Today's Excuses

The humidity is at about 1000% outside so you know I want to be out there. Actually, by the time you read this, I probably am. I have to mow the grass today. On the best of days it takes a little over two hours. Then I'll have to get in the pool to cool off. And catch up to all my blogging buddies and then....

Yes, there are endless excuses and procrastination activities to keep me away from my first draft. But I'm fighting through. Yesterday I weeded every part of the estate except for the flowerbeds around the pool and still I wrote 2500 words on that messy first draft.

Last night I paused long enough to watch the latest Ninja Turtle movie with my youngest son. It was silly and I felt dumber after watching it, but time with my son isn't wasted. And filled in about five hundred more words in the midst of the movie.

I'm reading a really suspenseful book now, The Bone Tree, sequel to Natchez Burning by Greg Iles. I want to sit with a big cup of coffee until I finish it, but I put it down at page #285 to finish a scene. Then a book I ordered from Amazon arrived in the mail and I've been waiting nearly a year for it to come out. But I didn't open it.

I needed a few things at the store but I made it in and out in record time. All the better to get back to writing.

This Friday, I'll be skipping my usual week-ending blog post to spend more time on that WIP. Tomorrow I'll be making homemade bread and salad for dinner, but that will only take me minutes. I'm streamlining the rest of the week so I get some work done.

Did you find some good excuses this week? How did you procrastinate and what were you avoiding? Is a good book calling your name? How long does it take you to mow your grass?

On a side note, my daughter's student group in Oman voted on superlatives for each other. She was unanimous choice as Most Likely to Quietly Take Over the World. That's my girl!

Newest Excuse

Wormhole fest post here.

It's not difficult to find methods of procrastination or make excuses for indulging in them. My best one this week is that my children are on spring break and I'm in full mom-mode cooking and giving them some special care. But each morning when I wake up, surprised at how late I slept, I'm reminded of a more scientific rational for not getting more of my A to Z posts ready this week.

Statistics show that the recent time change to Daylight Savings Time is really slowing me down. Some of the things we can blame on the recent loss of an hour's sleep?

How about higher blood pressure and more chance of heart attack until we adjust? More care accidents occur. More wasting time on the web when we should be working. Overeating. More headaches. Just about every study points out lower productivity at work. Even the stock market supposedly reacts with a bit of a nap.

I can vouch for lower productivity on this home front but I'm not sure I can blame it on that lost hour.

As a sports family, we've always loved this time change for giving us that hour of daylight in the evening so we could 'play ball.' And after this vicious winter, the extra sunlight will be appreciated.

Just as there are many negative things connected to this time, some studies also show that once you adjust to the change, you'll be happier as the hours of natural light extend into evening. That's my next excuse. How can I write when it's so sunny and warm out?

Did the time change bother you at all? All adjusted by now? Did you notice any of the above mentioned issues? What's your biggest rational to procrastinate recently? Have a good one I can use?

Don't forget Wormhole Week. Join the fun as we speculate on our technological future.

New Creative Procrastinating Techniques

At least once a year I think every blogger writes a post about procrastinating. Spending time on facebook, twitter and Pinterest seem too run of the mill. EVERYBODY does that. Checking out the latest stats on my books on Amazon is good for a few minutes here and there. Let me share some new, better ways to waste time when I should be working on that new WIP.

My most recent favorite is playing with the feather quill and ink set my daughter bought me last year. Usually I just let it sit on my desk and admire it now and then. But lately, I've been practicing writing with it when I get stuck on a particular scene. The pages in my planner has blotches and patches of ink all over. It has taught me a great appreciation for those early scribblers who had to write with such instruments. It must have taken a lot of practice in a time when ink and paper would have been very expensive. I can easily waste half an hour writing my signature over and over and then cleaning my pen. I'm going to have to buy more ink soon.

My daughter shared some of her favorite procrastination practices she's learned at college. Some are obvious like walking down the hall to visit her friends. I suspected this one, but she admits to texting me or calling me when she wants to put off starting her school work. What are moms for? But this one is a new one if you want to try it. I sent her an Easter package and included a tiny lego package that held on Dr. Who figure. She opened it to find an Ood. So her new favorite procrastination is to play with her Ood.

So any creative ways to procrastinate plaguing you? Ever write with a quill? Dr. Who fan? Do you wish you had an Ood too?

Next Week

Sorry to talk about my daughter so much. Wait until next fall when she leaves for college.  I'll be crying on here every day.  But she inspires me a lot for subjects on my blog. Two nights ago she was studying for a history exam and took the time to post her status on facebook.  She listed all the ways she was procrastinating on her homework.

How often do we procrastinate when we should be writing? I'm always telling myself my life will be less busy next week.  My son will be back at college so less laundry, more writing time.  I'll have my doctor's appointment out of the way, so more writing time.  I'll be caught up on some overtime stuff I need to do for the day job, so more time for writing.  I'm always telling myself next week will be less busy than this week.  And it seldom it.

Procrastination is human, but for writers it can be a real career staller especially if you don't have a definite deadline. Doing work on a computer can provide lots of distractions and some of those even let us feel like we're actually working instead of playing.

So I'm not waiting until next week to get back to work on my edits for Book #3 in The Futhark Chronicles, Beneath the Mountain. Because I'm sure next week will bring its own 'extras' to take up my time.

Do you have a favorite procrastination sinkhole? What have you been putting off?

Floods, Weeds and Lawns

I don't usually have to search for reasons to procrastinate and this week Mother Nature provided all the opportunities to avoid the writing chair.

Central PA is on pace as one of the wettest years ever.  After receiving six inches of rain in a matter of hours a few days ago, our basement flooded for the second time this year.  It's rain every day since so the weeds and lawn are growing like a rabbit running before a greyhound. We can't keep up.  Tomorrow I'm going to use bleach to wash the basement floor again. I've almost chased out the odor.

I don't like complaining about the rain because so many people are having dry years.  But the clean up chores have been draining the energy I usually put into my writing including my blogging. I've been remiss in visiting and posting.  I'm behind in my edits.

I know real life interferes with all writers but June, July and now August seem to be ganging up on me. In a few weeks, days actually, I'll be back at the day job of teaching and my time will be even more limited.  I always set big goals for the summer months and consistently fall short. 

How have your recent goals been coming along? What recent events contributed to any procrastination issues you've been having?  And is it raining there?

Distractions

Sorry I didn't visit many blogs this weekend, but yesterday, my husband and I celebrated our wedding aniversary.  Our children now that they are older have started a tradition of all day game day for our aniversary.  It's kind of like a family reunion with a ladder ball tournament, swimming, cards, basketball shooting contests, and lots of food.  It's exhausting and completely fun.  So that's where I've been.  I'll also be out of town later this week when my husband and I go away for two days alone.

Our aniversay was a distraction or an excuse for not writing or blogging, but it's very easy to get distracted by many other things especially when working on a computer.  Facebook, twitter even blog hopping can take up valuable and limited writing time.  All this reminds me a program you can download called SelfControl which can be set to shut down your email and social network for a chosen period of time.  Really?

I confess to procrastination.  I admit to visiting blogs when I should be working on that WIP.  And I do check out Facebook when I shouldn't.  But I can control it.  I don't need a special program to look over my shoulder and 'control' my activities.  Have you heard of this?  Would you use something like this? 

The 'P' Word

Writers overcome many obstacles to follow their career dreams. It’s a tough road where one must battle rejection, loneliness, and frustration. The continuing evolution of technology and the changes it brings to the writing industry offers as many challenges as it does opportunities. Writers are expected to design and maintain websites, blogs and have a presence on other social media. It seems everyday a new tool is invented or updated. Promotion, promotion, promotion. And somewhere in those hours we squeeze out to work on our careers, we try to find time to actually write.

So far I’ve only mentioned the distractions created by the various responsibilities a writer faces beyond working on their current manuscript. The other parts of life intruding on a writer’s work time are worthy of their own blog sometime in the future. But there is one more anchor dragging on an author’s creative ship. It often threatens to sink my own. The p-word. Procrastination.

I’ve used all the things listed earlier in this post to put off getting to work on the current WIP. Sometimes the weather is just too beautiful to miss. Sometimes the minutes I have before the next demand on my time are too few to bother opening the word document. Sometimes I really must read over what I sat at the keyboard. Sometimes I have to warm up my coffee or brew a new pot. Whatever the reason, they’re all just excuses to procrastinate.

Setting goals, having critique partners, deadlines, all these things can help you stay on task. If no one is looking over your shoulder, set targets for accomplishments and make promises to yourself. I used to do that on my blog and intend to start again this Sunday. Each Sunday I’m going to make my week’s goals public on my blog and then report the following week on how I’ve done. Starting today.

1) I'm going to do write no less than 15K on my current WIP.  Grand plan there.

2) I'm going to promote my upcoming booksigning in State College.

3) I'm going to start putting together a blog tour for the release of Beyond the Gate.

Do

es goal setting work for you? Do you make your goals public or keep them private? What is your favorite form of procrastination?

I'm Calling it Research

I've been on a real writing roll the last four weeks and it has slowed down a little but I still hope to have the rough draft done by the end of August on the second book in my latest fantasy series.  I could make lots of excuses for why the fingers are hitting the keys less often but I have to admit.  I've just stumbled on too many good books.
The new library in town started the problem with their grand opening a little over a week ago.  I've been a fan of the collaborative team of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child for years.  The hero in their suspense series, Agent Pendergast, is one cool operator.  Both these authors also write suspense on their own but I've never read any of their individual titles.  The library had one from each of them so I couldn't resist.  I like them together more than separate but it was interesting to read their solo books and try to guess how their team works and who contributes what.
I also picked up a book I've been thinking of reading but would never buy because I wasn't sure I would like it and it's a thick book.  The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett is historical literary fiction.  I read nearly two hundred pages before I decided if I intended to finish.  It was lovely and I'm going to get the sequel one day soon.
To completely freeze my writing progress, my wonderful sister from Picayune, Mississippi visited me.  She belongs to a book club and always has a few thick hardbacks with her she doesn't want to carry back home.  Usually it's because of the weight but she drove this trip so I'm not sure why she left them with me.  Unfortunately for my WIP she and I share similar tastes in reading material.  The Passage by Justin Cronin, another very long book, completely captivated me.  Two late nights until two AM and one day of letting my family starve and I finished it.  The other book she left me, Under The Dome by Stephen King hasn't grabbed me with that "can't put it down" feeling is still a very interesting book.  Does anyone write dark characters better than king?
Jonathan Maberry's Ghost Road Blues kept me up late one night to finish only to figure out with two chapters to go it was the first book of a series.  Checked today and my local Borders had it and the third book. 
Victoria Thompson's Gaslight Mystery series also has me intrigued.  I really want the next one but I'm resisting. 
So today I'm catching up with my friends' blogs, writing a little and hoping to get back in the computer chair.  I'm not buying any more books, not even going into the library and resisting my daughter's pleas to read one of her books. 
So I'm calling my last six or seven days research rather than indulgence in my favorite pastime.  What author do you put everything aside to read?