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Thursday, December 11, 2014

Procrastination, a writers greatest nemisis. Well at least mine.

Okay, I have to admit I have suffering from this for about 8 months now.  It is not that I have been sitting on the couch twiddling my thumbs, my life has been quite busy.  I had my second book edited and I published it online.  I spent 5 months in Canada living on and repairing my boat and visited all my family there.  But the writing habits that I had developed during the past couple of years were thrown out the window, and I have been dedicating my 'writing time' to other less important things.

Well, they may not be less important per se, but they are things that can sometimes be moved to a time in the day not previously assigned to writing.  This problem kind of snuck up on me, and before I knew it, I didn't even think about writing in the mornings.  Over the past few weeks I've been mentally addressing the problem, but still finding ways to keep my procrastination continuing.

How did this happen?  I don't think it is because I've now written and published two books and they are not selling as well as expected.  I don't think it is because I've reached a block in my writing abilities.  I have been writing blogs, texts, emails and other forms of written communication.  I have even written the outline for a future book to begin after my current series is completed.  I don't think it is because I'm not organized.

When I first arrived in Mexico a few winters ago, an accident immobilized me temporarily.  This accident provided me with the time to organize my entire series of books.  For each book, I established the title, chapters and even a paragraph outline on what each chapter was going to consist of and how it linked to other chapters.  I definitely had the background information prepared to keep writing until my series was complete.

So why haven't I written for almost 8 months.  Fear!  I think I reached a point where I felt that over the past year I have not received one rating or positive comment on either of my two books.  Sure, it's only been a year, but some writers get all kinds of feedback right away don't they?  I think what happened to me was self doubt took over, and was able to slowly eat away at my original inspiration.  I have to get over the presumption that my writing depends on what others think, and it is really the enjoyment I actually get from sitting down and creating.

Yesterday was and impasse day for me.  I finally said to myself 'Fuck it' and got back into book #3.  I didn't make a whole lot of progress yesterday, but I put in my usual time writing, and I feel good.  So let's get back to business and fuck everyone else.  I'm writing for me.

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