Elle

Editing
“Listen to me, Luigi; we’re always on the lookout for new stage plays and this one sounded interesting. Ingenious plot, bit of sex, incest, prostitution, a potential murder and ending up with a suicide.” He put down the cigar he had been waving like a conductor’s baton and folded his hands on his expansive belly. “What’s not to like?”
“…[Read more]

Thanks @philippaeast, there’s some good stuff in there isn’t there? Considering printing out a copy for when I start to query (a while away yet)

I so agree that it’s useful to drill down into the actual function of a particular behaviour (e.g. scrolling on Twitter, ironing socks etc.)

It MAY be avoidant procrastination (i.e. continuously putting off something we’re for some reason afraid to face). Or that same behaviour could be a much-needed and healthy break from the keyboard / page -…[Read more]

Great thread, Daeds, thanks

To be clear, the wiki definition, or the Oxford Dictionary, or Chambers, or whatever, is only the definition that whoever wrote the definition decided on. It’s useful as clarification or as a pointer if you really don’t know how to use the word. That said, even if it is wholly and exclusively correct* then the understanding of commitment remains…[Read more]

I think what writers commonly refer to as procrastination is not quite the same as that definition, anyway. Sometimes forcing yourself to write can be the worst thing for your writing, and doing something else can be what you need to get your head into the right place.

Or any kind of mental illness really. It’s always tenuous to believe individual behaviour can be reduced to a binary either/or thing. Especially other people’s behaviour. I guess the dictionary definition gives us an end result of a behaviour, but it tells us nothing about anything leading up to that end.

You ever meet anyone with any kind of attention deficit disorder Alan?

Yeah, ‘procrastination’ i think is simply needing a break from the direct *act* of writing to allow the mental part of it to catch up. It isn’t a flaw, or a failure. Given the number of successful, well established authors I see on Twitter telling themselves off for procrastinating, and yet still going on to publish successful books, I think we…[Read more]

Procrastination is nothing to do with commitment! It is everything to do with recognising that you need something completely different sometimes to get the authorly juices flowing again. I do it – it doesn’t mean I’m not committed at all.

I prefer to call it what it is and look at WHY I’m doing it. If it’s simply time-wasting, then I give myself…[Read more]

That’s a very sweeping statement.

Aw fanks @jillybean! But then I couldn’t write horror if you held a gun to my head. Although actually, that might be somewhat inspiring! :-O Histfic either – I don’t think I have the memory capacity anymore *sighs*

Yeah @richardb I guess that’s it! It’s not a part of actual life-that-involves-real-people! That’s aside from the fact that it’s…[Read more]

Haha just seen your comment, Ath. 76,000 words so far on NaNo this year – I’m not quite as fast as you’re making out. (Also only 5 books a week maximum, usually)
I think it depends what you write as well. I find urban fantasy is very speedy. Fantasy and historical are a bit slower. Sci-fi is slower to write again. Horror seems to be somewhere in…[Read more]

@alanr that seems a doable timeline. I usually take about 6 months from starting to plan to end of first draft, although this one might be quicker thanks to NaNo. The six zillion edits are kind of scattered about in between other projects, beta readers etc, so I don’t really know how much actual time I spend on that. Plus it’s bloody endless anyway init?

That’s the one, John. 🙂 I exclude writing from that because, well, I’m not sure really. Because it doesn’t involve anyone’s needs but my own, and doesn’t involve money!?

RL = Real Life

Oh my gosh, well done guys! Hats off to you. Power to your elbows!!