Category: reasons I’m not writing

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.

Revision Block

Is there such a thing? If so, I have a raging case of it. It’s worse than staring at a blank page and being unable to think of a single word to write (although that’s pretty bad). A few weeks ago, I started working through HTRYN with Chasing Shadows. Lessons 1 & 2 weren’t bad, but Lesson 3….all I’ve done is read the lesson and punch holes in my index cards. Not exactly a hotbed of revision activity.

I’m not sure why I’m having such trouble getting started on this. Well, I DO tend to have issues with The Sentence, even if it’s The Revision Sentence, so that could be part of it. But that’s the only hazy idea I have for what’s going on mentally. I’d say it’s lack of motivation, but…I’ve been writing every day. Only a bit, but still, daily progress. And I’ve been doing some pre-reading for school. And working out almost every day. So clearly I have some motivation.

I have absolute faith in the HTRYN process. I know what it did for Werewolves for Dummies, and I have every faith it can take Chasing Shadows that much closer to the story I want it to be. Of course, it won’t do that if I don’t actually apply it, so there’s the general problem with that idea. Hmm…Could be fear of failure. Of course, not revising the story at all is even more clearly a failure, so that should be an incentive…

Okay. Tomorrow I intend to work through Lesson 3 of HTRYN. ALL of Lesson 3. And get a few words written, of course. Wish me luck!

Back…Sorta

So, I went on vacation for two weeks last month.  I didn’t go anywhere special, really, just back home to Texas.  I had a fantastic vacation, got to see all of my friends and loved ones, and just generally had a really good time.  But I was super busy the entire time, so when I got home, I felt like I needed another vacation to recover.   And…I’m still not quite recovered, even though I’ve been back about three weeks.

I haven’t done any writing or revising at all.  None.  Zilch.  Nada.  Just…haven’t been in the mood, I guess.  Maybe too much going on mentally, and that, coupled with the physical tiredness, just hasn’t let me be in the mood to work on anything.  Hopefully that will change soon.  Regardless, about the only thing I’ve accomplished lately is reading a lot of books, so I’m planning to post about those this weekend.  ‘Til then…well, here’s to my complete mental recovery…I need all the help I can get.

Bodyslammed By Real Life…

In a BIG way, this week. I’m getting towards the end of the revision for the werewolf story, which means all my scene “revisions”…are writing new scenes from scratch (due to the great computer malfunction, a.k.a. sporadic backup habits). So each scene is requiring a little bit more work than just revising already existing scenes. The good thing is that I have written most of the scenes before, so I have a feel for what needs to happen. The bad things is, well, having to write them again. My own fault, but still annoying.

At this point in the week, I intended to have six new scenes done. How many do I actually have done? Two. Yep. Just two. But I have a plan…I have an appointment for academic advising this morning, then I’m going to the job early, to spend some quality, internet-free time writing before I actually have to BE at work. I’m hoping that will get me another couple of scenes. Then, possibly, I’ll have time to do some extra tomorrow and/or Friday. Which leaves me with Saturday (again, my goal is only two scenes), and Sunday–to finish up all of the “hands-on” part of the revision.

The angel story is languishing a little bit right now, but I’m hoping to get a few lessons in on it this week, too. And I wouldn’t be quite so behind, except I’m baby-sitting a 4-month-old puppy this week. Do you have any idea how hard it is to do ANYTHING when there’s a puppy with severe separation anxiety around, one that insists on being underfoot every second, and whining and howling when he’s crated for the night? NOT EASY, I tell you. So I’m not sleeping much this week, either….

Nothing Doing

Or, to be more accurate, I’m not doing much of anything. The revision is still going. No writing. Making progress on the angel revision as well. Other than that, nada. I haven’t even had time to read! I hope someone out there is making more progress than I am!

Swamped

And not in a good way, either. I had a busy weekend, and I’m still struggling to get caught up. My to-do list is staring at me threateningly. My brain (or possibly my Muse) woke me up WAY early yesterday and today with a list of things I needed to be working on. And I have a lingering sense of guilt. All this means I haven’t been getting done what I need to get done.

The only thing going really well–and that I’m not behind on–is the writing. The “new” story is flying along pretty well, and I’m about 22k in, so it’s over a quarter of the way finished. This draft, anyway. Other than that…I’m behind.

Off to get some work done. I hope everyone else is being much more productive than I am lately.