Writing Problem du jour by J Vincent

My writing problem du jour or rather de l'année is simply writing. The actual physical task of pen to paper, fingers to keyboard. I struggle with how to get myself back on track to daily meaningful—let’s even skip meaningful— to writing. To be a writer one must write. Now running through my mind is the caution that one must not have word repetition. Are five forms of “write” too much repetition? Ahh, distraction.

Distracted writers do not write. Distracted writers cook, clean, sew, quilt, babysit, do laundry, organize anything and everything etc. etc. We make lists on things to do and even on how to get back to writing. There are many legitimate distractions. Emergencies happen, circumstances change in a flash and schedules only seem made to be disrupted. For me it is truly an ongoing struggle to find time to write. No, I need to be honest since the first step in recovery is to admit the truth. I do have time to write. The problem is I do not when I choose to do something else. It was such a struggle that I did have the internal debate about giving up writing. But I blog here because it makes me write. I post a monthly “Coze” on my website because it ensures more writing. I’m never truly happy not writing so it isn’t time to give it up.

Then how can I make sure I do it? Better stated, how DO I make sure I do it? What I should do is set an image of a leprechaun—a leprechaun with a really big gavel in hand, on the top shelf above my computer. She should bear a striking resemblance to a very successful author who happens to be our intrepid leader. Every time I am tempted to drift away from my writing task she whacks the shelf and shouts “Set and KEEP Goals!” Seriously, this is an excellent if not THE point.

Setting goals is key to keeping on track and gaining writing success. Every time I’ve been prodded into doing so I have accomplished something. So I’ve been setting very small goals and reaching them for the most part. Large goals overwhelm. I am easily drawn into my “impossible” mode with large goals these days. So my goals are writing for an hour; planning a specific scene; writing that scene; editing; and then continuing to the next part of the book. It’s like stacking toy blocks into a building, except I get pages filled with sentences and paragraphs. Which lead to more pages. Which leads to goals met. Achieving goals breeds and feeds success. Following my goals, which are progressive, leads me to a completed book. This blog post proves goals work—due to setting a goal it was written a full two weeks before I had to have it up—not the day before like sometimes happens.

No plan is fail safe. I love, no I need, back up plans. Please share how you get edge or better yet, blast your way through the temptation to not write.