Showing posts with label procrastination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label procrastination. Show all posts

Tuesday, 1 October 2013

poetry break

Procrastination

I love to write, I do, it's true
But there's so much else I need to do
With children and housework my schedule's tight
I don't have the time to just sit down and write
Hours are long, concentration is tough
Excuses are easy; self-discipline's rough

"I don't feel well, I'm far too tired
I cannot work when uninspired
The dishes need doing; the ironing too
This pen is the wrong shade of blue
The day's too early; now it's too late
I cannot work with Windows 8
My chair's uncomfy, my desk's not right
But Breaking Bad is on tonight...
Before I start I need to plan
As much plot detail as I can
I need to research, plan, rewrite
Procrastination just feels right

And what is this life if without care
We can't sit in our underwear
And drink a beer and watch TV?"
A novel's so much work, you see
Ten thousand hours we might spend
On just one work, and at the end
Who knows if it will be a fright?
Who knows if we will get it right?

Now the sun is out, the sky is blue
There's so much else that we could do
Than sit inside and type and stare
(Though sometimes in our underwear)
At half-filled pages and dead end plots
And character arcs tied up in knots

It's so much work, this daily grind
Procrastination suits me fine

Thursday, 18 July 2013

Displacement Activities

Bored with this story. Fed up of trying to make today's word count. Getting distracted by any and all shiny objects within my eye-line.

So there's nothing for it, I'm going to have to kill off a character in a horrible manner then use his mutilated corpse to inflict havoc on his former companions.

It's probably not the healthiest activity, mentally speaking, but the way today's going it's either that or start flicking elastic bands at random members of the public.

Tuesday, 2 July 2013

Now is never a good time

The second Camp NaNoWriMo of the year starts today over at www.campnanowrimo.org and, as usual, I'm am both greatly excited to be in a Nano month again and also hugely unprepared for whatever writing project I'm supposed to be undertaking. I like that they've adopted the term "Pantser" to describe those of us who write by the seat of our pants, because that's always been my approach to writing (and to everything else in life, for that matter). I'd love to plan, but who has the time?

Come to that, who has time to write?

I've voiced this opinion before, but no one really has time to do anything. We're all very busy. There's always a very, very good reason not to write, or at least to put it off to tomorrow. For myself, I don't feel like writing at all today - I've just heard some bad news about an old friend, and the last thing I want to do is sit down and write the stupid story I'm supposed to be working on. I would happily put it off till tomorrow or the next day or... how about never? Is never good for you?

Which is one of the reasons I'm writing this blog post, to at least get my fingers moving and get a few words on screen (also, for the purposes of this month's Nano, I'm working on three different projects so have decided that anything I write goes towards my word count, including blog posts), in the hope I might trick my brain into wanting to continue.

So I'll have a cup of coffee and I'll write a procrastinating paragraph and then I'll open that stupid Word document and figure out where the story is going next.

And that's as much of a plan as a proud Pantser like me can cope with.

(320 words! Off I go!)

Tuesday, 1 February 2011

failing at this posting thing...

again i made a resolution to post more often. Again i fail.

on the plus side, i'm watching The Usual Suspects in belated tribute to the wonderful Pete Postlewaite. Is there anything better than this movie? Okay, maybe there is, but for me this is the movie that defined my teenage years. When Chris McQuarrie won the screenwriting oscar, i woke up everyone in the house with my happy dance. When i had a massive row in the cinema with my then-boyfriend, just as the credits were starting, i let him win because i so did not want to walk out of the movie in a huff. Just listening to the score brings a nostalgic tear to the eye.

also, i've just realised the credits at the start read "Bryan Singer's film", rather than "a film by...". Like he KNEW this was THE film of his career (not to belittle his career before or since, natch). I heart you, movie.