Procrastinating again

Feb

18

2007

Filed in: blog

I swear, sometimes I have procrastination down to a fine art. I’m pretty much on an even keel again at work, and I’m well. The house is…well…not condemnable, and the laundry is caught up. Rachel is bathed…you get the picture.

My freelance is done, and all I have left are some contest entries I have to judge in the next couple of weeks. Yet…still….

…I’m not writing.

I’m not blocked. Ideas are everywhere. I even read through what I have of the manuscript so far, and more ideas flowed. Yet, when I was done with the read-through, I got up and walked away. I’m sleeping plenty…

…so what’s the problem with the focus?

Not sure. Perhaps part of the problem is that my mind is on another book. But I know all too well that if I take a break to work on that one, it’ll be forever before I get back to the one I’m supposed to be writing.

I think I need to change a bit how I work. Before, I had pitched ideas, seen what interest there was, then written what people wanted. Not a bad way to work, especially if you really need the money. But maybe now I shouldn’t be so quick to pitch the proposals. Maybe now I need to finish more what’s driving me, so that I can move between books if I want. That’s the way I wrote the first five. I kept at least three going at any one time, working on what struck me.

Maybe, as someone who’s lack of focus on any given day borders on ADD, that’s a better way for me to work.

We’ll see. For now, I have to feed Rachel, and I think there’s a tv show on that might need watching…

1 Comment

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

On February 18th, 2007 at 11:02 pm, Marti said:

This is so interesting. As someone who’s so NON ADD that she borders on OCD (my husband and writing partner would both laugh at the “borders on”), I have an extremely difficult time switching between projects. I’m just now returning to a very personal nonfiction piece (life story with excerpts from a journal, interviews with friends, etc) for which I’m the ghostwriter. I’ve just completed ghost/co-writing two other major (related) nonfiction works. I absolutely COULD NOT switch back and forth between the two related ones and the current one, even when I tried.

I don’t know if it’s the ghostwriting “thing” or not, but it’s almost as though my brain has to so completely BE into that voice that I have trouble switching mental, emotional, and even spiritual gears to take on another one. I even find that it takes a while as I resume writing to “lock in” to the voice I’m using at the time. My writing partner’s voice (2 related works) is easier and easier because I use it so much (after 130,000 words in manuscripts + weekly articles + extra stuff, you’d think I’d have it down, wouldn’t you?). The other is one I’m still developing even though 14 out of 20 chapters are (I think, I hope, I’ll find out this week when I revisit them) mostly done.

So, you put off writing by watching TV. Maybe I put off writing by posting on other people’s blogs?

And (while I’m still wasting time)I wonder if this ADD/nonADD difference also has to do with the genre. Would I be able to switch back and forth if this were fiction? Somehow–I think not. (Monk is still Monk even though he’s not officially at the police dept. any more, right? See, I have seen the occasional tv show after all!).

Have a great week, my friend. Still praying!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 
 

Cover Art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited. All rights reserved.
® and ™ are trademarks of Harlequin Enterprises Limited and/or its affiliated companies, used under license.

home | about ramona | books | artices | speaking | contest | links | blog | contact

© 2008-2012 Ramona Richards. All rights reserved.
Site designed and maintained by Bemis Promotions