How to Remove Fiction-Writing Roadblocks
Posted on 27 May 2008
“If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.” ~ Olin Miller
I know the reasons for writing regularly, for being patient through multiple drafts, for just showing up day after day. I haven’t developed a long-term butt glue to keep my fanny fastened to the fiction writer’s chair yet, but I’m trying. I can do discipline; haven’t I held down full-time jobs for the past 26 years, despite longing to stay up late and sleep later every day? So why do I keep permitting roadblocks in my writing path?
Recently, I thought a writing partner would keep me on track. Like diet buddies, we’d check each other’s progress. Then I went through a few weeks of serious illness, he and his family bought a house, my family struggled with making our high school senior study enough to graduate, I fell behind at work, and our fledgling writers’ relationship faded away. And while he was a good writing partner and I feel embarrassed that I failed to be one, I think that maybe a writing buddy wasn’t the right solution for me; self doubt paralyzed me when I showed my early drafts to someone. I need a different way to stay on the path.
After all, I’ve been “writing a murder mystery” for two years now. But real writing time? Maybe a month.
Then I read a RockYourDay blog post last week with a key concept that resonated for me: “Don’t confuse lack of progress in overcoming a habit with the actual difficulty of doing it. If you’re not making progress, it’s likely that it’s because you aren’t deciding up front to anticipate obstacles and so you’re not planning your way around it.” [Emphasis mine.]
Wow. Just … wow. So I’ve been thinking about where my time goes:
- Sleeping, especially long, long naps. I’m taking prescription iron medicine for anemia, and that helps. And for a lingering kidney infection I’m taking a strong new antibiotic that has a powerful drowsiness side effect for me, which doesn’t help. Solution: Get well, and (the hard part) keep more regular hours to help me distinguish between real fatigue and medicine-induced sleepiness I can sometimes push on through. I HATE regular hours, though; I love staying up late or getting up early on my own whim. Still thinking hard about this one.
- Blog surfing. Err, with a blogroll of nearly 300 strong, I definitely need to trim. By AT LEAST one third, and preferably two thirds. I spent the better part of an entire day this weekend just trying (and failing) to catch up on reading a backlog of blog posts. Solution: Trim the blogroll. Again, a solution I dread; I love them all and love to find new ones. I keep thinking that faster skimming will help but it doesn’t. And I’m spending way too much time on reading — or clipping to read in the “later” that never comes. I’ve gotta trim again.
- Obsessing over useless things. When I should be pulling out my story board and tackling one of my mapped-out scenes, I’m instead sorting my sock drawer or alphabetizing my science fiction book shelves by author. Or I’m making lists that are related to my writing, without actually being my writing. Solution: Set aside time to do lower-priority tasks so they don’t crowd my writing time. Every time has a task, and every task has a time.
I’m sure there are more, but those are the ones that loom for me. I’ll tackle them first and then study my action plan again: Where is blocking my free time from flowing to my writing, and how can I avoid the blockage?
What are YOUR fiction-writing obstacles, and how are you planning to overcome every way they manifest for you?
Photo credit: Mozambique – Moments
[tags]writing, writer’s habits, discipline[/tags]
7 responses to How to Remove Fiction-Writing Roadblocks
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Mm, planning my way around obstacles sounds like something I need to try harder to do. I have a list of fiction writing obstacles long enough to write a book, if only I could get the obstacles out of the way … ha.
Seriously, my most constant obstacles are doing other writing instead (the kind I get paid for – because I want to be able to pay the mortgage), getting sidetracked by other people’s writing (be it blogs or novels or pretty much anything), and a general kind of undiagnosed procrastination – time just somehow disappears, like poof! it’s 9pm already and the day didn’t seem to have enough hours.
Having said that, I’m gradually getting better … I reckon at 80 years old I’ll be able to sit down and write any time I want. Then I’ll go blind and not be able to anyway.
Amanda Kendle’s last blog post..Should creative writing be studied?
Sleeping isn’t my problem, but faffing round doing other things definitely are, whether on the net or round the house.
There is a certain amount of writing-related list-making I do need to do though, and don’t – outlines and character sheets being the main ones.
So I make a list of what needs done, and stare at it a while… and eventually I revise the list with more important things, and stare at that too. I think making lists of what lists I need to be making is possibly my downfall!
Catherine’s last blog post..I wrote this poem: Childhood Colours
Wow. I really related to this! I too posted about it recently, so it’s good to read this so soon after. It’s not just me!
I’m planning on picking a specific block of time I’m allowed to read my favourite blogs, but as far as fiction writing goes, my first step was taking the courage to do the “once upon a bloggy night” challenge. And now, without confidence but after remembering the thrill of writing fiction, I’ve joined Men with Pens’ creative-writing role playing game. I’m scared, but I’m hoping it will get me past my 12-yr block!! I just have to force myself to face my fears of failure and of writing something terrible.
PS. I think being an editor for years has stifled my creativity as far as fiction writing goes. So my solution is to stop being so comfortable editing other works and start forcing myself to write my own.
This is a very well written post and I find the entries true. Aside from those you mentioned, I find difficulty in writing conversations in my stories because English is my second language. But I love writing and I have many ideas and thoughts to write down in paper so to learn more, I read a lot to hone this area in which I am weak at.
Thanks for sharing.
Jena Isle’s last blog post..CHAPTER 2 – UMMA AYAM SINSANA (WHERE ARE YOU NOW?)
I am not one to correct other people, but I procrastinate about getting something done more than anyone I know, and guess what… it will bite u in the butt so hard. I tell people not to wait till the last second and then do it myself.
I love the Olin Miller quote. I’ve been experiencing that same thing over the past few days, making a task more difficult just by putting it off.
I used to neglect my writing projects in favor of organizing too. In fact, I would not sit down and write unless everything was clean and tidy in my surroundings. About two years ago, I start making an effort to be less organized and it definitely has helped. Creative clutter turned out to be a good thing!
Melissa Donovan’s last blog post..Improve Your Writing: Get Feedback