Over the past six months I’ve learned a few things about myself, which I credit to this writing journey. Perhaps the most startling is the fact that I’m basically lazy when it comes to writing. If you give me a deadline of an hour, then I could write a 2k word article on the topic of your choice. If you gave me the same assignment, but a week to work on it, then I would wait until an hour before it was due to start on it. I don’t know why that is. I love writing. The creativity of the process is very satisfying. Most of the papers I wrote in college were all developed under a tight deadline. There were at least a hundred of them, and 99% of the time I made an ‘A’, and even graduated with a 3.98 GPA.
So what is it with this procrastination gene that seems to be rampant throughout my DNA? It’s not writer’s block – never that. I can’t remember a time that I couldn’t put my thoughts down on paper. When I first started on the adventure to write and publish a novel it became clear that I needed a schedule to follow. Otherwise, as much as I wanted to follow this dream, it would never get done. Work, family, and life in general would just continue without a writing schedule. But the hardest thing about a schedule is sticking to it. I found this out when several major projects for work came up. One in particular threw my schedule for a loop. The only time I had available to work on it was after hours before bed (my writing time).
The video project for work had many starting and stopping points, and in between I had five minutes to an hour or so to do other things. Writing was nearly useless. My writing time needs to be a consistent stretch, uninterrupted. Impossible to schedule with this project. As a result, what I did manage to write was crap. More on that in a minute.
The project lasted three months, and during that time I wrote in my head more than on the computer. I would love to say this was just an excuse for the crazy procrastination gene, but anyone would be hard pressed to work 70-80 hours a week and still find time to write. I did the best I could though. Between Jan-Mar I updated the site with 20 reviews, video logs and blog posts. The writing that really mattered is what suffered the most. Working on a book of short stories as well as the novel during this time became a bit overwhelming. It proved to be a valuable lesson.
Writing a fictional story is not like writing a blog post, article, or even a school paper. It’s an entirely new ball game. It requires a different level of thought. Personally, it required that I have a schedule etched in stone. There are authors like J.D Mader that can churn out a wonderful piece of fiction in ten minutes. The lazy part of me thinks that I have that skill, and can develop a story in an hour. The truth is quite different. I’m not at that level. Yet. Will I get there someday? Perhaps. But for now I stick to the schedule…as best as I can.
As I mentioned in the last Indies Unlimited article, I ended up throwing the novel out and starting over. It was crap. There were issues from the start, newbie mistakes that I couldn’t work around. I have the newly revised outline, a new schedule, and determination. I will get it done, even if I have to document my weekly progress as an incentive. The short stories I’m working on have fared much better than the novel. One in particular though seems to be growing legs of its own, and might actually turn out to be a novella. It’s at 13k words now and I’m not even half-way there yet. I think. With this one it’s hard to tell. I have a rough outline, but some of the scenes I thought would be rather short are turning into long chapters. We’ll see. I need to finish it first before I start editing. Great advice from Chris James by the way.
So, now you’re caught up on my writing journey. Hey, if it were easy then everyone would write a book. Oh, wait…
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Brilliant post, KD. I know I've been pestering you to tell me about the current state of your writing. I'm glad you waited to share it with everyone in this post.
For me I find that for fiction writing, I need to be in the right frame of mind. I can mull things over in my head but to get the words down onto the page, so far anyway, I've needed the whole setting and time to 'feel' right. I know this is a luxury which writers with kids and families don't have.
I think I shall try to follow your good example though and try to start scheduling. Writing is so dear and important to me, it deserves to have pride of place in my life. As always KD, you've inspired me
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Then I've done my job. Thanks Jo.
It's been difficult to sit down for just an hour or less and write. Sometimes it's all that I have though, so I try to make the most of it. Even if I eventually edit large chunks of it out, the story is moving forward. And if you're not moving forward, you're either standing still or backing up.
Buddy,
Maybe the "procrastination gene" is actually an "impatient satisfaction gene" in disguise? This is what is so attractive about shorter pieces of writing: the turnaround time. In a few hours you can have a well-written blog post up (like this one) and have people (like me and Jo) telling you what a great post it is and how inspiring you are. And then you get a nice buzz. There's the need to write the fiction and kick it out there for the thrill of your readers responding. Longer writing requires, as you're finding out, a different mind-set. You need to put that desire for satisifaction to the back of your mind and dig in for the long haul.
When I was writing my first novel I also wrote a weekly 500-word column for the Warsaw Business Journal, which was great because every Thursday when the paper came out, there was my mug on page 6 next to my column. Terrific weekly buzz, but I gave it up because I didn't have the time to do that AND write a novel. The satisfaction of the weekly column wasn't enough – I wanted the satisfaction of publishing a peoper, full-length novel.
You need to think about what it is you want to achieve my friend; I've no doubt you're more than capable when you set your mind to anything, but for a novel you're going to have to "hunker down" (as I believe you Americans (used to) say), clear out the clutter and concentrate.
Chris, you are right, as always. There may be a point that I'll need to make a decision as to how much time social networks and the blog take up in my schedule. For now though, with the projects for work completed, I should be okay.
If it ever becomes necessary to choose between the dream and writing about the dream, then you won't need to ask what happend to KD when I virtually disappear. I'll be writing a novel.
Ha ha! Yes, you can tell I'm always right from the number of people who read my books! *falls off chair in paroxyms of hilarity*
You just decide what's good for you my friend. If you go away for too long we can always send you an email