Wednesday, January 12, 2011

5 Ways to Beat Procrastination aka "Writer's Block"

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

So today is the day, the day the Spring semester officially begins. The first day of my last and final semester at Stetson. A pretty mind-blowing idea. Me? Starting grad school later this year? No, you've gotta be mistaking me for someone older, someone wiser. Well...apparently not, because here I am lol. But enough about my life, let's get to the post...

When considering what to write for this post, a number of ideas came into my head, but finally I decided on this:

In response to the beginning of the semester, I thought I'd talk about procrastination. But since this is a book review/writer's blog, I thought I would talk about how writer's procrastinate. I created a list that I titled "5 Ways to Beat Procrastination aka 'Writer's Block.' Some of these may be obvious to you, but sometimes you still need to hear it. Enjoy!

1. Shut off the internet
That's right, shut off the internet. That means: no Facebook, no Twitter, no Myspace (does anyone even use that anymore?). Don't excessively check your email, and no reading blogs, unless it's mine of course hehe. If you really want to get busy with your writing, you don't need to be paying attention to other things. Those few minutes of break time transition into an hour and before you know it, you've fell into the time-warp that is the internet.

2. Shut off your cell phone
Same as above. You're wasting time texting senseless dribble when you could be writing fantastic words.

3. Stop whining to your friends
Stop wallowing in your self-pity, claiming you have writer's block. You don't have writer's block, you have a classic case of laziness. If you can only write every once in a while, when you're feeling whimsically creative, you're in the wrong business.

4. Stop editing pages
While editing is very very important, don't fool yourself into a false sense of writing security. Editing does not equal writing. Editing isn't getting you anywhere on your current W.I.P unless you've already wrote 'the end'. Sure, it's productive, but are you moving forward in your word count? Nope.

5. Stop saying "you can't"
Quit doubting yourself. Start saying "I can do it!" Don't bite your fingernails or grind your teeth every time you look at that word count goal. Say you can do it and get cracking!

Hopefully that post will help kick some of you, my fellow writers, in the butt. Sometimes all we need is someone to tell us what we need to do to get on track, even if we already know what needs to be done. I hope I can be that person for you.

Don't forget to enter the Tier Giveaway contest and read all about the wonderful contest update--see above page labeled "Tier Giveaway". On Friday we're going to have a review of Anthony Francis' debut, urban fantasy novel, Frost Moon. Til then! ;-)

11 comments:

  1. Just hopping by! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

    Reading Lark's Hop Post

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  2. Dropping by from the hop. Great writing advice. Especially the last one - that's what I most need to internalize.

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  3. Thanks for stopping by, Alison! I think we're all guilty of at least one of those. I'm glad I could give some good advice. Have a great weekend!

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  4. Great post Kaitlyn...It applies to other areas of procrastination as well as writing :)

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  5. New follower! Stop by and say hi if you get a chance! Giving away
    Rot & Ruin and Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry!
    Kristin
    MyBookishWays

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  6. BookGirl--Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. You're always my biggest fan =)

    Kristin--Thanks for stopping by!

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  7. i just wrote a very similar piece on my blog!!!

    Nice work!

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  8. Magnetic--Thank you! This short little piece was actually just published in 5 different RWA newsletters. Pretty cool! I was excited when I heard the news.

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