Breaks from writing are great, but there comes a moment when it is time to GET BACK TO WORK.
I’ve past that point. 
I have written very little other than this blog the past two weeks home from my extended road trip. The first week was understandable. A relative passed away and I had family in my house. There were additional demands on my time, too. Still are, in fact. But it is at least a week past the time when I should have resumed my writing routines.
The problem? Simple. I don’t have a clear idea of what to write next. I need to take about 30 minutes to evaluate which projects to work on and in what order. Once that is decided, it will be so much easier to sit down for whatever short times I have in my day and write. I’ve demonstrated this year just how much I can accomplish with those little bits of time. I just need a road map.
Historically, this step is the hardest for me. Not because I can’t do it, but because it is so easy to procrastinate. “Thinking time” feels unproductive to me. I mentally know that a plan, goals and routines make me more productive and that it takes thinking time to develop those plans, goals and routines. Emotionally and intuitively, though, I feel as though that time is useless, unimportant, and unneeded. Because of that, my default reaction (which is how I’ve been operating the past few weeks) is to put off the planning time until there is nothing else pressing to do.
There is ALWAYS something else to do.
My goal this week? To (again!) stop procrastinating, carve out at least 20 minutes each weekday, plan my next few weeks (or more) of writing . . . then WRITE! What about you?
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Don’t you enjoy that thinking time, though? Really, it’s purposeful daydreaming
I think the hardest part then becomes picking which idea to go with next. For me, that’s the hard part, when I have to force myself to commit and move forward. Enjoy your thinking time!
Yes! Shonna, that is exactly why it is so hard for me to give myself the daydreaming-thinking time. It is so much fun. It feels like play. When there are so many “important” things to do (like clean the house), playing seems selfish and indulgent. I probably should (sometime) address that erroneous feeling, but for now it’s easier to just give myself permission to be selfish and indulgent for at least 20 minutes a day.
The hard part about knowing what you need to do is that you are the only one who can get yourself to do it. The fact that it’s fun and yet you haven’t done it suggests to me that maybe it’s not you holding you back, but outside forces. Just a thought. I hope this week you take that 30 minutes for yourself, going for a walk or taking a long bath, and choosing your next writing path. Go Steph!
Good point, Kitty! What I’m calling procrastination could, in fact, be myself giving myself “back burner time” (where a problem, dilemma, decision is seemingly ignored, but eventually rises to my consciousness formed, fixed, or decided).
I was just commenting on this very thing over on Elspeth’s blog ‘It’s a Mystery’. Writing is sometimes not writing. It is ruminating or lying fallow enriching the soil by not working it so hard. It is natural and if we trust the process we will be better writers for it. I’m certain of this. If you need to soothe your inner critic – write about your procrastination – oh right, you have!
Trust the process. Thanks, Jan, for the reminder. This “I’d better get busy” feeling IS part of my process. It’s the little nudge I give myself that says I’m ready to start digging for treasure in recesses of my mind/imagination. It is NOT time to berate myself for, as you put it, ruminating. (I love that word. I’m off to chew my cud. LOL) Addendum: This week’s goal: trust my process . . . and get busy!
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