All Work and No Play...

I'm in the midst of revising rewrites.  Sounds crazy, doesn't it?  I've rewritten 30,000 words of a nearly 60,000 word manuscript over the past month.  Not the most fun way to spend the first day of a new year, but it is what it is, and nobody will do it for me.

Monday is my goal to have this done and sent to my editor.  At the rate I'm going, there'll need to be an extension.  The holidays, family, and friends have taken more time than I'd planned, but I don't care.  Family and friends are important, and I won't give them up for anything.

I haven't made it through the first of the eleven chapters yet.  I've been making notes, re-reading the notes from my editor, and making more notes.  One way or another, I'll shove, pull, smash and whatever else it takes to get this right.  Or as right as it can be.

No, writing isn't always a joy.  I have a feeling of dread that the new writing I've done on this may be a bunch of dreck and not at all what it should be.  On the other hand, I know there are some things that are better than they were.  Definitely not the same, that's for sure.  I'm rethinking everything, probably more than I should.  Paranoia is rattle the door to my mind, but I'm trying to ignore it.  Final deadline for this is January 20, giving me a little more time.  But I have a February 24 deadline for another book, so...

I work weekends, evenings, late nights, and whatever small bits of time I can find during the weekdays.  Very little time for TV and fun things, although our family enjoyed Christmas together and New Year's Eve was spent playing Trivial Pursuit and ringing in 2014 with oldest daughter, granddaughter, son-in-law and my youngest daughter.  Today my four girls (and their children) went to their dad's for a grilled chicken dinner.  I'm sure they left stuffed and satisfied.  A good thing, since time to cook at my house has shrunk.

But today I'm revising those rewrites and probably writing a few more new words...to take the place of the ones that will need dumped.  Such is the life of a writer.

Daughters are back, so it's time to hear how their afternoon went.  I hope you and yours started the new year on a high note, and 2014 is filled with everything good.  Stay well, stay happy!

May your New Year flourish with new discoveries, wonderful inspirations, and happiness to fill your heart. ~ unknown

Scarlett O'Hara Syndrome

MOTIVATION MONDAYS


You may be asking, what is Scarlett O'Hara Syndrome.  There's a simple answer to that.

"I won't think about that now, I'll think about that tomorrow." 

Back in January of this year, I declared each Monday to be Motivational Monday here on the blog.  The reason was that I'd been procrastinating about all kinds of things, but mostly about things that needed to be done--some desperately needing to be done-- that I'd kept putting off.

I've been working on that problem and although I'd love to say I have it solved, that would be a lie.  Still, I've made some progress.  Most of the time, anyway.

If we tend to put many things off until later, it's probably a habit we formed long ago.  It can be changed, but it takes some work...which probably brings another round of procrastinating.  Definitely a vicious circle.  But it can be better, and a round of seeing a shrink isn't necessarily needed.  Sometimes it's best to just do than to study why it isn't done.

A friend and fellow writers group member blogged at Bits & Bytes on Thursday about her own procrastination. Because I'd been putting off the need to get some words on paper or work on revisions or do a few other things, her post was a painful reminder that I sometimes have that P word problem, too.  Let's face it.  At one time or another, we each will put off what needs to be done the most.

When it comes to writers, when procrastination becomes a normal part of the writing life, there's a chance it's because of one of two reasons:  Fear of Failure or Fear of Success.

Only the procrastinating writer can decided which fear has gained the power to immobilize.  And trying to determine it could end up being yet another tool in avoidance.  So what's a procrastinator to do?  Especially a writer with dreams of being published or a published writer who has fallen into a writing slump?

Here are a few suggestions to try that might break the stagnation and kick start some forward movement.

BEGIN NOW

• Stop beating yourself up.  You can make a change.  
• Stop complaining and whining (yes, we all do it), and form a plan.
• Make a fresh start.  There's nothing we can do to change what we did or didn't do in the past, so leave it behind.
• Set a goal.  Don't sabotage yourself before you begin, so make it small and attainable to begin with.  If your writing has become non-existent or almost non-existent, and you want to change that, set a weekly page or word count goal.  Keep it small.
• Make a new habit.  A GOOD one. ☺  Get up an hour early and devote it to writing or whatever it is you need to do.  Turn off the television for an hour or two in the evening.  If you're a writer, take a pad and pen or a laptop computer and go to a library or coffee shop or even to a park and write.  I've found that my morning walk clears the cobwebs from my brain and gets it working, so that by the time I'm  home again, I have an idea of what I'll be writing.
• Give yourself little rewards whenever you reach a goal.

ENLIST FRIENDS

• Ask a friend to help keep you on track.  Even if the two of you don't share the same goal, you can still  support and encourage each other.
• Find others who are dealing with or have dealt with the same problem and brainstorm some ideas that might help.
• Challenge someone who struggles with the same thing you do.  Remember that it's not who does it best, but that each of you are DOING.

Sometimes there's only one way and that's the Nike way.  "Just Do It"  We can make excuses until the end of time, but if we really want something, we have to take that first step.  After that, the road ahead doesn't look quite as daunting.

If procrastination is something you deal with and you find yourself going nowhere, or if you have some ideas that may help others, please feel free to share them here!


Thank you to Tammy, Reese, Pat, and Debo for the inspiration for this post, their always super ideas, and their friendship.


In the end of GWTW, the real Scarlett--- the strong, independent woman, who never let anyone or anything get her down---gives us all hope.

"Tara! Home. I'll go home. And I'll think of some way to get him back. After all... tomorrow is another day." - Scarlett O'Hara, the last lines of Gone With the Wind