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Wednesday, October 17, 2007
What to do When a Rival Pirate Steals Your Booty. (Or otherwise known as: “How I got my groove back when my muse decided to drink rum.”)
I’m playing off Hellion’s blog of yesterday. So if you’ve procrastinated yourself into a coma, get your bonny ass to yesterday’s blog and read her fabulous blog and catch up!
Writing isn’t always fun and games.
We would all like to think that we sit down to the computer (or pen and paper if you’re real old school) and pump out 80,000 words in a month and submit it to a publisher and voila! you’re a published writer.
But I’ve realized it doesn’t work that way. And you shouldn’t expect it to be either.
Procrastination is a pirate killer. It causes you to walk the plank, and swim in a circle for hours at a time. And by the time that you’re ready to get back in the ship, you’re surrounded by sharks that have other plans for you. They suck all your energy until you can’t climb back in the ship and resume your writing. You find yourself trying to find reasons to climb back in the ship until you can’t remember the reason why you walked the plank in the first place but there’s no one whispering in your ear anymore. Your muse has jumped ship. She’s been on a deserted island, drinking up all Capt’n Jack’s rum (sorry Hellion!) and roasting her lazy ass on the white sand.
Recently, I roped that bitch back to my side.
For months I spent trying to write. I wasn’t exactly procrastinating as much as I was forcing my writing. It’s almost just as bad. Everything I wrote was mechanical, unreadable, no emotion, no feeling. It just left a bad taste in my mouth. I tried everything I knew. I tried writing something else. I tried focusing on honing a part of my writing. I tried writing sentences to spark an idea. I tried writing on a different chapter. I tried writing some fluff (which I’m very very bad at) and I even took a break from the computer (the biggest sin of them all!). And nothing worked. Nothing at all. And it was frustrating. I’m not the type that talks about things when I’m frustrated. I just let it fester into a boil that won’t go away.
Finally I figured out the key to my muse. Lure her back with the promise of writing whatever she wants.
I dunno if this works for everyone, but I live by freedom in my writing. I’m a free spirit. I write like the wind and let the wind be my guide. When I try to rein myself in, I get all bottled up and I can’t write. At all. So no more of that. I will write on a whelm. I will have a good time doing it. I will not restrain myself. Restraint is good for keeping the info dump away but allowing freedom in your writing is good for your muse.
Sunday, my muse was back with a bad sunburn and a bad attitude. Like usual. She boosted my ass back into the ship and handed me my keyboard. She told me to get my ass in shape or she’d never stay. And with that, I wrote the best 3000 words I’ve written since February. But of course, she doesn’t want to write what I need to write. She wants to write something new. Something fresh. Something that we both know and can attest to. And it made me happy to write for the first time in a year. I can’t tell you the freedom I felt when my fingers hit that keyboard. I can’t remember the last time I pumped out 3k in less than six hours. I used to do it all the time. It’s something I find joy in. And I’ve finally got it back.
So this was my little tale of how I got my pirate groove back. And it didn’t take a jug of rum and a session of pillaging (though I thought about it seriously for a while). What exercises do you use when the procrastination bug strikes? And if it’s never hit you, do you have a back-up plan ready?
Writing isn’t always fun and games.
We would all like to think that we sit down to the computer (or pen and paper if you’re real old school) and pump out 80,000 words in a month and submit it to a publisher and voila! you’re a published writer.
But I’ve realized it doesn’t work that way. And you shouldn’t expect it to be either.
Procrastination is a pirate killer. It causes you to walk the plank, and swim in a circle for hours at a time. And by the time that you’re ready to get back in the ship, you’re surrounded by sharks that have other plans for you. They suck all your energy until you can’t climb back in the ship and resume your writing. You find yourself trying to find reasons to climb back in the ship until you can’t remember the reason why you walked the plank in the first place but there’s no one whispering in your ear anymore. Your muse has jumped ship. She’s been on a deserted island, drinking up all Capt’n Jack’s rum (sorry Hellion!) and roasting her lazy ass on the white sand.
Recently, I roped that bitch back to my side.
For months I spent trying to write. I wasn’t exactly procrastinating as much as I was forcing my writing. It’s almost just as bad. Everything I wrote was mechanical, unreadable, no emotion, no feeling. It just left a bad taste in my mouth. I tried everything I knew. I tried writing something else. I tried focusing on honing a part of my writing. I tried writing sentences to spark an idea. I tried writing on a different chapter. I tried writing some fluff (which I’m very very bad at) and I even took a break from the computer (the biggest sin of them all!). And nothing worked. Nothing at all. And it was frustrating. I’m not the type that talks about things when I’m frustrated. I just let it fester into a boil that won’t go away.
Finally I figured out the key to my muse. Lure her back with the promise of writing whatever she wants.
I dunno if this works for everyone, but I live by freedom in my writing. I’m a free spirit. I write like the wind and let the wind be my guide. When I try to rein myself in, I get all bottled up and I can’t write. At all. So no more of that. I will write on a whelm. I will have a good time doing it. I will not restrain myself. Restraint is good for keeping the info dump away but allowing freedom in your writing is good for your muse.
Sunday, my muse was back with a bad sunburn and a bad attitude. Like usual. She boosted my ass back into the ship and handed me my keyboard. She told me to get my ass in shape or she’d never stay. And with that, I wrote the best 3000 words I’ve written since February. But of course, she doesn’t want to write what I need to write. She wants to write something new. Something fresh. Something that we both know and can attest to. And it made me happy to write for the first time in a year. I can’t tell you the freedom I felt when my fingers hit that keyboard. I can’t remember the last time I pumped out 3k in less than six hours. I used to do it all the time. It’s something I find joy in. And I’ve finally got it back.
So this was my little tale of how I got my pirate groove back. And it didn’t take a jug of rum and a session of pillaging (though I thought about it seriously for a while). What exercises do you use when the procrastination bug strikes? And if it’s never hit you, do you have a back-up plan ready?
Labels:
Booty,
Muses,
procrastination,
Rum
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12 comments:
I can attest to the fact that what you wrote was spectacular!
I'm happy that your muse got her groove back,with rum consumption or not:)
I find what helps me is if I write something entirely different than what I am presently writing, or if I stop writing all together for about a week. Just rest my mind and spoend time reading or focusing on anything except writing.
If that doesn't help I find a large cannon and straddle it for a night or two:)
Why thank you :)
I'm quite happy with what I wrote for once. Which is a nice change from hating everything.
And I can attest to that the post later option works on the blog. Thank goodness. LOL
I'm afraid I'm not in touch with my inner pirate muse. I'm the only one in charge of my writing and so I have to make myself do it. Sometimes I feel the urge and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I try to write thinking I'm not in the mood and four pages come out in no time.
Like last night. I've been tossing around a new openning to my book for about a week, maybe more. Last night, I sat down to write it. Me the comp and Dancing with the Stars. Sounds strange but it worked. 4 1/2 pages later, I have a new opening to the book and I love it! No muse. Just me. LOL!
But if I ever find I can't write, I wanna try that cannon thing. I like the way this girl thinks...LOL!
no back up plans for me.
Glad you got the groove back on, sin.
I just go over what I have and 'tinker' there isn't much else to do but that, when you are dry. And I've learned. NEVER fight your characters, it spells doom for a pantser. My characters write the story not me. I'll worry about it when I have a finished piece to edit before I worry about where the story is going.
What to do when a rival pirate steals your booty--
Answer: Then, by God, you take it back.
Sorry, sorry, was having a Kevin Costner/Robin Hood moment.
Also, go find other, better booty also works. I prefer this method myself.
Glad you got your groove back! :) Can't wait to read more of it!
Go Terr. Go Terr. It's your birthday (well not really but it's how the celebration goes, LOL). How wonderful! Congrats on your new wonderful beginning!
Tiff - very true. Never fight your characters. Especially if they are the ones telling you the story as you go. As a pantser myself, I rather like going with the flow. Though, for some people, it's like the kiss of death. Gimme a basic plot line and let me roll with it. Otherwise, you kill the story.
Hellion- I knew you were going to say you go steal better booty. Does your better booty happen to look like Ben?
How sad is it when you're having sexual fantasies about characters that don't exist? I don't mean Captain Jack--he exists. I'm talking about Ben...who does not exist!
Sorry, it's rainy. Nothing better for a rainy day than sex fantasies.
Nothing better for a sunny day either....LOL!
I agree. Especially when it's Ben.
Sin, I have had the same problem and found that your solution is mine, too. The more I try to work on something I think I "should" be writing, but don't feel, the less I want to write at all. This is why I have so many things going. Now, I'm almost always working on something and it is the something that I want to write about. When I feel like fluff, I write fluff. When I feel like smut, I work on my smut. When I feel like banging my head against the wall, I work on my longer stories... :)
I'm not sure if I could ever make a living at writing with this kind of attitude. But for my purposes writing is a hobby (for now at least) and it's supposed to relax me and bring me joy. It only works that way if I don't force it.
The other thing I do when I have trouble putting any words on a page, is read. Every so often, I have to balance the outflow of writing with some heavy inflow. I'll take a couple weeks off, do nothing but read and pretty soon I'll be burning with the desire to put my words on the page.
I'm glad you found your muse. Take good care of her. I adore your writing.
Robin :)
Well, one of these days I'm going to make it as a writer. But I already know you could make it as one Robin!
I find the more I try to write something else, the more frustrated I get. Usually if I can't write, I read. If I'm past the point of reading, I clean house with the radio blasting. I live by the radio. I can't write without background noise. I might be the only one in the world that way, but I can't fuction without music. I'm just strange. LOL
You're WAY too kind Robin.
I've never gotten so desperate that I felt the need to clean the house, LOL. But sometimes I do need music. And my cats (unless they're trying to sit on the laptop).
You will make it as a published writer, Sin, and when you do, I'll be among the first in line to buy your book.
I personally don't have the discipline right now to make a living as an author, but thanks for the (totally undeserved) compliment. You are too sweet. For now, I'll keep playing and practicing and maybe one day, I'll make the leap. But like a true lilly-livered landlubber, I'll let y'all go first!
Robin :)
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