A look at past Blood Red Pencil posts indicates procrastination is a challenge for many and often comes hand-in-hand with writer's block.      My Cure for Writer’s Block and Procrastination Pat Stoltey: "Last year I needed something more drastic. A new approach to motivating myself." Tuesday, June 12, 2018 My Cure for Writer’s Block and Procrastination   Everybody has a cure, right? A way to pull yourself out of the doldrums and get back to being a writer who writes. We try them all from setting timers and typing gibberish to practicing with writing prompts until an idea kicks in. Maybe we try three morning pages every day... [ Read more ]       How do I Procrastinate? Heidi Thomas:   Monday, March 7, 2011 How do I Procrastinate? I hereby dub ...

There’s a big fat whirlpool trying to suck me back into total retirement mode. It lures me closer with its siren song of book titles (novels and non-fiction releases) I want to read, hobbies I want to revisit, new skills I want to learn (like playing that stupid ukulele I bought). What is constantly being pushed to the bottom of my priority list? Writing, revising, editing, blogging, and everything related. In order to keep up with my critique group, I’ve switched to submitting hurried first drafts of short stories which I intend to submit to anthologies if I get around to revising and submitting before the deadlines. I did get two stories submitted to two different anthologies. One was accepted and will appear in Five Star ’s November 2019 release of The Spoilt Quilt and Other Frontier Stories: Pioneering Women of the West . I haven’t heard back about the submission to the Northern Colorado Writers 2019 Anthology called Rise (which has beautiful cover art ). Two other or...

Last week I was reading The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield. It’s a best seller with lots of good reviews. And some not so good. Read the not-so-good ones before buying this book. I had borrowed the book from the library because I was interested in the Pressfield’s observations about procrastination and what makes creative folks fight their creativity, sabotaging that internal drive to make art. It’s all about Resistance, he says. If you read the book, you’ll get used to seeing that word over and over: Resistance. Pressfield says he has the answer to all our procrastination problems. Become a pro by acting like a pro. Show up to work every day. Show up at the same time every day, prepared to create. Then create. Okay, I thought. I can do that. The next morning, even though I’d had only one cup of coffee and felt foggy and sleep-deprived, I hurried to my computer and sat down, ready to work. My second cup of coffe...

This post was first published here on March 19, 2014 One of the most important elements for a writer to learn is discipline or structure or whatever else you want to call it. Discipline is different from perseverance. A writer has a story. The story isn’t working out; she perseveres until she finishes it. But what happens when she gets up in the morning to work. I can tell you what happens to me, and I hate to admit it. I have my coffee and raisin toast at the computer. My home page is Yahoo. I know, I’d have fewer distractions if I had Google or some other blank home page. I just looked at Yahoo and saw that Savannah Guthrie got married, and she’s four months pregnant. Then I got hooked on an article about Nicole Kidman’s relationship with her children with Tom Cruise, and then flipped through all the photos of the eclectic Malibu house Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell sold for 9 million, then… you see where I’m going. These were distractions while I was trying to write thi...

Everybody has a cure, right? A way to pull yourself out of the doldrums and get back to being a writer who writes. We try them all from setting timers and typing gibberish to practicing with writing prompts until an idea kicks in. Maybe we try three morning pages every day, pretending we’re journaling when we’re really writing a story. Or maybe we just set aside an hour a day to sit down at the computer, place our fingers on the keyboard, and then stare at the monitor. Last year I needed something more drastic. A new approach to motivating myself. I pondered. I thought. And then I made a decision. I warned my critique group that I would be submitting work that would not follow any rules of writing. All they needed to look at was transitions from one scene to another or from one character to another. They were instructed not to pick on things like head hopping or point of view changes midstream unless they got lost and didn’t know which character I was talking about. Long passag...

Take your fingers off the keyboard and put down your pens. Let’s have a moment of silence for these 10 brave writers...lost, but never forgotten. Aldo Itmaselph - the writer who insisted on working alone. No editor. No beta-readers. Just him. Althea Thoone - the writer who spent more time having coffee with writers’ groups than actually writing. Candice P. Love - the writer so in love with her own work that she found it impossible to part with it. Collette A Day - the writer who gave up. Haile Improbable - the writer whose plots overflowed with timely coincidences. Horace Cope - the writer who would only write if the ‘signs were right’. Maura Applause - the writer who wrote only to get praise. Barry D’Alive - a writer who took personal research that one step too far… Bess Sellars - the writer crippled by the fear of Book Number Two. Myra Gret - a writer who wanted to write, but never found the time. Elspeth Futcher is an author and playwright. T hi...

You’re a writer. You know writing is all about self-discipline. Okay, it’s also about technique and talent, but I’m not blogging about those. Work with me here. Ahem. Writing is about self-discipline. Steely, hard-eyed, butt-in-the-chair-hands-on-the-keyboard discipline. I get that. But before you plant your butt in that chair have you… 10. Checked the level of your coffee supplies. Some say you can never have enough coffee; and they may be right. I say you know you’ve reached your coffee limit when your typing starts to look like this: “ ttttttttttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssssss ”. 9. Ensured your food drawer is stocked. Everyone has a food drawer; don’t try to deny it. Some say their drawers are full of healthy snacks. I say some lie. One word, my friend, one word: Chocolate. 8. Set your radio/computer/mp3/cd player to your preferred music. Some of us write to music; some don’t. I write to the dulcet tones of warring cats and the occasi...

"Pearl trap I" by János Csongor Kerekes via Flickr Hello, sweetie. You’ve fallen into a trap. An Internet trap. Relax. As far as traps are concerned it’s not so bad.  But I’m not trapped, I can hear you say . I’m reading a blog. This is part of my routine, part of my social networking.  Yes, yes, it is. Reading and commenting on blogs can be a vital part of a writer’s day. Of course non-writers read blogs like this one as well, but indulge me while I concentrate on writers because, well, I am one. I know writing, for many of us, is isolating. It’s just us and our computer (or piece of paper, or whatever). Hence...the lure of the Internet and social networking. Of course the Internet is a wonderful tool. I’ve researched and Google street-viewed places which would have cost me thousands to see in person. (Not that that wouldn’t have been pleasant, I admit. You don’t get ambient sounds in Google street-view. You can’t smell the delicate perfume which ...

Every writer dreams of being in The Zone - that magical place where words and ideas flow. There's a reason it's a dream because for many of us (myself most definitely included), our visits there are too few and far too fleeting. Here are ten signs that you too, my sister (or brother), are most assuredly not in The Zone: 10. Just one more game of Solitaire (or Free cell or Angry Birds or...). Just one. Oops, where did that hour go? 9. Notice you've used the word 'pretty' twice. Not in the same paragraph; the same sentence . 8. (If you write mysteries) your sleuth is about to have his/her big 'aha' moment. This is when you realize there is no logical way they could have leaped to the solution. 7. Realize your fingers are cramping because they've been frozen over the keyboard for such a long time. 6. It's been so long since you've looked at your WIP that when you actually open up the document you have to spend  considerable time  re-re...

Or...is this just me? 1. Look for your favourite pen. 2. Discover the pen has inexplicably run dry. Go to the store to find new favourite pen. 3. Reward yourself for finding the new pen by buying yourself coffee. 4. Sit down at your desk and rearrange all the paper that has inexplicably covered it. 5. Read what is written on each piece of paper. Decide it's all worth keeping and you'll file it away. Tomorrow. 6. Reward yourself for coming to a decision about the paper by making a tasty sandwich. 7. Clear your head after all this work by taking a brisk walk around the block. 8. Sit down at your desk and stare at the keyboard. Torture yourself with the fact that all the keys are there to write a runaway bestseller, if you just type them in the correct order. 9. Get up from your desk and pace the room. Notice you're making a pathway in the carpet. Resolve to get hardwood floors. Next week. 10. Sit down. Write one sentence. Delete it. Write another sentence....

I hereby dub myself “Queen of the Procrastinators.” How do I procrastinate? Let me count the ways. Instead of working on my WIP : • Yesterday I baked bread. • Today I cleaned my keyboard. • And I'm writing this article. • Once I even cleaned my stove! • I go grocery shopping. • I check e-mail. • I have lunch. • I do dishes. And on and on… I even took a class on procrastination once. No, not how to, but how to avoid doing it. I think I need to re-read my notes! One thing the instructor recommended was to make an appointment with yourself. Every day from 9 to 10 a.m. (or whatever time you designate), I will write. Period. Nothing should interfere with this appointment. This is creating a habit, and most likely you will end up working longer, because you’ll find you’re on a roll. Reward yourself for doing this. Even something that seems as silly as putting a sticker on your calendar each day that you write is a huge thing. I did this a few years ago and I found that ...

It's that time of year---again. Weddings. Bridal Showers. Rehearsal Dinners. First Communion. Confirmation. College Graduation. High School Graduation. Kindergarten Graduation. Day Care Graduation. Mother's Day. Father's Day. Memorial Day. With so many celebrations going on, when is there time to work? Yes, I said work, because writing---and marketing, and editing, and book signings---are work. It's how writers earn their living. People who work for others certainly know when it's time to work because their employers tell them. But how do writers stay focused? How do you maintain a reasonable work schedule amidst the chaos? All of the above is, of course, in addition to the usual list of family, friends, and neighbors who see working from home as "working" from home---meaning that we writers can just drop what we're doing at any time to run a quick errand, comfort a friend in need---the one who is heartbroken over her third boyfriend loss this week...