How to Stop Procrastinating and Write Your Book NOW©

[wraylewis]

This thread reminds me of the old joke:
Q: What's the first step in writing the great American Novel?
A: Clean out the refrigerator.

I suspect every person has their own personal demons, angels and stop/start buttons.

Prior to retiring, I wrote extensively, but only as part of my job doing PR and IR.

Upon retirement, I planned to write fiction, but never got around to it.

Then three years later, I got into computer graphics. The images I created began to tell me stories. This led to an illustrated short story.

Once that was finished, I got an idea for a text-only novelette, and wrote and edited the entire 10,600 piece in three days. Once I started, I couldn't stop until it was finished!

Go figure.

Who knows if that will ever happen again.

Both stories cry out to become the beginnings of their own series. We'll se if that happens. Hope so. For the first time ever, I truly enjoyed writing.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Ginger Irving

Do they still sell those silly old things? ;-)

To help avoid web-surfing distractions, I've been known to close my browser and set my firewall to "block all internet access". But I guess just disconnecting from the modem will do the trick.

I use an old laptop that deliberately doesn't have links to sites like this or usenet programs that suck up time. But I need internet for checking historical and other facts while I write.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Very bad idea. Aim for the top and you just set yourself up for disappointment, which will in turn lead to giving up writing out of frustration for not achieving unachievable goals.

I have a picture on my computer that says:

My goal is not not be the best there ever was.
My goal is to be better than the worst.

Otherwise, I read something good over the weekend, say "I will NEVER be able to write like this!" and give up.

[Ginger Irving]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

I use an old laptop that deliberately doesn't have links to sites like this or usenet programs that suck up time. But I need internet for checking historical and other facts while I write.

It sounds like you've found a good balance there.