Showing posts with label procrastination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label procrastination. Show all posts

Friday, September 30, 2016

Friday ramble - going on a story hunt in my imagination

Ok it’s Friday and I’m going to ramble, because, well I can...

I’ve had a good week, getting out there into the real world with my books, talking to people and getting feedback on my books. And the feedback is good, so why is promoting so hard? It seems that a gimmick is needed to grab people’s attention, so I have my sheep, which started as a gimmick and now are in danger of taking over... which reminds me, my flock of sheep is getting low again... knitting needles at the ready.

Which brings me back to my conundrum – it’s hard enough to grab ideas as they rush around in the wilds of my imagination, without all the other distractions pulling me away from going on a story hunt in my imagination. Because that’s what it takes to write a story, deciding which ideas and daydreams have enough substance to  become a book, and then to go after that one idea that will become the next book, and allow the others to run free a bit longer...

Monday, May 16, 2016

So... here’s an experiment. It’s Monday – traditionally the most dreaded day of the week. And what else is dreaded? The blank page

So... here’s an experiment.

It’s  Monday – traditionally the most dreaded day of the week. And what else is dreaded? The blank page – so I’ve opened a new file without a title or even a clue of what I’m going to write, with the intension of publishing the piece before the end of the afternoon... arghhhh!

So, what have I come up with so far...? Well, the first thing I wrote got deleted, then I looked around for inspiration and noticed that there was something navy and white in my  extra hot whites wash – oh no a stowaway sock had somehow  hidden in the corner of a round drum... how does that even work? Who knows, but it obviously needed sorting out immediately – disaster averted and a cup of tea made, right let’s get to work... I’ve changed the font and the size, there, that’s better.

So maybe the title should be procrastination...  oh... I don’t know how to tell you this but there’s another stripy sock in the hot wash – I don’t know how that happened, I never miss odd things in the washing machine, or have I stumbled upon an answer to the universal problem of the odd sock? It seems that socks have a will of their own and stowaway in the washing machine to add themselves to other washes.

Ok this is past a joke now – there was a third stripy sock in the whites wash... and what has all this taught me? Well apart from that I need to check the washing machine better when I empty it, I think I need to stop looking around for inspiration, all I seem to find is stuff to do.  

On reflection maybe daydreaming would have been a more productive way to spend the afternoon, delving around in my own imagination where hopefully I won’t find any stripy socks, although now they seem to be getting everywhere, so you never know, maybe it’s a sign that I should write a story about stowaway socks – oh dear the more I think about it... so if I end up writing about socks I shall blame it on this experiment that I decided was a good idea on a Monday afternoon in May, when I was probably in denial that I should either do some promotional work for my books, or start writing a new one.


Hang on a minute – the main character in my new book has odd socks on, so although they’re not stripy, maybe I could pass this off as a promotional piece, and pretend that that was my intention all along, but in truth I find it a bit weird that events and my imagination have conspired to come full circle and all seem interwoven. I wonder what was whirling around in the washing machine when I decided to put odd socks on my character in the first place, and looking around me now, I can see other things that could have inspired my story, but I’m not giving them away today – that’s for another day.  

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Not how I imagined spending my time as a writer...

OK I'm still fighting technology, and I'm not sure who's winning... bits of equipment that are meant to talk to each other are refusing to do so.
Oh well, I'm about to go on a sheep mission anyway - I have a bag full of sheep parts that need assembling before the weekend, which is not how I imagined spending my time as a writer, but we all have to diversify, and sheep have proved to be an excellent crowd puller at book signings, not to mention an excellent outlet for procrastination when a certain book is stubbornly refusing to get over its final hurdles...



Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Knitted sheep pattern... diversification or just procrastination?

Why is it harder to write a knitting pattern than it was to design the pattern...?

As I knitted the first sheep, and admittedly there were a few false starts, I scrawled down the pattern in note form on a ball band, knowing that I would know what I meant. But to write a pattern for others to follow I feel I should put in a bit more effort, not to mention details...

But am I diversifying or just procrastination...? Do people really want to go around knitting sheep, or is it just me?

Comments would nice, to allay my suspicions that I'm just rambling into an abyss,  or add a comment on my facebook page if that's easier...
Knitting pattern to follow...

Monday, March 24, 2014

Proof reading what was all the fuss about?

So, after all the procrastination, I finally got down to my proof reading - and what was all the fuss about?

Proof reading, sat on the sofa with my feet up and the sun coming in through the window, looking for all the world like I was taking an afternoon off... The down side was that I did find some errors, but I'm trying not to beat myself up about it too much... after all it is only the proof copy, and though it would be nice to find nothing wrong at all - it's not the end of the world.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Proof reading or procrastinating...

Ok I'd better get back to the proof reading: I've tidied the kitchen, loaded machines, played ball in the garden with cats, answered my emails... it's beginning to look like procrastination. I'll just put the kettle on, my coffee mug is empty... oh damn it the washing is finished now - that'll need hanging out. arhhh

Tuesday, October 08, 2013

Forced early start

Well who'd have thought you could get so much done in a morning with a forced early start...?

So far I've:
Taken one car to the garage, given a lift in another - no I'm not a taxi driver... I've set the laundry off (normal activity) dug up some garden (very unlike me...) and bought a book (now that's more me...) but I haven't done any work on my book, or sold a book... and so, even with an early start I'm still only sitting down to work at 11am - I could have had a lie in and started at this time... ah well I have got a lot of stuff done...