I've got a dirty little secret...and you're reading it right now. I, Josie Dorans, am a procrasti-writer. (*everybody say, hi Josie.)
I will quite literally write anything but what I know I should be writing at any given time. This blog is only one example. I write lists. I write snippets. I write recipes I'll never actually follow. Heck, I would probably transcribe half of a dictionary on the right day because I had some idiotic idea to use it to improve my handwriting. And don't even get me started on editing. Rewriting a piece to death is a whole other can of worms. Why? Well, to avoid writing what I should be writing, of course. Duh! We all do it to some extent or another. At least that's what I tell myself. I also tell myself that it only happens when the next chunk of the story is brewing in my brain or some character from something else that I am also diligently not writing shows up doing cartwheels and demanding a spot in a story they don't belong to. Is it all a lie? Don't ask me. I'm too busy believing the inner narrative that keeps me from heaving every last word into the fire - and then immediately burning myself trying to rescue my little worlds from the inferno. The weird thing is that it works for me. Well, mostly. It does throw my writing schedule (handwritten, no less) out of whack sometimes. That's a bit of a downer. But overall, it does buy me time to get past whatever hang-up or stumbling block I'm pondering in the piece that should be front and center. Take the current W.I.P (work-in-progress for those of you who haven't heard the term) for instance. It's book 2 of a series that I'm hoping to one day find a publisher to give it a home. My overall goal is around 90,000 words. I'm currently sitting at 38,663 words with a goal of reaching 44,000 by Saturday. It will take a miracle of no small magnitude to make this happen. The problem? I've got a serial killer who is needed in one location about 20,000 words from now and she's too close to the spot right this minute. This is an opportunity to drive her even more nuts than she already is. The story will benefit from this even if she won't. I know approximately what is going to happen, I just haven't been made privy to exactly how it's all going to go down. Not only that but by golly-gumption the whole series doesn't have the tone I originally wanted and it irks me way down deep where the worst irks lurk. I'm not saying that I don't like what I'm writing. I do. I like it quite a bit, in fact. It's just not showing up how I thought it was going to. Happens all the time. My characters also love to run amok and screw up my carefully laid outlines - say by being way to close way too soon just as one example. That, mild disgruntlement with the fact that my story listens to my directions just about as well as my cats do sometimes boots me out of the progress and makes me have to dig out my thinking cap. And so, I procrasti-write to fill the time between inspirational episodes. Butt in chair. Words on paper. It's the only way to move forward even when they aren't the "right" words.
1 Comment
Margaret
7/6/2021 11:59:34 am
The good thing about writing is that it doesn't HAVE to follow our schedule....heck, sometimes I wake at 2 in the morning to write something that is keeping me from sleep..Bottom line? We do what works....keep it up....you'll meet that goal!
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June 2022
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