When faced with virtually unlimited time, writers still don't have time to write

Puck and Tink are in Florida, and will be for about another week. It's okay. I'm hanging in there.

But I've noticed something during this time the kids have been visiting Monty. Even by myself in the early morning and evenings, and a free couple of hours in the afternoons, I have not gotten the chance to catch up on some of the writing I wanted to do during this time.

Writers are master procrastinators. Sure, I can sit for hours to write and get a lot done, but I can also find hundreds of excuses not to write. It's a gift. And a curse.*

I would have thought that, by now, I'd have learned from NaNoWriMo and Screnzy. After all, if I can write 50,000+ words or 100+ pages of script in one month, surely I can get caught up on writing-related things while the kiddos are in Florida, right?

Not so much.

Even with fewer non-writing responsibilities, I've managed to procrastinate. The first couple of days I convinced myself I needed to take a breath and relax. Since then, though, it hasn't been a complete turnaround. I find other things that have to be done rightthisminute, I let myself get distracted by family and friends.

I haven't found a solution that works. Depending on what projects I have, I can stay off the internet, which helps, but both of the projects I'm working on over the next week or so require internet access to be able to work on.

I think, for me, it's a mixture of lack of motivation and distractability. Yes, I'm easily distracted (Pinterest, anyone?), but I know part of it is the...weirdness of not having the kiddos at home. Since I don't have all the things that I have to do for them every day, I've gotten a bit of a feeling that I don't want to do anything at all.

Maybe I just need another cup of coffee.











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*This is a reference to this.

Evaluating my Schedule for July/August

Each day that passes is bringing me a stronger realization that Bean will be here before I know it! So I've been forced to take a serious look at my schedule for July and the beginning of August to determine what needs to be done, what should be done, and what can wait. (Getting the nursery organized, for example, can't wait. But I don't have to finish the pregnancy part of Bean's scrapbook before he arrives.)

It's making me realize that I have a lot more going on than I thought I did, and there are tasks I've been moving around and not completing for quite some time. And some of those tasks must be done before Bean gets here.

I guess I'm a bigger procrastinator than I liked to believe.

"It's for my Craft!"

This gem of a comic popped up on Debbie Ohi's website when I checked it today, and I laughed out loud!

When I was in college working on my senior thesis and other writing projects, my husband (then fiance) and his best friend, Crouse, were constantly trying to get me to break away from my writing space to do things less than writing productive. I tried to resist, but writers have an amazing ability to twist the weirdest tasks into writing-related tasks.

Taking a nice, long walk outside? Setting and character research.

Reading blogs? Industry research.

Playing video games? Sure, that counts, too, apparently.

The harder I tried to resist Hubby and Crouse, the more they tried to persuade me that it would be, in fact, productive if I played a video game with them instead. In fact, Crouse would always announce "It's for your craft!" in an attempt to get me to walk away from the computer for a few hours of questing or raiding or whatever video game they had in mind.

What do you convince yourself is not a distraction in an attempt to not feel guilty?

Kitty Games, TLC in the afternoons, and other such nonsense

My writing plate hasn't been as full lately as it has been in the past, so I frequently find myself in the middle of the afternoon with little or nothing to do except watch A Baby Story and Bringing Home Baby on TLC.

And while it's very fun for me to watch baby shows every afternoon and get all teary when they hand Baby to Mama, during the commercials I find myself thinking, "Crap. I should be writing something."  Then I feel guilty at having wasted the afternoon watching TV instead of writing or reading or anything productive.  And playing games with our crazy cat Azshara who likes to chase movement under the covers doesn't count as productive, I suppose.

So I've decided to tighten up my schedule just a bit, particularly since, this time next year, I'll have an adorable, cherubic, perfectly mellow ::snort:: Baby NP on my hip who may need attention when my Muse taps on my shoulder.  This will also be helpful in case I need to venture outside of the house for a bit of traditional income-seeking and won't have the flexible writing schedule I currently boast.  (Just how is call center work, heart sister?)  More on that some other time, though.

In the many books about freelance writing I have, every single one of them talks about having a schedule and sticking to it in order to stay productive.  I'm afraid I've let myself get a little lax in that area, and I'm suffering the consequences (often referred to as procrastination and/or laziness).  So I'm reworking my daily schedule to accomodate my new dedication to productivity, and I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure I stick to the schedule I create.

And until I finalize said schedule, I'm going to spend as much time playing with the kitters as possible.

Don't judge me.

I could be writing a story about cats.  You don't know.

What Have You Done Instead of Writing?

Recently I posted a list of things to do when you should be writing.  It was meant as something fun in preparation for NaNoWriMo.  I would like to repost that list, in its entirety, indicating things I have done since November 1st by bolding them.  Enjoy!

• Read En Tequila Es Verdad for your daily dose of a "fountain of liberal rage."
• Check your email.
• Make and drink a pot of coffee.
• Rewrite your to do list with nicer handwriting.
• Better yet, you should do it in Microsoft Word, then print it out.
• Add to your to do list.
• Make sure your books are still alphabetized by author's last name.
• Visit the forums for NaNoWriMo.
• Update your status on Facebook to say "NP is not scribbling."
• Vacuum the living room.
• Play fetch with the cat (yes, one of my cats plays fetch).
• Make Thanksgiving plans.
• Read.
• Rework your NaNo outline.
• Adjust the font and margins of your NaNo novel.
• Play the Expert level of Minesweeper until you can win twice in a row.
• Do some early Christmas shopping online.
• Print out your NaNo outline to put in a folder since you're trying to be more organized.
• Check your word count.
• Watch Law & Order to get character ideas. (Don't worry about what time it is; L&O is always on somewhere.)
• See if any of your NaNo buddies are on AIM.
• Do some laundry.
• Gaze out the window.
• Stare at a wall.
• Look for writerly Christmas gifts online that you might want.
• Start a NaNo scrapbook to document your life in November.
• Go through your story and find ways to pad the word count (omitting contractions, changing all hyphens to spaces, lengthening lists like this one, adding mundane details that border on purple prose, etc.)
• Take a quick little nap to recharge yourself.
• Check the time to see how much more writing time you have.
• Watch the cat sleep.
• Blog.
• Play Mahjong Solitaire.
• Fill out an email survey and email it to everyone in your address book.
• Add page numbers to your story.
• Take the page numbers out.
• Add a title page.
• Add an Acknowledgements page.
• Add an "About the Author" page.
• Create an interview that could be included in the paperback edition.
• Come up with lists for your blog.

Okay, now that that's done, I guess I'll get back to writing.

Things To Do When You Should Be Writing

In preparation for NaNoWriMo, which begins on Saturday (Eek!), I've decided to get a little bit of a head start on my procrastination to-do list for November.

Lately, I've found myself doing a number of things instead of scribbling (having a light workload got me into some bad habits), so it's time to compile that procrastination list.  That way, when I really need it next month, I'll have it easily on hand.

So here, in no particular order, are things you can do when you should be writing.  (Feel free to add your own in the comments, of course.)

• Read En Tequila Es Verdad for your daily dose of a "fountain of liberal rage."
• Check your email.
• Make and drink a pot of coffee.
• Rewrite your to do list with nicer handwriting.
• Better yet, you should do it in Microsoft Word, then print it out.
• Add to your to do list.
• Make sure your books are still alphabetized by author's last name.
• Visit the forums for NaNoWriMo.
• Update your status on Facebook to say "NP is not scribbling."
• Vacuum the living room.
• Play fetch with the cat (yes, one of my cats plays fetch).
• Make Thanksgiving plans.
• Read.
• Rework your NaNo outline.
• Adjust the font and margins of your NaNo novel.
• Play the Expert level of Minesweeper until you win twice in a row.*
• Do some early Christmas shopping online.
• Print your NaNo outline to put in a folder since you're trying to be more organized.
• Check your word count.
• Watch Law & Order to get character ideas.  (Don't worry about what day or time it is; L&O is always on somewhere.)
• See if any of your NaNo buddies are on AIM.
• Do some laundry.
• Gaze out the window.
• Stare at a wall.
• Look for writerly Christmas gifts online that you might want.
• Start a NaNo scrapbook to document your life in November.
• Go through your story and find ways to pad the word count (omitting contractions, changing all hyphens to spaces, lengthening lists like this one, adding mundane details that border on purple prose, etc.).
• Take a quick little nap to recharge yourself.
• Check the time to see how much more writing time you have.
• Watch the cat sleep.
• Blog.
• Play Mahjong Solitaire.
• Fill out an email survey and email it to everyone in your address book.
• Add page numbers to your story.
• Take the page numbers out.
• Add a title page.
• Add an Acknowledgements page.
• Add an "About the Author" page.
• Create an interview that could be included in the paperback edition.
• Come up with lists for your blog.

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*NOTE: Do this at your own risk. I once spent three hours playing Minesweeper trying to accomplish this goal.