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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: kero319 on January 19, 2009, 04:26:55 AM
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Hey Guys, long time, no see.
So I was just wondering how many of you authors/authors-in-training procrastinate, and how much and to what degree?
What are ways you fix this?
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Can I get back to you on that? 8)
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Me is school, the college literary journal, and the family business getting in the way. My way of fixing it is go to Borders and write while listening to orchestral music.
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My way of fixing it is go to Borders and write while listening to orchestral music.
I think you're my twin. And yes, I procrastinate like if I procrastinate enough someone will give me a prize.
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I often think this is real difference between professional writers and wanna-bes.
Professionals procrastinate writing the next chapter by writing queries or outlines for the next book or doing the edits from the last book.
Wanna-bes (sorta like me) procrastinate by reading email and watching that episode of "Chuck" they missed and cleaning out the 'fridge.
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Yeah...that sounds about right.
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Professionals procrastinate writing the next chapter by writing queries or outlines for the next book or doing the edits from the last book.
Wanna-bes (sorta like me) procrastinate by reading email and watching that episode of "Chuck" they missed and cleaning out the 'fridge.
Um, lots of professionals procrastinate in the latter way as well, just not enough of the time to impair their career. (That much. Iain Banks was rather public about being a couple of months late on a novel a year or so ago because of Civilisation IV.)
It takes a certain kind of mental judo to convince yourself you really should be doing thing A in order to feel thing B is procrastinating and therefore be able to do it, and if you can swap thing A and B around with some frequency it helps a lot.
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I'm in a rather different situation, being one half of a writing team. We keep each other from procrastinating too much. Helps that we have so much damn fun writing together. ;D
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Um, lots of professionals procrastinate in the latter way as well, just not enough of the time to impair their career. (That much. Iain Banks was rather public about being a couple of months late on a novel a year or so ago because of Civilisation IV.)
That's amazing. I freaking love Civ 4.
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That's amazing. I freaking love Civ 4.
Can't stand it myself; I'm a Civ 3 diehard.
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Haha good, so I'm not alone
I've been setting aside a certain time everyday to do at least one hour of writing during that time, but I don't let myself do anything else during that time
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Haha good, so I'm not alone
I've been setting aside a certain time everyday to do at least one hour of writing during that time, but I don't let myself do anything else during that time
If your life allows that great; lots of writers swear by it.
So far as I can tell, what matters is getting the words out. If you're a writer with a career of about one book a year, call that a hundred thousand words in a year. You can do that by writing a few hundred every day if the shape of your life and your working patterns allow that. You can do like I do, and write most Friday nights from 6.30 until as late as you can; a couple of thousand words a week add up just as well. I suppose you could write the whole darned thing in six or eight weeks if you actually happened to be Iain Banks or one of the other published authors who is on record as doing this, and spend the rest of the year messing around, but that approach really would not appeal to me even if it did fit with having a day job.
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If I set aside one hour per day for writing, and one hour per day for exercise, I would have washboard abs and turn out the equivalent of a 300 page novel per year. I'll get right on that, as soon as I finish getting caught up with my favorite shows from last season on hulu.com . ;D
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I wish I was Erma Bombeck. I grew up wanting to be her.
Everyday, she would get her hubby off to work, get her kids off to school, and pretty much lock herself in her office to write until the kids got home.
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Can't stand it myself; I'm a Civ 3 diehard.
Really? That is the one, out of all the Civs, that I didn't like at all. Man...so many hours spent on Civ 2 when I should have been writing in junior high and high school...what progress to my writing ability I could have made. Man oh man.
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If I set aside one hour per day for writing, and one hour per day for exercise, I would have washboard abs and turn out the equivalent of a 300 page novel per year. I'll get right on that, as soon as I finish getting caught up with my favorite shows from last season on hulu.com . ;D
I've tried to do this. Set one hour after work for exercise, the next hour for writing. Set it up to start last week, and so far all I've done is click off the reminder when it pops up. Kinda sucks trying to do anything when you feel like crap.
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That's the thing that re3aly sucks about it. Because when you can make yourself do something when you feel like crap, almost inevitably, you will feel better for doing it.
But talking yourself into it?
Here, wait, let me scale Mt. Everest first!!! ;) :D
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That's the thing that re3aly sucks about it. Because when you can make yourself do something when you feel like crap, almost inevitably, you will feel better for doing it.
Depends on the kind of feel crap you most often get.
Me forcing myself to write when I have an incoming major headache is like me staying in work when one happens at lunchtime; my productivity goes way down, the likelihood of major errors goes way up, and it can easily make the difference between feeling lousy for half a day and three days falt on my back in bed.
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Haha good, so I'm not alone
I've been setting aside a certain time everyday to do at least one hour of writing during that time, but I don't let myself do anything else during that time
Hi everyone, I've been reading the forums for a few months now, but this is my first post.
In regards to your post, Kero319, I've been trying to use this tactic as well, but it's a bit tricky with my daily schedule. However, I do note I seem to make time whenever a plot angle, dialog, or any sort of idea pops in my head. ;D I have to start somewhere!
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Grin,
My wife and I write as a team, We usually get in two days a week where we go to the local cafe (Live Internet and good food) and knock out whatever we need to get written for the most recent deadline. Most of what we write is equal parts caffeine and pastry. Of course we usually spend more than we expect to earn, from the work. The money is only a way to keep score any way, if we had to live from what we sell we would starve.
Regards,
Kevin
ps the worst part of writing is waiting for the publishers to send the tax information every year.
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ps the worst part of writing is waiting for the publishers to send the tax information every year.
Making enough $$ at writing to actually pay taxes: priceless.
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I can't say there is any cure to procrastination. I wish there was though. Hooboy. I'd get loads more work done.
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Making enough $$ at writing to actually pay taxes: priceless.
Not when you make a sale in country A where the mechanisms for paying tax on foreign sales assume you live in country B and you actually live in country C and so the money for the sale hangs indefinitely in limbo because nobody will back down on which documentation is needed where.
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Not when you make a sale in country A where the mechanisms for paying tax on foreign sales assume you live in country B and you actually live in country C and so the money for the sale hangs indefinitely in limbo because nobody will back down on which documentation is needed where.
That sounds confusing, and aggravating, to boot.
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Hi everyone, I've been reading the forums for a few months now, but this is my first post.
In regards to your post, Kero319, I've been trying to use this tactic as well, but it's a bit tricky with my daily schedule. However, I do note I seem to make time whenever a plot angle, dialog, or any sort of idea pops in my head. ;D I have to start somewhere!
I've taken to keeping a pack of blank notecards and at least two pens on me at all times, as well as writing in two different hard-copy journals (one for random writing stuff, the other for more traditional "this is what I think and feel about this event in my life" sort of writing). If ideas occur to me, I can jot them down on the spot.
The voice-recorder function on my cell phone is too complicated to use when an idea is in my head, saying that if I don't write it down IMMEDIATELY there's some poor starving writer in a different time zone who'll be perfectly happy to turn the idea into a book.
Not to mention the fact that I can't stand the sound of my voice when it's recorded. It's always so different from what I hear directly...
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The only cure I know for procrastination is boredom. You have to force yourself into a situation/location that you have no other option than to write. Thats my biggest problem. I need my computer to write (even I cannot always read my own handwriting, I should have been a doctor), which is in my living room, where all my distractions are a few clicks away, and my other hobbies are all right there. Im considering buying a cheap laptop just so I can go out to a park or something and isolate myself.
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The only cure I know for procrastination is boredom. You have to force yourself into a situation/location that you have no other option than to write. Thats my biggest problem. I need my computer to write (even I cannot always read my own handwriting, I should have been a doctor), which is in my living room, where all my distractions are a few clicks away, and my other hobbies are all right there. Im considering buying a cheap laptop just so I can go out to a park or something and isolate myself.
I tend to do my better writing by hand; it just seems to flow better that way, and typing it up can be a bitch when I come to a word where I can't tell what the hell the letters are, or if I left any out. As for actually using the computer and being distracted, that's part of the reason I bought a Macbook. None of the games I own, aside from Blizzard games that I don't play anymore, will work on it, and I'm too lazy to actually register the copy of Windows I'd installed before. Which was only cause some of the photo software I wanted to use was for Windows only. Or so I thought until I accidentally put the disc in and the open thing just popped up and let me install on OS X. And taking it with me to Borders will keep me from doing crap online cause I'm not gonna pay to use the tmobile hotspot wireless thingie there.
And sometimes it's easier for me to ignore a distraction like email and internet when I have it open in the background. No clue why, but that came about doing homework in high school and sitting in AOL chatrooms at the same time.
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Character casting. I've posted about it before. It makes you excited to return to your story when you've spent eight hours finding the right face on the internet. I usually don't use well-known actors or actresses. I go for random models or random people whose photos are posted on the internet on photography sites and stuff. Trust me it works. When i completed a story that i posted on this one site i also made a slideshow/video of all my characters looks and posted it on youtube for my readers. It was cool.
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I'm procrastinating right now!
I'm at work... and since its Saturday there is basically nothing going on work wise. So I brought my stuff in to work on my book while wait for something to happen here. But instead of writing I'm sitting here looking for threads to read and reply to. I even got around to picking myself an avatar. Only took me 300+ posts. ;p
But yeah. I'm pretty bad at procrastinating.
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Not when you make a sale in country A where the mechanisms for paying tax on foreign sales assume you live in country B and you actually live in country C and so the money for the sale hangs indefinitely in limbo because nobody will back down on which documentation is needed where.
And that is a major ouch and I'm guessing you need some ultra expensive tax person to detangle the mess or ignore it and plan to never travel to that country A ever again? My head is aching just thinking about reading all those forms!
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And that is a major ouch and I'm guessing you need some ultra expensive tax person to detangle the mess or ignore it and plan to never travel to that country A ever again?
The situation I am thinking of is an agent selling rights for a translation to be published in country A to a publisher in country A; the writer actually travelling to country A is not an issue here.
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I figured it would be if you didnt pay taxes in country A because of the complexities? Or do you need to file taxes in your country, plus A or only in yours?
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I figured it would be if you didnt pay taxes in country A because of the complexities? Or do you need to file taxes in your country, plus A or only in yours?
Having a clear answer on this question would be really rather helpful. *sigh*
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let's see that probably involves two separate toll free tax help lines, each with a minimum of 35 options to choose from to get to an answer that doesn't even vaguely get you in the right area of expertise that you need. Yep, government tax 101.
My son called tonight to tell me his Canadian papers showed up. (My X was born in Canada and nationalized in the US at age 10 or something.) I thought you had to chose one or the other, but maybe it's gotten easier for dual citizenship these days. He's in law school. Told him I couldn't wait to see him in the Queen's court wearing powered wig...
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Not when you make a sale in country A where the mechanisms for paying tax on foreign sales assume you live in country B and you actually live in country C and so the money for the sale hangs indefinitely in limbo because nobody will back down on which documentation is needed where.
*touches nose*
oh, hey, blood.
*touches ears, more blood*
oh, wow....uhm...I think I'm a little light headed. I'ma...
*Collapse*
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let's see that probably involves two separate toll free tax help lines, each with a minimum of 35 options to choose from to get to an answer that doesn't even vaguely get you in the right area of expertise that you need. Yep, government tax 101.
My son called tonight to tell me his Canadian papers showed up. (My X was born in Canada and nationalized in the US at age 10 or something.) I thought you had to chose one or the other, but maybe it's gotten easier for dual citizenship these days. He's in law school. Told him I couldn't wait to see him in the Queen's court wearing powered wig...
I actually saw a headline about Canadian naturalization on yahoo earlier. Didn't read the article, but something about them passing a law that would return citizenship to people who moved and had to chose a country to be a citizen of, and it would automatically include children.
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Saw that too. It's just like Starbeam said.
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My son called tonight to tell me his Canadian papers showed up. (My X was born in Canada and nationalized in the US at age 10 or something.) I thought you had to chose one or the other, but maybe it's gotten easier for dual citizenship these days. He's in law school. Told him I couldn't wait to see him in the Queen's court wearing powered wig...
I don't know how it is between Canada and the US. I do know people who hold dual Canadian-Irish citizenship, but not if one can get that starting out as an irish citizen and immigrating to Canada as an adult. I hope so, becuase I would like to, but one has to be a permanent resident for three years first anyway and I am only just closing on one year as a resident.
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Character casting. I've posted about it before. It makes you excited to return to your story when you've spent eight hours finding the right face on the internet. I usually don't use well-known actors or actresses. I go for random models or random people whose photos are posted on the internet on photography sites and stuff. Trust me it works. When i completed a story that i posted on this one site i also made a slideshow/video of all my characters looks and posted it on youtube for my readers. It was cool.
You might also consider a different angle: setting the stage. Find pictures of a room, building or environment that catches your attention and set a story in it. For example:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=56549&TopID=62736.70438.&MostWanted=Y (http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=56549&TopID=62736.70438.&MostWanted=Y)
This "Futuristic Apartment" always makes me think of futuristic noir stories. As a CGI object, you can redecorate to your heart's content and "film" from any angle. As a bonus, even the sample images can give you some good ideas; no need to buy the thing. But consider doing so anyway, please... I'm not the artist, nor am I affiliated with the site, but "starving artist" is probably much less funny these days...
Yet another option is to find props or even costumes. For example:
http://www.daz3d.com/i/3d-models/fantasy-scifi/werearmor?item=8691&cat=16&_m=d (http://www.daz3d.com/i/3d-models/fantasy-scifi/werearmor?item=8691&cat=16&_m=d)
Doesn't this make you wonder what kind of culture would produce such an outfit?
Or how about:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=62954& (http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=62954&) What kinds of stories can you come up with around these blades? How would your characters react if they found these displayed in someone's home... and if at least one of your characters could tell that one of the blades had actually killed someone... or something?
Good luck!
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Do I procrastinate? Oh yeah. As a matter of fact, I'm procrastinating by writing this message.
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Oooooooh, yeah. The internet is my playground. I ride the bus to work every morning and type on my blackberry, so that's when the work gets done, but for editing and getting an overall feel...well, I'm working on book 2 when I still have 28 chapters of editing, not to mention a second round of editing after that, and designing a cover (photography, 3D modeling programs, photoshop, etc.) that needs to be done.
And instead of getting going on that I'm reading forums. D'oh!
At least I have a rough draft done?
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At least I have a rough draft done?
Better than all those of us that only yet have a pile of notes and disconnected scenes
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Better than all those of us that only yet have a pile of notes and disconnected scenes
Do keep going; you make those of us who have been feeling bad about only having a handful of novels completed feel better.
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All I will say is I can stop procrastinating anytime I want...I just don't want to yet. ;)
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Uh-huh... :D
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2,000 words already tonight, and three and a half hours or so's good writing time to go.
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*applauds N*
I just finished a chapter of character fiction for NYJ tonite, so I feel quite accomplished. Doing the fight choreo has actually energized me to go back to my Novel instead of tapdancing around it
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2,000 words already tonight, and three and a half hours or so's good writing time to go.
You always amaze me! Way to go!
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*applauds N*
I just finished a chapter of character fiction for NYJ tonite, so I feel quite accomplished. Doing the fight choreo has actually energized me to go back to my Novel instead of tapdancing around it
I'm not sure I'm being overly sensible; I'm working on The Big One - currently at about 435,000 words done, probably going to be 470-500kwords in total, likely to not be really sellable because it's a) ineluctably pre-9/11, it's a novel formulated in that decade of hope between the end of the Cold War and the 2000 election in the US and the world has changed too much since and b) I have been working on it off and on since 1996 and I don't see any way it can not be uneven because of that. I just want to get the damn thing finished, though. There are characters in it I have had in my head for twenty-three years.
Of other projects I could be working on, the first in one potential series world is sitting with an agent and I am trying not to think about it; the first in another potential series world (of which I have two more complete and a third in progress) I have just withdrawn after too many years of it sitting with an editor who said in public it was almost publishably good but would need a lot of editing work to make it so, because it became clear that that editor, with all good will, would never in practice have the time to do that editing work; so I intend to try to fix that as the Next Project (not that I thought anything was wrong with it when I sent it in, I just also hope I am a better writer now than I was five years ago) and send it elsewhere. There are also a few standalone things I am working on, but none completed
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I have a 10 year project that I love, but like you mentioned I've learned so much. Even the POV is all screwed up. But it's MY project, so it doesn't matter. Whether I ever go back to it--eh 50/50. So did the agent give you an idea what type of editing they thoght it needed? Grammar, order, cutting or any of zillion of other reasons?
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I've been working on a Novel on and off for the past three to four years now. It's my first, and also My Big One.
In the first draft, you could see the evolution in the writing just in the first three chapters, to the point where the first chapter was incomprehensible compared to the rest. I continued working on it, just to get the ground work. But by then it had developed in my imagination into a completely Monolithic creature. What was once a third person story spanning several characters were now first person narratives for several characters. The world and the people became more fleshed out. So I scrapped that draft and started a new one. The next draft was good, it flowed well. But I was taking my main character into the wrong direction. Mercifully I was only three chapters into this one, but now I need to go back.
So. Work, work, work
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I have now translated one of my projects into a setting for a Scion (white wolf system) rpg that Im going to run for my local group. It fits the rules remarkably well, and it lets me milk my friends for character ideas ;)
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I have now translated one of my projects into a setting for a Scion (white wolf system) rpg that Im going to run for my local group. It fits the rules remarkably well, and it lets me milk my friends for character ideas ;)
Brilliant, but how do you draw the line between your material and theirs? Can you tell that I've never rpg'd?
As to your evolution--super isn't it? And for some reason it doesn't seem to frustrate the hell out of me either! I think you are a wolf at heart, that grabs hold with your teeth and just keep shaking it until you've conquered it!
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heh.
I'm not a wolf at heart; I am a patient spider, building my webs and letting the words come to me.
2580 tonight; writing on Wednesday in a break of the usual routine because this weekend is Fringe.
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I procrastinate more than I write, if it was a career, I would be a millionaire. I've been working on my novel in it's varying forms for seven years now... almost as long as it took Bram Stoker to write his vampire novel!
I really need to stop finding excuses, and just write
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My latest bout of procrastination has me pondering just how many words are in most books anyway?
Anyone know? I didn't look too hard on the internet cause I'm at work... but when I get home I bet I won't check anyway. Anyone have a rough estimate?
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Best device I've ever found to get myself writing.... Set a deadline for something else you absolutely HATE to do.
That way you'll write to avoid doing it.
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My latest bout of procrastination has me pondering just how many words are in most books anyway?
Anyone know? I didn't look too hard on the internet cause I'm at work... but when I get home I bet I won't check anyway. Anyone have a rough estimate?
From the published novels I have seen in pre-published e-forms that I could do word count on, I would guess about 90,000 words; that's for books around about the length of Dead Beat or a little shorter.
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Brilliant, but how do you draw the line between your material and theirs? Can you tell that I've never rpg'd?
This is pretty much exactly why I almost never roleplay any more fwiw. It feeds on the same energy as writing.
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From the published novels I have seen in pre-published e-forms that I could do word count on, I would guess about 90,000 words; that's for books around about the length of Dead Beat or a little shorter.
Ah cool... I'm about a quarter of the way into my story and I'm at 24,000... so I guess I'll be alright. I was just wondering if I was padding too much.
Thanks N.
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I guess it depends on how much you want to / plan on getting done in a year [one book, two books, half a book], but it hasn't seemed to matter to me. Silly internet and MMORPGs...generally I get my writing done at work or on vacation. If I can change that, maybe I can get somewhere ::)
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I guess it depends on how much you want to / plan on getting done in a year [one book, two books, half a book], but it hasn't seemed to matter to me. Silly internet and MMORPGs...generally I get my writing done at work or on vacation. If I can change that, maybe I can get somewhere ::)
I aim to get a novel's worth done a year, as this seems a reasonable amount to be writing in the event that I sell something. I think of roughly two thousand words a week every week as a sensible way to do this.
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An interesting twist I've encountered on Chapter Titles is having a quote precede a chapter rather than a title. In books like "This Alien Shore" they add a depth and flavor to the novel's world as well as add a commentary on, rather than spoiler for, the following chapter. They also seem to create a universal undercurrent to the themes of the novel as a whole.
edit: that was weird... I was trying to post this in the thread "chapter titles yes or no" and if somehow posted here... not sure what that's about...
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Now that I've managed to break my wall and get writing again, I've found procrastination's not so much the problem as it is reality interrupting. Like now to sleep.
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I've gotten up to chapter IV and 10000 words now. Been pretty steady at around 1200 per day, taking Sunday's off (well, and when the US National Team was playing last week. ;) )