On Writing (continued) · 5:24am Aug 1st, 2014
See the first part of my thoughts on writing here.
Over the years I've repeatedly sat down and been like, Okay! Today I'm going to do it finally! Gonna become ... an author! So I'd sit there and for hours at a time over the course of like 2 days I'd force myself to stare at the computer screen and the beginning of a story. That quickly became the most excitement I'd ever had, but, for my health, I'd start to think, I need a break. I'll come back to this next week. Sometimes I'd actually do it. Sometimes I'd come back a month later. Almost always, I never came back to the story a fourth time, and I'd lose all motivation.
I had a real desire to write, but couldn't stay motivated. My first problem was that I needed a story I could stay devoted to. I doubt I could have made that happen any more quickly than it did. It was a soul-searching thing that came with time and experience. My second problem was confidence. That began to change when I went to a panel for writers at a Comicon and heard (almost every) professional say that they used outlines and had a self-imposed real-life schedule to work on their writing. It made sense to me that if I was going to write seriously (I've hoped to become a professional story writer for years) then I should start treating it like a job? Now, I know you hear, "It's not really work if you love what you do," but what I'd been doing, taking it easy on myself, wasn't helping, so I set a schedule for myself and the first thing on my list was to better define my premise and then create a loose outline that I could break easily if I wanted to.
I wasn't (still ain't) close to being a professional. I had a lot on my plate at first too between school, work, family, and friends. I decided to start small; no more than seven hours straight (plus short breaks), just one day a week. I told myself it didn't matter how long it took, how blocked I was, or how bad I sucked. I had to, no matter what, work on an actual story just one fixed day week. Fallen Angels was born. Even though I was clumsy and slow, I kept at it. Just one day a week, and if I missed the day I'd make it up if I could, but didn't let it weigh me down.
By setting a work schedule for myself and laying down a workable outline I solved my confidence issue. After about two months I published the prologue, hoping I'd get a bit more motivation from commenters, or at least be able to pretend that what I was writing was being read. I wasn't disappointed.
My process is still clumsy and slow, but less so than it was, fortunately, and I now have more time so, regardless of speed, I've been able to write more recently, as long as I limit my distractions. What made the difference between the hundred failed attempts and the one success was passion and confidence. Passion came with experience. Confidence came by following the advice of others, creating a workable outline, and forcing myself to follow a schedule.
Schedules are the way forward.
Now if only i could set my own schedules, fuck.
so far i've managed to schedule my sleeping patterns - bed by 11AM, up at 6PM, following them as closely as i can, but for those awake hours.. nope.jpg.
so many things i COULD be doing.
i've been on summer holiday for a month now, a whole fuckin' month, I had planned on making a ton of art and even animations, what have I done? Fuck all
sposed to be finishing a friends website but i haven't even done that.
I procrastinate too fucking much but i just can't not :(
I've got that lazy gene big time.
2333916 I know exactly how that feels. It's hard when you don't have a lot of free time in a week and then get a vacation. I used to whittle away my breaks gaming and surfing for porn. The fact is, if you're not motivated enough to make the time with everything else on your plate, there's a good chance you won't be very motivated even when you have tons of free time. I resisted this simple fact for a long time, always saying "later for sure." When I realized there is no such thing as "later" I started to think it was a lost cause, but passion kept me determined and helped me to eventually, reluctantly, accept that "now" is the only time I'll ever have to do this, so if it's important, then I'd better figure out a way.