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Thirteen Things I Do To Sabotage My Writing
By Nancy Lindquist | July 19, 2007
1. I tell myself my work is not as good as, does not sell as well as, is not as interesting as… Name an author. Mackenzie MacKade, Annamarie McKenna, N.J. Walters, Amanda Young all come to mind.
2. I use the kids as an excuse to not write. No, I can’t pump out tons of quality work and mommy at the same time. I’m amazed by the women who do, but I can edit when they’re home.
3. I eat instead of write.
4. I clean when I’m stumped. A clean house is a beautiful thing, but when I’m re-dusting the same table twice in one day, I’m sabotaging myself.
5. I tell myself my work is awful. It’s not. I’m no Kerouac, but I can write some snappy and fun dialog. I don’t always remember that.
6. I surf the internet. Shame on me. I love the internet, but honestly, I spend a lot of time mucking when I should be writing.
7. I whine about how much time I’m wasting to my friends online.
8. I hate everything I type and erase it. I now have a three day rule. If I still hate it after three days, then I can delete it.
9. I re-read books I love to launch my ideas from. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never plagiarized a day in my life. Okay, there was that Encyclopedia incident in the third grade, but other than that, why bother? I use the words of others as a launching pad for my ideas. The problem is that when I do that, the scenes do not flow.
10. I tell myself that I don’t have time to read. Sort of the opposite of the above, but not really. If I never read, I don’t re-fill my web of ideas. I need to take time everyday to read the way others flow their books. Not in the middle of my writing time, see nine, but in the evening.
11. I write poetry. That would be a good thing, if I could write good poetry.
12. I find ways to put off the hard scenes by writing around them. I have a book I’ve been working on for nine months. It’s really good. It lacks sex scenes. I’m not sure what I’m going to do about them, so I wrote the book and decided to write them in later. I’ve not done it, yet.
13. I outline. Outlining gives you a nice, neat plan. The problem is, I over-outline and never use it, because I write by the seat of my pants. I need to learn when to stop outlining and get it done.
Despite all this, I’m about to publish my fifth book in less than a year, so I’m doing something right. Nose to the grindstone, kid.
July 19th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Wow, I’m impressed 5 books in one year is incredible. I don’t think you give yourself much credit. At least you are aware of these traps.
July 19th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Oooooh, I eat instead of write too…or I blog hop. LOL
July 19th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
5 books in 1 yr!! Girl, you rock.
I am an outline chica too. Although I never stick to it.