I'm REALLY good at procrastinating. I'm also really good at telling myself things are going to be a certain way and then I go out of my way to make things work against that. Why do I do that? It's like I'm two different people. This should come as no surprise to people who know the real me. The real me likes to listen to Britney Spears. No joke. I enjoy a lot of her music while I'm writing because she's upbeat and catchy and my brain can concentrate with the repetition and brainless mind-candy. Oh well. You can laugh. Go ahead.
So we at the Literary Lab have this thing coming up called an anthology. We are offering CASH prizes to three winners. Also, me and Davin and Scott will be including our own short stories in the anthology. No, we don't get a shot at the cash. We just want to play.
I have yet to write my story, but I'm gearing up to it and I wanted to talk about how procrastination gets my creativity going. Isn't that odd? It does! Because as I've been procrastinating this short story, my subconscious has been working hard on some ideas. I hope when I sit down to write the story, it just flows out. That usually happens when I procrastinate enough. Does this happen to you at all? Am I crazy? Well, I listen to Britney sometimes. I must be, but at least I'm a happy crazy while I'm writing after all that procrastination. *smile*
Procrastination also gives me a sense of urgency, and that urgency helps me to make decisions. If I have all the time in the world, I can't decide on anything because I keep thinking an alternative choice will be better.
ReplyDeleteWell, I've had lots of practice in procrastinating. I don't know if my subconscious does much else beside laying the guilt trip on me. But now I'll try to be more observant.
ReplyDeleteWell, you may be crazy, (welcome to the asylum)but this also happens to me. However, I don't call it procrastination, I call it pre-writing in my head. That helps me feel better about it.
ReplyDeleteReading this constitutes procrastination for me as I'm supposed to be writing right now.
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean that reading this post will make my word count go up?
Hey, can I count this comment?
(I know, I know, doesn't count...)
:~)
I don't know if procrastination helps me- but I do know that putting more 'must write must write' pressure on myself is absolutely the wrong way to get anything written, for me anyway.
So I guess if the procrastination constitutes something that sparks, inspires, relaxes, or otherwise gears my brain more toward getting the words unjammed from the works inside of it, then yeah, it does help.
Interesting post!
~bru
Davin: I think that's what procrastination does for me to. If there's too much time, I just can't decide on anything.
ReplyDeleteYat-Yee: Hehe, well, hopefully your subconscious is actively doing something without your knowledge. Just have to stop procrastinating to see if it has been hard at work. :)
Chuck: Pre-writing, yeah. I do that consciously, a lot, but this procrastination pre-writing seems to happen without my knowledge.
Bru: You can count comments! =) I think procrastination helps me to relax and get into the right frame of mine to work productively. As odd as that may seem.
I wanted to play this year because I came up with a cool twist, so I'm entering!
ReplyDeleteOn a more serious note:
You guys should hold the first Literary Lab telethon, well, blogathon, for a worthy cause. Being that we all love Michelle, I feel that an intervention is needed.
Everyone please send a CD of your choice to help this kind soul with a problem that affects millions. Britneyism can be cured. :)
Charlie: Yay for entering! Thanks for participating. I agree some intervention is needed (since I'm actually listening to Britney right this moment...) *hangs head*
ReplyDeleteLester: Oooo! I do that exact same thing with lists! Sweet!
Like you should be less crazy than the rest of us Michelle . .
ReplyDeleteI think we all have our different ways of motivating our writing selves; and procrastination helps me too. I have to get to a point of making a decision, and the less time I have to waffle back and forth the better.
I've got the link for Variations on my sidebar; but yeah, I need to get to writing mine. There are actually three I want to participate in. I loved the stories in the first two anthologies, so I'm sure this will be equally stocked with talented writers.
......dhole
I'm not laughing, I have more than a few guilty pleasures in music, too. :3
ReplyDeleteI honestly think that procrastination is the mind's way of saying you haven't let the ideas percolate long enough. They need space, and time, to fully mature into something that bursts out. There's a difference between procrastination and outright avoidance, you see. That, or us writers are INCREDIBLE at making justifying associations between things. But the former is much more likely. Really.
~Ashlee
http://ashleesch.com
http://theDragonsHoard.bigcartel.com
Some day, very soon, I'll start writing my Variations on a Theme story, too. Soon, really I will! I'm not quite in a big enough panic yet.
ReplyDelete