Sunday, September 2, 2012

My Best Bud: Procrastination

Sometimes, writing is easy. Other times, it's a slow and painful process that I equate with having a root canal . . . not that I've ever had a root canal. I've just heard the horror stories and . . .
 
. . . that's how the writing process has been for me over the course of the last few months. Okay, a wee bit longer than all that jazz.
 
I don't know why. I'm not a psychologist, nor do I play one on TV. Okay, I have somewhat of an idea, it's not pretty, and personally I don't want to go explore that dark and twisty path through the forest where fearsome beasts lurk, just waiting for me to stumble over some irreverent root and then fall, where they can pounce upon me and, well, take my humanity.
 
Okay, it's not been that bad. It's just been . . .
 
Some of my problem comes from rejection. Some comes from dark childhood memories better left in childhood. Some or all of the last two sentences are most likely fiction . . . or truth.
 
I've made some attempts at writing. Attempts. I have written some stuff, some pretty good stuff, but the desire to write day after day just hasn't grab ahold of me.
 
Again, don't know why.
 
For the last few days, the words, on a new project, have flowed fairly easily. That sound you're hearing is me knocking on every piece of wood within a 75 mile radius of my house. LOL!
 
So, I've been writing and yet, the project closest to my heart, ready to go out into the world to be rejected by agent after agent, sits untouched. The things I need to do to submit it - finish the latest version of the query, do a one page synopsis for the one publisher, among other things - for query or to an independent publisher, remain undone. Oh, I think about doing those things, but procrastination has become my best bud in the Universe over the course of the last few months. The only thing I seem to be sticking to is my determination to lose - which I did, btw - some weight I had gained and continue to eat as healthy as possible. Take that, procrastination.
 
But, I'm writing, and I take that as a good sign. The ideas for this particular project are following me around like my dogs. Trust me, I can't - TMI coming up, in case you want to skip forward a few sentences - go to the bathroom without them, or the cat, following me. I keep telling the Boyz - Jesse and James - that I'm perfectly capable of going to the bathroom without their assistance. They just don't seem to believe me for some reason. Oy!
 
Anyhow, back to those ideas that are following me around. I had the initial concept, and began to jot down notes about that concept - main characters, peripheral characters, etc. - and then suddenly I was writing the first chapter. I'm now on to chapter three. Woo-hoo. With each word/paragraph I write, more ideas flow, and the piece of paper next to my laptop fills up with more scribbles here, there, and everywhere. Again, woo-hoo! I have a general idea how my evil three, yes three, count 'em - one, two, three - are most likely going to escape from their banishment. Okay, a vague idea. I know how the three heroines are going to go off on their own to prevent this from happening. It's all in the little details that appear as I write, in the conversations that happen, which reveal more details about unrest about to happen that will force the menfolk to stay behind and deal with those issues, while the three heroines must do whatever they can to protect themselves and those they love.
 
So, the words flow for now, and since I needed to put pen to paper, so to speak, I decided to do a blog post about the whole dang thing . . . not that anyone still follows this blog so many months after I allegedly put up the final post and put the blog to rest. Ha!

2 comments:

Mindy said...

I can't believe NO ONE has commented on this yet?!

I know what it's like to have all these ideas floating around in your head and you're just itching to get it on paper. I have a massive exercise book which I jot down all my ideas. They eventually expand and turn into storylines. Then they expand into characters and I start making character profiles. I start creating a world for each idea I make.

It's quite exciting. How did you go with getting a Publisher?

Mindy

www.sksainitheauthor.blogspot.com

Witchdoctress said...

Hi Scott,
I've just completed a blog hop post and have tagged you to complete one as well. What the blog hop is, is a series of questions about your writing project, be it a novel or an anthology of short stories, to incite interest in your readers and followers and also to provide them with more information about your work. I've answered the questions in regards to a novel I'm working on at the moment. I hope your writing efforts are going well and I hope that you will continue this blog hop.
Here's a link to my (extremely new) blog: http://witchdoctress.wordpress.com/

Sincerely,
Janet Tan