Why You Walk Away?

I've set a goal for myself in completing my latest WIP but I'm falling behind. Hours when I should be pounding out new words and getting that sloppy first draft done, I find myself walking away to do other things. Read those tempting books on my TBR pile, wile away times on social media, weed the flower beds. do some cleaning and other things productive and not. I shouldn't be doing that.

Why do I walk away? Probably for the same reasons lots of people walk away from lots of things. I put the writing aside when it gets hard. It's hard when I get stuck in a scene. When I don't know how to move from this plot point to the next one. When the dialogue doesn't feel right. When I know the emotions in a scene are very important and I can't find the correct words. All those things that make writing good prose difficult. Sometimes those things even cause a writer to abandon a story.

How do I fight that urge to avoid the difficult parts? I've learned a couple techniques. When that feeling of it being too difficult comes over me, I make myself stay at my computer and write for just five more minutes. Or just one more paragraph. Sometimes that alone is enough to get me past the hard part or see a way through it. Another I've started using is called a Sprint Journal. We have a guest on IWSG later in the summer who will explain what that is. If I do end up leaving my writing chair, one of my other options for finding a way past the hard part is doing something mindless while I try to think my way through. A walk with my music. mowing the grass, weeding, cleaning, baking, those many things where my hands work and mind can mull over the problem.

"Creativity is the cessation of stupidity." Edwin H. Land

"Don't think about making art, just get it done." Andy Warhol

Before on this blog, you've heard me lament the loss of Borders bookstores. The BAM that took its place just doesn't measure up. My daughter, who is studying in Oman for the first half of the summer, sent me this picture. Needless to say, she's having a great time in that faraway land. Why has Borders survived there and abandoned us here in the US of A?

What makes you walk away from your writing? How do you keep going when the words are hard to get down? Did you know Borders lives on in parts of the world?