Ok, so you know the rules: no internet,
no calls, no texts, no distractions of any kind until you’ve done some writing
– and not just a few sentences, a paragraph or a page – but some serious
progress.
Yet every now and then one of those days
comes along when you just can’t help yourself. You have to check your bank
balance – has that money you’re expecting arrived in your account yet? You have to
check your email, after all someone, a friend, a relative, your dearest absent
loved one, could have sent you an urgent message.
You have another coffee – larger,
stronger, ‘cos you really do want to get through this detour you seem to have taken
– you’re not totally off plan yet – this can be seen as a warm up to the
writing, a connecting – if you like – to the wider world; why, it’s just a ‘get
your creative juices going’ exercise.
By now you really are delusional.
So, in for a penny, in for a pound as
they say, you might as well check how many page views you got yesterday – like
you didn’t do this at 11.59pm last night. Well, mmm...bit of a bummer there but
you’ve been in worse places.
Your, by
now, despairing eye spots an article on procrastination in someone’s blog. And
you’re back in the zone. You want to write so badly, it’s almost physical, and
you know desperate measures are needed. You hit the link, and wow! There’s
nothing you’ve not heard before but somehow it strikes a chord. You are so
ready to write.
All you need to
do is close down the internet, open the file and get on with editing the
last chapter of your life’s work. However, at this point your eye catches another link to a second
article on how to overcome this enemy that has you on your knees. You can't resist and click again. This time it works! You don’t even finish the
article and in two ticks you’re off line and your fingers are on fire.
Two and a half
hours later you’ve finished.
So thank you, guys, your words were
just what I needed. All those bloggers (see below for links) whose encouraging advice and guidance
helps to keep me on task - you have my lasting appreciation.
Today’s Haiku
COFFEE SHOP
She sips the
froth first
Licking the
chocolate heart.
She’s late –
doesn’t care.
Check out a book
of short stories called Roads Taken by M. Joaquim at the
Kindle Store, ebook only. It’s a great little book.
Here is are the links
to the procrastination articles:
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/09/21/the-science-of-procrastination/
http://99u.com/articles/7051/cant-start-wont-start-tricks-for-overcoming-procrastination
Here are a
couple of websites about writing whose advice helps me in my writing;
And if you
haven’t read Stephen King’s book ‘On
Writing’, I would suggest you do.
For all book
lovers out there, I wish you good reading and for those of you who write, good
writing.
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