Thinking....thinking.....thinking....I swear I spend more time thinking about what I'm going to write then actually writing - which could of course be part of the problem. I think I did a good job with the first risky piece (I loved working my way through the play on song titles and it made me laugh) but now it's time for another one and I'm not sure where to go from here. Humor, juxtaposition (actually had to look that one up in the dictionary to be positive I knew what it meant!), or exaggeration?? Which to use??
On the bright side, if it snows tomorrow my scheduled outings to the flu clinic (for those of us who did not get the flu yet), bank, etc..will be canceled and I will have more time to write so maybe I can get four posts done instead of two. I say it's hard to fit in the time for so much writing what with going to school full time, working part time, and taking care of six ids and a household, a full time job in itself, but that's not necessarily true. If I just wrote whatever came to mind, without any prior agonizing thought process, I could probably get them all done in a day. Unfortunatly, as my thirteen year old would say, "That's not how I roll."
Ok, first set a goal, or a few, and then work slowly towards them, figuring out the why's, how's, and obstacles along the way, so here goes:
Immediate Goal: (Dang I just counted it out and I'm going to have to ramp up this one from previous thought!) Put in at least three posts per day until all writings are caught up in ENG.
Continuing Goal: Start keeping some sort of journal / set aside half an hour to write everyday - even if it's just nonsense. I have to get past this hesitation!
Future Goal (One Year): Publish at least five articles.
Future Goal (Five Years): Publish book.
There. At least my writing goals are outlined for the time being. Now I have to go work on the first one. And I just thought of tomorrow's ideas to toss around here, something about inspiration and muse.....
"I say it's hard to fit in the time for so much writing what with going to school full time...."
ReplyDeleteBut, um, part of going to school fulltime is writing for school--it's not like there's school and then there's this crazy English course I have to write for! The course is also school!
My general advice to writers is not to waste much time thinking--because you do NOT know what you think til you see what you have written!
True fact! More writing, less planning, much less thinking--that doesn't seem to be your style of rolling but next time you're agonizing, think about it. If you don't like what's on the page, that's why God invented revision, but there can't be revision til the vision is in print.
Yeah, I think I'm starting to get that now. I have to learn to stop thinking and just start writing. There's always the delete button, the backspace button, and if all else fails I do own a woodstove so crappy stuff can go up in smoke!!
ReplyDeleteAnd I did not meant that my writing was NOT part of my school, I just meant that having other classes as well provided another excuse as to my time constraints. Alas, regardless they were unwarranted excuses, the only real excuse is the one in my head that wants everything perfect and over-analyzing!!
I think I'll just start having more conversations with myself, telling that procrastinating voice to just shut up whenever it starts to complain. I'll just have to do it internally of course....don't need any trips to the funny farm fouling up my holidays! However, the 'laying around with absolutely nothing to do except perhaps read a book' does sound inviting.....