Thursday, February 23, 2012

Hi, My Name Is Amanda, And I Am A Serious Procrastinator

Dudes. The end of February is next week and I still haven't started a short story for the month! Someone yell at me and make me do this, please. I also have 6,000 more words to write in order to reach 30k on the New Novel by the end of the month.

Hi, my name is Amanda, and I am a serious procrastinator.

I've always been like this. ALWAYS. In high school I would be so late handing assignments in that one time I crumpled the assignment up, and when I handed it to my teacher I said, "I just found this at the bottom of my locker!" Like, OMG, it must have just slipped out of my binder two weeks ago and gotten crushed at the bottom of the locker so obviously I did it on time and it's not my fault that it's late!! Yeah, ridiculous excuse. And yes, she believed me and I didn't get any points deducted. *hangs head in shame* But I DID end up telling her the following year, when she was no longer my teacher :)

I really don't remember a time that I didn't wait for the last minute to get something done. Except when I was planning my wedding, but that's a different story! It's funny that I'm a procrastinator, actually, since I'm so in love with lists and organization. I'm noticing that with writing, though, procrastination is a beast I really need to tame. My word count goals are great, but if I slack off until the end of the month, then I get totally burned out after a hectic week of playing catch-up. I'd much rather stay steady throughout the whole month.

How do I make myself do this?!

I think it's just a force of will and FOCUS. I have a cray-zay goal for myself for next month. It's probably not crazy to most people, but as I am a sloooww writer, it's pretty crazy for me. I'm hoping that the big goal will be motivation enough for me to stop listening to highly addictive songs that are impossible to write to, because these songs have been a major source of procrastination the past few days. Actually, it's just one song. A song you might have heard or seen people talk about online recently.

THIS SONG:

HEY, I JUST MET YOU! AND THIS IS CRAZY!

This song has kept me in a constant state of Hyper for the past two days, which includes but is not limited to: watching this video over and over and over, etc., dancing around like a psycho, and bouncing in my desk chair. The Husband has told me to "Stop singing that song." But I cannot!

At least this form of procrastination is fun and not evil.

Anyway, I better stop listening to it because I have words to write and not a lot of time to write them. Stupid procrastination. I apologize if any of you become addicted to the song...but not really because it's awesome.

BEFORE YOU CAME INTO MY LIFE I MISSED YOU SO BAD! I MISSED YOU SO BAD! I MISSED YOU SO, SO BAD!

7 comments:

  1. it's a catchy song, I instantly bounce in my chair.. but it makes me feel like I should be inside of Abercrombie & Fitch or any of those stores, LOL

    now, STOP procrastinating and GET TO WORK!!!!!!!!

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    1. It DOES sound like a song from Abercrombie! I used to work there in high school...*shudders* Ugh, I know, I really do need to get to work! I'll just listen to it one more time... :)

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  2. heehee, cute video!

    Have you thought about daily word goals to help you with the procrastination? Like, something small like a page a day?

    At any rate, at least you're making progress!!

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    1. I have weekly word count goals that I break into daily goals, but...I don't always do them on time, clearly :) I WILL get it all done though. I just hate the rush at the end of the month. I've been writing like a crazy person to get it all done. But yes, at least I am making progress!

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  3. Have you thought about doing a Book in a Month type program? We're doing one over in Seekerville.

    www.seekerville.blogspot.com

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  4. As a seriously seriouser procrastinator than you are (yeah, believe me - 'cause that assignment you turned in a couple weeks late, well, I still haven't done that one), I've found some ways to beat up the monster, although I should mention it can never be totally beaten, and it never goes away.

    And, btw, I think most writers are like that and just figure out whatever device works best for them to get things done. At newspapers - which are full of writers, and if you think herding cats is crazy then just spend a little time in a newsroom! - it's called a deadline. And if those didn't exist, this would be a world no news.

    What worked for me with this novel was to first figure out how long it would be. I decided on 70,000 words because Hemingway and Fitzgerald agreed that is the perfect length for a novel, and they didn't agree on all that much. Then because I'm a little ADHD and don't like to draw things out too much, I figured out how long I wanted to spend writing it - no more than 3 months. Turns out that 70k words divided by 90 days = 777.8 words/day. Or about 2-1/2 to 3 pages. And I figured I could do that.

    But I had a deadline each day (so there were plenty of days I was up until 4 a.m. because I didn't start until well after midnight). And it wasn't cumulative (izat the right word?). If I wrote 1,000 words one day, that didn't mean I had to write only 554 the next - I still had the 777. (Btw, Stephen King claims to write 750 words/day, and he's pretty darn prolific.)

    I'd also wonder why you say you're a "slow" writer. Too much rewriting while you're writing? Ditch that and worry about it later - hey, it's one more thing you can put off.

    Now, if I could just figure out some metrics to measure rewriting/editing, maybe I could put that on a schedule and figure out how to beat on the monster with that. 'Cause it's a whole lot easier to leave editing (which I hate anyway) until later....

    Btw, maybe it's 'cause I'm a guy, but I'm immune to your hooky pop songs.

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    1. I actually did the same thing--I estimated how many words it would be, broke it down by month, then by week, then by day. I'm great at setting up goals for myself, just not so good at working on them daily :) And my husband was immune to the song too, though I don't understand how anyone could be! Definitely a guy thing.

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