Not to be confused with the Never Ending Story. That’s something different.*
The never-ending battle is the fight to get something, anything, done when all I really have the energy to do is wander around watching cat videos and reading cool science articles.
Fellow Turtleducker Siri the Amazing (She works! She knits! She dances, and goes to events, and travels, and gardens, and writes, and edits, AND finds time to blog, even about how much she’s not writing!)–ahem. Siri has this problem too. And notice all those people down in the comments agreeing that it’s a problem!
Siri uses Freedom to filter her internet time. I’ve heard recommendations for others. I use two–StayFocusd on Chrome, and LeechBlock on Firefox. (Because yeah. When I’ve got my favorite browser blocked, I have absolutely been known to run off to my second favorite. Luckily I’ve never been so desperate to waste time that I opened IE.)
I don’t really know why it’s such a battle. I did not used to have such problems! There’s a reason I have four books published, and seven more complete in draft and only a couple edits away from possible publication. I mean, just look at my original fiction page. And that’s not even all of it! I can easily think of three stories that have several thousand words that are not on that page.
If only I could make myself work on them more consistently. >.<
Even this post–I’m writing this in 750words. I have written 750 words a day for two hundred consecutive days.†But it’s generally a lot of “oh geez will you just type your words and get done forget about typos and punctuation I swear I’ll write something worth smoething one day.” And on days when I have plenty of time to get it done, like a Sunday when my hiking partner cancelled on me?
I’ve been working on it for over an hour, in between wanders off to look at things.
So I know I’m not the only one. Siri talks about this. Many of my friends on my favorite writing forum talk about this. Sometimes friends even vanish from the forum, because they’re not writing and feel uncomfortable talking about everything BUT writing.‡
The war against procrastination affects us all. Even those who don’t have a problem miss out on the great works of those of us who do. We want to write, but we don’t. We want to paint, but we don’t. We mean to travel, but we never get to it. It’s never the right time to go try out yoga. It’s never a good time to start that remodelling you’ve meant to do for years.
It’s a widespread battle. It’s a heck of a fight.
We need a chosen one to save us. A magic weapon, or a seventh son.
Or maybe we should just get the heck to work.
How do you fight this battle? Do you win?
* If you didn’t cry when Artax died, you are just wrong.
‡ Note–those who miss them wish they wouldn’t do this. We miss them!
Aw, shucks. ^___^
I hear you, lady. Would it help if we met somewhere to do word wars — even via email, if Twitter and such are too distracting?
To be honest, I’ve found I don’t actually need Freedom. Or half-hour word wars on Twitter, or even a timer. All I need is to write down the time I started writing (or editing), set in my mind the notion that I’m going to write for at least half an hour, and go. Once I’ve started, I don’t get distracted until I honestly need a break.
Starting — now that’s the REALLY hard part.
I also suspect I’d get a lot more done if I set Freedom to cover, like, the entire evening instead of half-hour or hour-long blocks — the usual length of a writing session for me. But that’s never happened yet. Must look into LeechBlock…how does it work?
Recently, I’ve been setting a goal of 5 hours a week (writing, editing, and brainstorming on screen or paper all count)…and meeting it, or close. That’s not a lot, IMHO; I’m hoping to ramp up. But it’s more, and more consistent, than I’ve been doing in a long time. So *something’s* working.
I hope you find a way to get your mojo back soon. I want to read what you write next!!
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I’m actually trying to get things ‘sorted’ to be able to begin a heavy duty writing spree come October.
*tilts head* I just had a really ridiculous thought that would take even more time away from us, but I’ll propose it: a blog we were all contributors at, and we had to post there about our progress? A simple two minute check in: “I’m struggling”, “I hit my target”, etc. That leaves us able to write the good stuff for *our* sites, but also allows us to keep at each other. I’d be willing to host it.
Di, I’m actually part of something like that on Facebook – a private group with weekly goals and frequent check-ins. Not sure how much it’s pushing the members to work harder (the group dynamic isn’t really the nagging type) but at least it’s reminding me to keep setting goals. I also like the fact that only members can see it. We’ve tried various challenges at TSR in the past, with mixed success, but maybe it’s time to try again?
I would think it’s worth a shot, definitely. Additionally, if we kept it to members only, we could post things we’re struggling with and get advice, etc?
What say you?