Excuses, Excuses And One Good Reason ...

Long days and warm nights made me not want to write.  During the summer I lost my motivation and discipline to my creative mind.  I was living my life. While my characters lives were suspended in air. Waiting, and waiting for me to get back so they again can inhabit the page. For months I wasn't  being fair to them or myself they have a story and I'm the one to tell it.

One day in late August, I went into my local Barnes & Noble and saw a sign.  It read "Writer's Workshop" I wasn't taking my writing serious. I needed something like this to help push me back into the world of words.  For the past three months, I have learned, grown creatively and...I'm here, ready to get back to work.

“Not” Working The Novel…

So, the title of this post says it all. This past week I haven’t been working the novel which kind of frustrates me.  Life, procrastination not sure which is getting in the way of my writing.  All I can say to myself is… “Don’t beat yourself up about it!  Keep moving forward!  Hopefully next week will be very productive!”

Let’s hope so…

March 14, 2011—

3:30 PM—

Wrote and edited the manuscript—

March 20, 2011—

5:52 PM—

Worked on the outline for “A Thirst for Love”— formatted it to fit on 5x8 index cards

March 22, 2011—

4:20 PM—

Worked on the outline — and wrote a little on the manuscript

March 31, 2011—

3:17 PM—

Added more description to the opening page to “A Thirst for Love”— need to work on the description a little more to chapter one

My Writing Time Sheet…

You can make this with a simple table and you can add or subtract whatever fits into your writing or how you work when you write.  I have a table that consists of… day and date, the time I start writing, the time I stop writing, than the total number of hours I wrote, and lastly notes I may want to write down.
  
Whatever you need to keep you writing!  I may change it up as my writing evolves.  Hope this idea helps in your writing journey like it has mine.

Finally, Moving Forward…

I’m finally moving Tessa forward.  I got the section that was giving me so much trouble to a point where I was able to advance Tessa’s story.

However, I’m not thrilled with the amount of time I’m spending writing.  I would like to spend more time writing but it seems everyday life is getting in my way!  What do I do about this problem?  Anyone out there have any ideas or suggestions I could use?  Let me know in comments.  I made a Writer’s Timesheet Template which is helping somewhat but not as much as I would like it to.  I will post what the Timesheet looks like soon.

One of my writing distractions is my cat.  Moe is very intelligent and if he’s not sleeping  he sits behind me in the kitchen either staring at me or meowing, sometimes doing both.  Like he’s doing right now!  Not to mention, pulling down my dish towel onto the floor and then proceeding to sit on it, then he starts his routine of staring and meowing.  He needs to be comfortable after all!  If I ignore him he gets louder!  He doesn’t take no for an answer he wants attention at that moment!  Just a minute ago, I had to stop writing this to give him attention so he would stop meowing and so I could finish this post!  

February 20, 2011—

5:36 PM—

Edited and wrote finally moving Tessa along—

 

February 22, 2011—

4:00 PM—

Edited a tiny bit —wrote a little over an hour on the manuscript

 

February 24, 2011—

3:54 PM—

Edited and wrote …

 

February 25, 2011—

4:10 PM—

Wrote the manuscript —moving forward slowly

 

February 26, 2011—

6:04 PM—

Read both chapters of the manuscript and continued writing chapter two.

 

March 10, 2011—

4:27 PM—

Wrote a good paragraph in the manuscript moving Tessa along and forward…

Out In No-Mans' Land…

On the days I don't work on my novel I feel  guilty for leaving Tessa in no-mans’ land.  Tessa has been in no-mans’ land for at least six weeks, although I have been working on the novel I haven’t moved her along.  I have her suck in a conversation with a four year old boy in Boston’s South Station.  She’s stuck there because I can’t seem to get the words right with this conversation.  I’ve been editing the same conversation for over a month and that is not helping Tessa move along.

Today I think I got the conversation the way it should flow, lets at least hope so…for Tessa’s sake.  I won’t know until I go back and read what I wrote the next time I sit to write.  Until then Tessa’s still in no-mans’ land.

Sorry Tessa I’m working on getting you out as soon as I can.

February 1, 2011—

4:00 PM—

Worked on my writing time sheet — also wrote

 

February 2, 2011—

4:18 PM—

Worked on the manuscript for “A Thirst for Love”— some editing and continuing the scene I’m on in chapter two— also, searched for descriptive words in Word Menu Software. ™

 

February 8, 2011—

5:09 PM—

I edited what I wrote on February 2—

 

February 13, 2011—

4:33 PM—

Edited page 7— of “A Thirst for Love” manuscript— for at least the fifth time— there is a lot going on, on that page and I’m trying to get the words right!

A Writer’s Time Sheet…

I was trying to think of a way to get more productivity out of my writing.  The first thing I needed to know was how long I was writing/working on the novel.  I also needed to know how many days of the week I was actually working.  Below is a table that may help me keep my productivity up and my procrastinating down.  I was just thinking, maybe I should also add a slot for the total of hours a day I work.

I’ll see how this works for me and let you know.  Maybe it can work for you.

Day/Date:	Time Start:	Time Stop:	Notes:
Wednesday / Jan 12,11	12: 00 PM	4:30 PM	Wrote an outline for a scene in chapter 2

Procrastination Is A Bitch…

Why is it a bitch?  Procrastination is very easy to do!  If you don’t feel like doing anything you’re not being lazy you’re procrastinating about doing something.  If you are doing something other than what you’re suppose to be doing you’re procrastinating what needs to get done.  So yes, it’s very easy to do!  I did it everyday last week!  I did a lot last week…slept late, changed my cable plan, played Moh Jong and lost too many times to count.  That’s is just a few things I did, the one thing I should have been doing everyday I didn’t do, and that was write!

If you read below you’ll know why I was procrastinating. Hopefully I know where I’ll be going and won’t procrastinate getting myself there.

 

January 22, 2011—

5:47 PM—

Wrote a little today…may write later tonight. Mad at self for procrastinating for so long. In my own defense, I was having trouble seeing what was happening to her and couldn’t get it on the page. Now I can see what’s happening!

 

January 23, 2011—

5:05 PM—

I didn’t write last night. However, I wrote a scene in the manuscript today it seemed to flow I wish that could happen everyday. Actually, I’m in the middle of the scene but the part I wrote today seemed to flow well. I wasn’t looking at the page with a blank stare like I usually do!

 

January 25, 2011—

4:00 PM—

Edited what I wrote Sunday and wrote a little more today. I didn’t do as much as I planned to but at least I did something today!

Back To Work…

With the holidays over, and the issues I needed to address during the holidays have been taken care of I can get back to work.  Since it's winter in Massachusetts I have at least two months to work on my novel,  most likely three months because April isn't all that “Springy” as far as springtime weather is concerned.  Most of the time springtime doesn’t start until May in Massachusetts.  Tonight, we will have at least 12 inches  of snow maybe more dumped on us.  So I won't be going anywhere anytime soon so I won't have any excuses not to write.

As you can see, I have started writing in the last couple of days.  Hopefully I can get back into rhythm and not get any “life” distractions to derail my productively or progress to getting my novel written in 2011. 

By the way…Happy New Year everyone!

January 9, 2011—

4:15 PM—

Worked on mapping out a scene in chapter two for “A Thirst for Love”— skimmed through two of my writing reference books to get a better idea of how to get the scene on paper.

January 11, 2011—

3:30 PM—

Worked on chapter two on “A Thirst for Love”— editing some paragraphs and wrote some…