DOES YOUR WRITING PLAN INCLUDING PROSCRASTINATION?
"Confidence and courage come through preparation and practice."
- Author Unknown
Author Sharon McCrumb wrote her first book while working full time, teaching a night class in fiction, taking two graduate courses and trying to raise an 8-year-old daughter. "It's a bunch of crap if you say you don't have time to write," she says.
Actually no one has the time to write. Yet successful authors do it every day, somehow finding the time to meet their writing obligations. I am not a well-known writer but every day (unless ill) I do find time to do something that is either putting words on paper or addressing a related task--research, querying, sending work out or scribbling notes on my latest brainstorming task.
To my way of thinking, there is also nothing like a deadline to make us focus on the work at hand. I'm often one of those "last minute" writers. I do make a writing plan, a time schedule that lists what I need to do and when. I usually have my notes and research done and a first draft--a pretty ragged draft at that. But when it comes down to it, I often procrastinate until a few days (or hours if online) the deadline. Then I gather my notes, the draft and my latest thoughts firmly together and write.
And still, with the admission of pracrastination, I can say with all honesty that writing for publication demands a sincere commitment of time and effort to the craft. You have to want to do it. I want to do it because I love to write. I need to be boosted by that byline. But I still do my best writing under pressure.
Weeks before, I focus on what I want to do with this subject. For most of us, the necessary grunt work that writing for publication necessitates, means we have to have time to research, ponder and draft. My real focus, on rewrites and polishing, comes at the eleventh hour. I must admit that I will probably, till the last writing in the sky, still be lecturing myself each time I have an assignment: Don't wait until the last minute.
Make writing a habit. Even if you "procrastinate" until the last moment to write the actual piece, you must be organized. Just do it. Set aside thirty minutes and write every day even if it is only to make notes, outline, or scribble beginnings and endings for your writing. Maybe setting a certain time of the day will work best for you. Here's where I will tell you to do as I say, not as I do: allow yourself enough time when you have completed your assignment to put it aside for awhile. Going back over it with a fresh eye to revision, makes your work tighter, cleaner, more readible.
How did I do? My personal deadline for this blog was--yesterday.
TIP: Begin researching a topic you want to query an editor with. Outline or write bits and pieces of your article. Have enough material at hand that you can be ready to produce when you get the go-ahead.
PROMPT: Write the first draft of an article or story for a contest with a deadline sometime next month.
- Author Unknown
Author Sharon McCrumb wrote her first book while working full time, teaching a night class in fiction, taking two graduate courses and trying to raise an 8-year-old daughter. "It's a bunch of crap if you say you don't have time to write," she says.
Actually no one has the time to write. Yet successful authors do it every day, somehow finding the time to meet their writing obligations. I am not a well-known writer but every day (unless ill) I do find time to do something that is either putting words on paper or addressing a related task--research, querying, sending work out or scribbling notes on my latest brainstorming task.
To my way of thinking, there is also nothing like a deadline to make us focus on the work at hand. I'm often one of those "last minute" writers. I do make a writing plan, a time schedule that lists what I need to do and when. I usually have my notes and research done and a first draft--a pretty ragged draft at that. But when it comes down to it, I often procrastinate until a few days (or hours if online) the deadline. Then I gather my notes, the draft and my latest thoughts firmly together and write.
And still, with the admission of pracrastination, I can say with all honesty that writing for publication demands a sincere commitment of time and effort to the craft. You have to want to do it. I want to do it because I love to write. I need to be boosted by that byline. But I still do my best writing under pressure.
Weeks before, I focus on what I want to do with this subject. For most of us, the necessary grunt work that writing for publication necessitates, means we have to have time to research, ponder and draft. My real focus, on rewrites and polishing, comes at the eleventh hour. I must admit that I will probably, till the last writing in the sky, still be lecturing myself each time I have an assignment: Don't wait until the last minute.
Make writing a habit. Even if you "procrastinate" until the last moment to write the actual piece, you must be organized. Just do it. Set aside thirty minutes and write every day even if it is only to make notes, outline, or scribble beginnings and endings for your writing. Maybe setting a certain time of the day will work best for you. Here's where I will tell you to do as I say, not as I do: allow yourself enough time when you have completed your assignment to put it aside for awhile. Going back over it with a fresh eye to revision, makes your work tighter, cleaner, more readible.
How did I do? My personal deadline for this blog was--yesterday.
TIP: Begin researching a topic you want to query an editor with. Outline or write bits and pieces of your article. Have enough material at hand that you can be ready to produce when you get the go-ahead.
PROMPT: Write the first draft of an article or story for a contest with a deadline sometime next month.
posted by Barb | 11:50 AM
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