Sunday, January 16, 2011

Yay Weekend! and Other Randomness

I am so grateful for the long weekend... I finally recovered completely from my cold about midweek, and was so delighted just to sleep in this morning.  I hope this Saturday finds all of you having a glorious time, staying warm and safe from January's bite and maybe making productive headway on your WIPs?  *cough* I have been procrastinating myself, which I'm going to talk about more in a minute.

But first! A few bits of random writing/blogging news.  My first piece of news is that there is no news yet on the partial request on my novel.  Alas, waiting is the writer's bane.  Second, I wanted to draw your attention to all the pretty blogfest buttons to the right - yes, I am participating in 3 fests in one week! Kind of like a blogfest triathlon or something.  My first blogfest was the Be Jolly By Golly last month, and it was so much fun I decided I wanted to do more. 

Third, I have been awarded the Fair Dinkum Award by Rachna!  I am really stoked about this one because of its Australian goodness.  Rachna, thanks, you rock so hard!  If you are not familiar with Rachna, please go check out her blog.  She always has great posts about writing, very educational and uplifting!


I am passing along the Aussie joy to:

Carol at Artzicarol Ramblings
Lydia at The Word is My Oyster
Joann at It's Dark, Dark in Here
Shayda at Shayda Writes
Erica and Christy

So, now we come to procrastination.  Notice I managed to talk about lots of other stuff and procrastinate talking about procrastination? Now that's skill. 

Is procrastination part of your writing process?  In one of my favorite movies of all time, Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances describes her writing process as thus:  "The procrastination is coming along fabulously. Soon it will breed abject self loathing, and then I'll become a writing machine."

I tend to procrastinate a lot.  Especially since I started blogging!  For me, it works to set deadlines, because I work better with a clear goal in mind.  When I first started writing my current novel, I was working full time and taking online classes to finish my degree, so I wrote pretty sporadically for a year or so.  My characters and story were constantly pounding in my head to come out, but I was just too busy most of the time.  Then, when I finished my last semester, all of that pent up writing desire came pouring out, and I went from 70 pages to 300 pages in a month.  I had decided I wanted to finish it by March 1, 2010, but ended up finishing at the end of January.  Having a goal in mind really helped me focus my energy and get it done.  For editing, I tend to make lists of things I need to work on and then tackle them one at a time.

So, do you procrastinate?  If so, what helps you beat it?

15 comments:

  1. Congratulations on the award. =o) Sorry you haven't heard on your partial. I haven't heard about mine either, so we'll float in that boat together for a while.

    I spent last night procrastinating. Instead of writing, I searched the web, google mapped my childhood home and ended up bumming myself out. I'm definitely not doing that again, so today, I'm writing. I don't know if the process of bumming myself out helped me beat procrastination. I don't know that anything can. But at some point, I kick myself in the butt and get to work.

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  2. Thanks so much for the award! I love Under the Tuscan Sun, too! And I'm a huge procrastinator. Sometimes having a goal helps me a lot, but sometimes the goal becomes a wall I can't get past. Like ABNA. I had a great goal (to be done in time for it), I had weekly goals set (4 chapters) to meet the goal. UGH!!! I'm not going to make it! I hope you get happy news on your partials soon! Christy

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  3. Congrats on the award, and thanks for passing it on to me! Ah yes, much patience to you on waiting for your partial; I know how that feels (I'm waiting on a full).

    I SO know what you mean by blogging and procrastination. I feel like I don't want to miss anything on the writerly blogosphere, and my WIP is suffering. I really does help to have deadlines and other motivations.

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  4. Congrats on the award, and thank you so much for mine!

    I am a queen procrastinator. I spend too much time checking my blog, reading other blogs, surfing the net...it's terrible!

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  5. I've definitely been using the cold as an excuse to stay indoors and write :) I procrastinate by reading blogs! I should be writing right now, lol.

    Sometimes tons of procrastination means that I need to take a break and read a book, or go for a walk, or work on something else and let the story percolate in my brain.

    Of course, sometimes it just means I'm procrastinating!

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  6. Thank you for the award! Glad you are feeling better and I totally agree about setting deadlines. They don't always work out for me, but I think it can help a lot to set a specific goal. Light at the end of the tunnel and all that.

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  7. I hear you on procrastination (and I love that line from Under the Tuscan Sun -- one of my favorite movies!). I tend to work in really inspired bursts. But in between those bursts are long periods of doing absolutely nothing.

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  8. Congrats on your award! And oh, waiting. *groan* I am the WORST at waiting. It drives me to distraction!

    I'm much better with procrastination than I used to be, although I still have some really bad days. But mostly I reach a point where I'm sick of myself, and I just get on and do it!

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  9. Awesome award! And I hope you get some good news about your partial soon! :) Yes...I procrastinate....a lot. I don't dare share with everyone just how long I've been working on my novel. I do try to make deadlines...I don't know. 2011 might be my year!

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  10. Congrats on the partial request and the blog awards! The only effective remedy I've discovered for procrastination is... not procrastinating. Busting the habit of procrastination always comes down to sheer willpower for me. But the good news is that once I get into the habit of not procrastinating, it gets easier.

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  11. Congrats on your Fair Dinkum award! It's a fabulous one to get. I posted about mine just today too.

    Deadlines always help with my procrastination. Otherwise I'd never get anything done.

    Jai

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  12. Hi Alexia, I've nominated you for the versatile blogger award.
    See it at this link: http://novel-moments.blogspot.com/2011/01/awards-awardsid-like-to-thank-my.html

    Pass it on and keep doing a good job.

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  13. Congrats on the award!
    I can procrastinate too. Not good! Deadlines help me along though. I'm hoping to have a great week revising this week and ready to query soon.

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  14. Congrats on your award!

    Yes, I procrastinate on everything in LIFE :D

    I find the only way to beat it is to just force yourself to sit down and do it, and try to block everything out.

    When I'm putting something off, I'll find every excuse under the sun... organize my desk, clean the house, research, decide I'm starving, etc.... you name it. :)

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  15. Hurrah for you that someone asked for a partial! BTW, I'm procrastinating right now. You are responsible for my MC not getting to the next point in my novel. :P Glad to join you on your journey!

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