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Forward Motion for Writers

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Many of us have legitimate reasons why we aren't writing. Many others have excuses. What about you? What is keeping you from creating the story in your head?

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I find that I have a limited creativity well and when real life requires me to find creative ways to get myself out of bed in the morning then there is nothing left for my writing.

Other times it's inertia that stops me.

How do I tell the difference?

I can't. :-P

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Lately, for me, it's that I forgot to put writing first. So I'd get to it if I had time and energy after doing all my freelance work and family stuff for the day. I'm getting back to putting in time before the freelance work, so I know it's getting done.

Before that? Stress. I can't be creative and work when my thoughts are chasing each other around in circles in my brain, worrying over things and hoping I'll find a way out of the loops, out of depression, out of . . . everything.

It's a bit of a catch-22. Not enough freelance work = lots of time to write, but lots of stress over the lack of money coming in. Plenty of freelance work = stress over money decreases, but so does time available to write.

Just started back up with the 30 minutes/day. We'll see how it goes.

-- Erin

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I agree with the stress angle, but exhaustion too. I just finished up a work project that was ridiculously stressful, and I couldn't collapse until I was done. And I've just spent the past few days de-stressing and not doing much with writing.

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I think writers as a group regularly underestimate the importance of caring for the physical plant (our bodies and life) and replenishing our emotional wells. I know it's a big problem for me.

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I'm still managing at least 1,000 words a day - but migraines, stress, and random disruptions are making it difficult.

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Well, the hours in the day are too few! I have been doing daycare for a friend's daughter for the past year so with that and household duties I forgot about my passion as it slipped out of my vision. But I am reclaiming it now with the hurdles of lack of sleep and stress.

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It seems that life keeps getting in the way everytime I attempt to get back on track. I have a good idea and some excellent scenes written and critiqued but I let everything else come first. Vacation is over and the summer is coming to a close. Writing to the front burner please!

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What's keeping me? Ultimately, *I* am holding myself back, which is basically the theme of my novel.

On the plus side, I am meeting up with my best friend every Saturday for a 2 hour creative writing session, but it's not nearly enough.

A few days ago I restructured the outline and have reworked the first chapter. Instead of writing random chapters, I will work through in chronological order from now on.

To answer the question: Time and discipline is what's keeping me from writing.

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Just me. It doesn't take any more than that to keep me from writing.

I am creeping along on two projects. I resumed work on the one I'd needed to neglect for two months, and I think I'm going to have to rip out the page and a half of revision I've managed this week, because I just don't feel like I've gotten back into my character. I'm going to do some more review and reading the leading work to help me get back into character (It's first person POV).

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I am my own worst enemy when it comes to my own dreams and goals. Granted, real things do distract and interfere -TEMPORARILY. It is after the distraction and interference that counts…


Lisa S – Beginning Again!

My own dark thoughts and worries. It's an evil trap really. Writing helps to calm me but then my thoughts keep me from putting down the first word.

Maripat

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Fear. I don't know if I am more afraid of failure, or that I might actually succeed, but either way it keeps me from giving my all to my writing.

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Well everytime I get inspired the cat comes alond to nag for something, and then when that's been attended to the inspiration seems to have vanished.

Oh! Wait! I think that's an excuse, not a reason.

The truth is I think that age has destroyed my drive for success. Will I be able to finish? Then I come across stories about artists who went on to the end leaving work unfinished. Then there's what am I writing about? What, if anything, am I trying to say?

The part I find sad is that I think I've finally learned how to write (as opposed to telling stories. I learned that as a child. Sometimes it got me into big trouble.).

Weird Jim

"Good reading is the only test of good writing"
Robertson Davies. A voice from the attic 1960

I have a ton of things keeping me from writing, but I'm trying to knock them down one at a time.

Money is a big one which leads to stress which undermines creativity and causes health issues.

This has also been a crazy year because my oldest son started college last year and moved away from home permanently...umm...two days ago? Then my youngest is still living at home, but will be starting college locally next year, so we have to get him set and pay all sorts of other fees there (more money and stress).

But a lot of those big things are one-offs that have swallowed my whole attention. I'm looking for a fulltime job and working freelance with several clients at the same time. However, those would be manageable without the family stress, so I have high hopes for getting my patterns back in place.

The hardest thing holding me back is actually indecision. I have too many pieces that I love and are in a state where they need to be edited and sent out. But whenever I go to work on one, I can't decide which and that's that. By the time I get anywhere, my writing time is over. I think I'm going to be reduced to the random generator .

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Can I put a bid in for Shadows? I love that book and wish it was published.

LOL! Yes, that's on the top list. It's been edited (several times) and got the "great story that holds together but I don't think I can sell" rejects from a number of agents who read the full. However, the world is changing, and I'm changing with it. Thinking to separate the first part into a novella and release both as self-published. However, Shafter is further in the works, so will come out first.

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For picking something to work on, I've taken to numbering my choices 1 - 20 and then rolling a die from D&D. :>

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Yeah, I'm getting close to that point. I do "archive" things I think aren't going anywhere, but that isn't reducing the pile by much.

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Oh, I like that idea.

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*ponders cutting choices down to 20*

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LOL! True, I hadn't considered that problem. I have more novels to choose between than that...and we're not touching short stories.

But you could roll twice. Count it up from 1 to x, roll once for the tens place (or hundreds as necessary), then again for... etc.

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Oh, sure, we've got at least half a dozen d10s lying around!

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I think I can answer this in one word:

Fear.

To expand:
Fear of failure.
Fear of rejection
Fear that the stories won't come
Fear of turning off the noise box (tv) and it not work ever again. (This might be a good thing.)
Fear of success
Fear of stress
Fear of my day job bosses finding my writing (not because they are in it. Long story.)

Yeah, so I live in a bubble of fear... I should probably see someone about it...

*sudden story idea*

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I've been thinking off and on about my reply to this question since you asked it, Zette.

The obvious answer is my health. But that's been there for years and I really want to find a way around it, or over or under it. Somehow.


Talking about it on my blog today, and in some detail, but only as an introduction to the 3-day series I'm planning for next Monday to Wednesday on how we can overcome obstacles that affect our productivity.

I'm inviting people to register their statement of intent in the comments on today's blog post, to say they'll join me for the ride next week and bring along their circumstances to work through too.

I'd love to see some FMers saying you'll be there in the comments today.

For people whose issue is mostly finding time to write, I recommend The Weekend Novelist, by Robert Ray (updated version with Bret Norris). This is a book I reread every couple of years to remind myself that no matter how little time there is, there is time It's very practical advice from a writer who has been through the same problems and issues.

Ray doesn't just talk about the time you have to sit down at a keyboard, he also talks about planning and structuring in ways that let you prepare to make the most of that limited time. Some of them are things most of us do anyway, like thinking about characters in our head, but I found it very useful to put a logic behind it.

His plans are most useful for outline writers who write in sequence, but many of his techniques transfer well to other writing styles.

edited to clarify: Ray's book is for people whose real life obligations don't leave them enough time or energy to write every day. It's about making time and then making effective use of it. If your issues are fear of success, or lack of confidence, or any of the myriad other problems a writer has, you won't find much here. If your writing is more free-form, you won't find much here. It's not a one-size-fits all book.

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I have no doubt that this book will help some people, but I'd like to offer an alternative for those whose hearts sink at the phrase "time management"*...

NaNo. Just do it, jump in, make yourself so determined that you will finish, no matter what, that you do it. Then do it again, next year. After a few years, you realise that if you can do it for one month out of the year - you can do it.

I know that's a chaotic method for learning how to find time to write, but now that I understand I have executive function issues, I realise that at least for me, it's one of the only things that ever would have worked. (That, and simply figuring out what all the issues were that dogged me all my life worked wonders.)

* And no offense meant to you or anyone else who swears by it. If it works for you, great. But I've never been able to make it work, and now that I understand myself better, I doubt I ever would be able to. And when you battle something long enough, you do develop an instinctive dread of it...

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Normally, I'd agree, but I know I won't have time for NaNo this year. Even though I'm planning on encouraging others. My job was originally 4 classes this semester and 4 next semester has turned into 6 classes this semester and 5 classes next semester (oh, and these are all different classes -- it's not like 5 sections of the same class: I'm teaching Classical Literature (9th), British Literature (10th), American Literature (11th), Theatre (elective), Creative Writing (elective), and 8th grade English). These are, in general good changes (I get to teach Creative Writing!), but with only 120 planning minutes a day, I'm going to be struggling, and my job likely *will* carry over into my "free" time.

I'm going to set up a Young Writers site for the Creative Writing class (provided my Headmistress approves it) as an option, but I'll be amazed if I manage 5,000 words.

Now, part of the problem isn't just lack of time. I know I probably sound like I'm making excuses, but right now, I'm just in training, and I come home at 4:00pm completely exhausted. I have no mental energy. Somehow, I managed to fill out an apartment application tonight, but afterwards, I was so exhausted that I was in tears, and then I was snapping at my family members. I can't do that every day (and probably shouldn't have done it today).

Once I'm trying to plan 6 classes and grade work from 6 classes, it's going to be worse -- at least this year. When I only have 5 in the spring, things will be a little better. And next year, because I'll have done it before, it will be a little better (plus, they'll probably have a social studies teacher, whose job I'm partially doing). This year, I don't think I can do NaNo. But I might still be able to find time to write. Maybe that's because I've done NaNo in the past. But having other solutions can't hurt.

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Yes, this book is not going to work for you. It's not a one-size-fits-all book; it's got a fairly narrow focus on people who know what they want to write and just can't find time to do it.

Though it's not a time-management book, either. It's more...opportunistic, I guess. Looking at where your time is so you can use it. I'm dyslexic and/or adhd and/or executive function issues, so most conventional approaches don't work for me, but I was able to pick up several techniques that I'm still using -- I guess almost 20 years since I first read it.

The NaNo approach is good for writing a first draft, but when it comes to working on edits, scheduling crits for other people, keeping up with blogs I follow for professional reasons, et cetera, I need to have some sort of organization or nothing ever gets done.

p.s. I edited my recommendation to make clearer who might benefit from it.

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Have you looked at his revising book, and if so, do you recommend it as well? I'm more curious about that one since, at this stage in my writing career, I need to focus more on revision than new words.

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No, I haven't even looked at that one. I'm thinking of getting his book about writing mysteries, however.


For revision, I use Gary Provost's Make Every Word Count and Ted Cheney's http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Words-Right-Improve-Writing/dp/158297358X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342105774&sr=1-1&keywords=cheney+getting+words+right">Getting the Words Right. I've used them for so many years that I seldom actually refer to them any more.

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Do they help you find the time to do it? Or is it revision advice?

Right now, I think I might have too much revision advice (trying several different systems, but not all on the same book), but I definitely could use help finding ways to put it into a really busy schedule. I find that revision, even more than rough drafts, is hard to find time for, since I have more to set up (have the draft, have some kind of notebook, have colored pens, etc.)

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No, not really -- Ray's would be the closest, because his find-time hints would tend to be applicable to most any private activity. I'll have to go refresh my memory about whether there's anything useful.

I'm having the same issues. With the house on the market, I have to keep everything compact, and I keep getting into situations where I just don't have what I need.

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Unfortunately, I think mine are legitimate, and not going to go away soon .

I was in France, teaching. That was probably less legitimate, since I did spend a lot of time playing computer games.

But then, I was student teaching full time and working part-time, plus having work to do for school. I had a few minutes here or there, but never enough mental energy to get anything done, until the portfolio for school was done. So, I got more writing done in May.

But, then, I needed to find a job, and I started working full time for my other job. I spent all my free time working on applications and going to other places for interviews. I hoped to get a job early in the summer so that I would have time to go through everything so I would be able to move, and while I did get a job early in the summer, they also START early in the summer, so I only had a week.

NOW, I have a new job and they are paying me extra to teach 2 extra classes, AND I still have to go through stuff so that I can move, and I am still working part time at the other job. I will be quitting that job on July 21, but then the kids will arrive July 23 . . .

I've been wanting to write, but just don't have the mental energy for it, even though I have "time". I'm hoping that as I get used to the school and the kids I can add some back in. I'm determined to add freewriting in no matter what. I can easily do that for 15 minutes a day somewhere.

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Well, I'm doing research for a nonfiction project. I probably need to do more of what I was doing last summer on it (write short fragments as they came to me, integrate into larger text when have chance), or tidy up and add citations to the part I wrote last Nano, but some restrictions have come down on where I can use my memory stick, and I'm not that keen on writing stuff and emailing it back and forth, though things may yet come to that.

Alot of the aspects that interest me are kind of up in the air, in terms of me or other people I'm trading info with having found the *beginning* of something interesting, but having to wait on records requests or whatnot to find the "rest of the story."