nosy on Facebook, and then there’s Pinterest. My God, the time-wasting potential of Pinterest! Hours gone in the blink of an eye, and nothing to show for it but an odd collection of funny pics and inspiring quotes. (Which are, apparently, not very inspiring, since I STILL didn’t get started writing.)

So. I need help. Over the last week or so, I’ve slowly started writing again, to the tune of 1,000 or so words a day. When I was writing regularly, 3-5,000 words a day was not unusual for me, and it seemed almost effortless. Now…well, the Muse is willing, but the body is weak and the mind is easily distracted. (“Hey, I haven’t checked Facebook in the last 5 minutes. Maybe something new is going on…”) Does anyone have suggestions for keeping writing motivation up? I want to write. I love to write. I have a thousand stories and characters in my head that want to get out, but somehow, I have to force myself to sit down at the computer and open the manuscript. And if I don’t write, then a nagging sense of guilt and discontent follows me around for the rest of the day.

So. Suggestions, anyone? Any little tips you use to keep your butt in the chair and your fingers on the keys? Right now, tying myself to the chair is starting to seem like a viable option…although getting OUT of it might be a bit tricky.

I Think My Muse is (Finally) Back from Vacation….

So, I haven’t done any writing to speak of in…oh…a year and a half. I know, right? The horror! Seriously, I’m not sure how I’ve managed to stay sane without it. (Okay. Sanity is relative. And people who know me would say I’m sort of dangling off that cliff anyway…). Ahem. Anyway. I’ve been taking classes for basically the last two years, but I’m taking this summer off, and writing is definitely on the agenda. Two separate novels, in fact. And I’m planning on revising another one (FINALLY). Also, my crit group is–hopefully–going to be active again after over two years of not-much-of-anything-going-on, so I’m hoping to put the faerie story (Chasing Shadows) through it as well.

I didn’t get to do NaNo last year, since I had too much else going on, so I’m going to give Camp NaNoWriMo a try in June. I’m sure if I can write 100k in November–twice–I can write at least 50k in June. Just to get back in the swing of things.

Hello, Muse. So good to see you again!

How Cool is This? (Yes, I’m a Star Wars nerd…get over it.)

I’ve been so busy with school the last few weeks, I haven’t really had time to even check my email, but I had to check out this link: a Tatooine planet? Pretty cool, huh? Okay, so it’s uninhabitable and like a billion light years from Earth, but still awesome. And now I’m going back to do homework…and daydream about double sunsets.

Horror Movie Monster….

Hydrothermal worm, courtesy of FEI and Philippe Crassous

…or not. This is actually an electron microscope picture of a hydrothermal worm. This morning, while I was procrastinating doing some research, I stumbled on this, and almost fell out of my chair. Wow! Has George Lucas seen this, because it looks like something out of Star Wars! Just sayin’ Pretty cool pic, though. Would be far more useful if I wrote SF.

And if you’re really looking for ways to procrastinate or, alternately, actually doing research, check out ARKive. The site is filled with tons of gorgeous pictures in the organization’s effort to photograph every species on Earth. Awesome mission.

Cutting Myself a Break

Well. For this week, anyway. Having not made much (or really, any) progress on revisions in the last month, I decided to officially give myself the week off (thereby getting rid of the associated guilt over not revising). I’m moving next weekend, and of course, there are approximately 7,001 things that need to be done before then. So, a hiatus. From revisions, anyway.

I still intend to do a bit of brainstorming and outlining on the DOTD story. Just enough to keep my momentum up, anyway. Apart from that, my plan for the week is to take care of real-life stuff, read a bit, and try not to stress about anything (mainly work). There’s plenty of time for that next week…

Procrastination…I Have It

Badly. In fact, so badly, it’s probably Stage IV. Seriously. It’s a struggle to make myself do homework, much less anything else! I have a daily planner that I fill out religiously (and with much detail) every week. This week, I’m maybe getting 50% of my to-do lists done. Not for lack of time. I’ve only worked one day since Saturday (Sad, I know. I should be ashamed to even write that…). It’s just complete and total lack of motivation.

At least I got my homework done (until Sunday, anyway). With only two more weeks in the summer semester, falling behind isn’t a good idea. But I have a writing project that needs outlined, and I need to finish a revision and start another one. Not to mention getting started on my certification at work…Can I get a couple of days with 48 hours in them, please?

Anyone have any tricks for overcoming procrastination? I’d really appreciate them…when I get around to implementing them, anyway.

Progress…

So, instead of taking my day off to do…nothing, I actually accomplished some things. I’ve been stalling/procrastinating on working on my revision of the faerie story for months now, but I actually finished up one of the HTRYN lessons today and read the next one. Yay!

I also started outlining the new DOTD story. Okay, so by “started outlining” I mean “did a phase outline for the first scene.” But still, it’s progress, and I’m happy. It feels good to make progress. Now I’m off to outline the next five phases and get some much-needed sleep before work tomorrow.

Spring Fever

I’m ready for spring. I know the weather has been very spring-like for the last few weeks, but I’m ready for full-fledged, official spring. I always get spring fever. Every year. When the weather gets warm, I want to be going somewhere, doing something. It doesn’t even matter what. Just something. I love the Texas wildflowers in springtime, too. The Indian paintbrushes and the bluebonnets that bloom along the roadside are my absolute favorite flowers, and they are one of the things I missed when I lived out of state, so I’m really looking forward to seeing them this year.

Unfortunately, I’m also easily distracted in the springtime. That makes writing a little more difficult. Even sitting here right now, with the window open, I can hear the birds singing, and I find myself listening to that instead of writing. I guess that’s a sign I need to start working on writing discipline a little harder again. My daily word count goal isn’t much, but sometimes it’s a struggle, and sometimes I find myself rambling a bit. Part of that is that I’m down to the last third of the MS. Part of it is I’ve got another story idea growing in my mind, and the lure of something new and shiny is distracting the Muse. (And telling the Muse to focus apparently doesn’t work, either. I’ve tried.) Any suggestions for staying on target are welcome!

Where’d the Week Go?

Seriously. How is already Saturday night? The week’s over, and I’m not really sure what I accomplished this week. Let’s see…I remember doing homework. More homework. And yes, MORE homework. That’s an awful lot of school work, especially since I can’t remember what else I did this week. *thinking….thinking*….Hmm. I wrote two book reviews for Examiner.com. Read a few books (the first four books in Michelle Sagara’s Chronicles of Elantra series. Really enjoying them.) Ah….what else? I can’t think of anything else. That’s just…ridiculous. Oh! I did get some writing done. Yes. About 3500 words this week. I know it’s not a lot, but it’s steady writing every day, and that’s my main goal.

My Muse is working on a new story idea. I can feel it! I should probably be writing some of the details she throws at me down. Things are coming together. I have a vague idea of a character, well, two, and the main conflict, so that’s cool. The setting is coming together, too, and it should be something radically different than I’ve ever written before. I’m actually starting to get really excited about the idea, but I’m trying not to rush my Muse. Bad idea, that.

No revisions done this week. Which gives me…two days to finish Lesson 4 of HTRYN. Guess I need to get on that, huh? Okay. I’m off to do more homework. Two exams next week, and some essay questions that are waiting for my attention (Not the kind of writing I enjoy. At all.) And I’ll have another book review up tomorrow.