Procrastination. I'll do it later...

[tragicglands]

Maybe the secret is to do it for US, not for the reard.

Exactly. Doing it for the reard would be a mistake. I hate the reard. With a passion.

When it became a life goal, it became an obligation, and my motivation was suffocated.

Interesting. I think I understand, though.

Start imagining your story in your head...

I can't stress this enough. I do most of my thinking with my balls, and it just doesn't produce decent product.

[RecordProducer]

Exactly. Doing it for the reard would be a mistake. I hate the reard. With a passion.

Magic, you crazy psychopath! I meant RETARD... No, I meant REWARD.

 

Well Storyrider, if you don't get rewarded, you might feel retarded.

I can't stress this enough. I do most of my thinking with my balls, and it just doesn't produce decent product.

Invest in new balls!

[Storyrider]

Magic, you crazy psychopath! I meant RETARD... No, I meant REWARD.

 

Well Storyrider, if you don't get rewarded, you might feel retarded.

Invest in new balls!

 

Well, at least now I know who to hire as a proofreader!!

 

Actually, I have a new vicodin-fueled business idea--signature greeting cards featuring our magic friend.

 

Each one features a cute pink elephant on the outside and inside the most innapropriate, shocking and sexually ambiguous inuendo you can imagine. Combined with the occasional spelling lesson.

[RecordProducer]

Actually, I have a new vicodin-fueled business idea--signature greeting cards featuring our magic friend.

 

Each one features a cute pink elephant on the outside and inside the most innapropriate, shocking and sexually ambiguous inuendo you can imagine. Combined with the occasional spelling lesson.

I think MH has a lot of potential to do comedy - write for comedians and comic magazines and websites. He gets inspiration from everything and at least 30-50% of what he says is really funny. This percentage is huge actually. When I listen to real comedians, they have this %-age and that's AFTER they've chosen the best parts. Maybe that's his job, but I doubt it. He should be very successful. I rarely see such obvious talent screaming at me.

[Storyrider]

I think MH has a lot of potential to do comedy - write for comedians and comic magazines and websites. He gets inspiration from everything and at least 30-50% of what he says is really funny. This percentage is huge actually. When I listen to real comedians, they have this %-age and that's AFTER they've chosen the best parts. Maybe that's his job, but I doubt it. He should be very successful. I rarely see such obvious talent screaming at me.

 

I agree that he is unusually funny. Or just unusual...

 

But anyway, there probably is a moneymaking angle there. Someone needs to bottle him like an essential oil. Eau de Magic.

[dropdeadlegs]

Well, at least now I know who to hire as a proofreader!!

 

Actually, I have a new vicodin-fueled business idea--signature greeting cards featuring our magic friend.

 

Each one features a cute pink elephant on the outside and inside the most innapropriate, shocking and sexually ambiguous inuendo you can imagine. Combined with the occasional spelling lesson.

 

Take some Vicodin, and voila! You're a business genius!

[RecordProducer]

I agree that he is unusually funny. Or just unusual...

 

But anyway, there probably is a moneymaking angle there. Someone needs to bottle him like an essential oil. Eau de Magic.

He is probably unemployed. The most talented people are unemployed!

[Storyrider]

He is probably unemployed. The most talented people are unemployed!

 

I have a feeling if he was expected by some employer to be funny on command he would suddenly become very morose.

[RecordProducer]

I have a feeling if he was expected by some employer to be funny on command he would suddenly become very morose.

Maybe, but the talent is there. He can get inspired by anything - LS is full of inspiration for him.

[Storyrider]

Maybe, but the talent is there. He can get inspired by anything - LS is full of inspiration for him.

 

He's brimming with talent.

 

I'll bet you are too, and maybe so am I. We just have to do something with it.

[bluetuesday]

as i've got older my exhuberance for doing things that don't truly interest me has seriously waned.

 

many, many mundane things seem irrelevant to me now and slowly i have tried to exclude them from my life. i realised that 'finding motovation' for things i find dull wasn't going to happen. my life has a purpose that is only going to be fulfilled if i make it happen - and for that i need to cut out most of the crap. so i came to the realisation that either i had to learn to shut up and do stuff because it was necessary for my health or for the people i've chosen to have in my life, or cut those things out.

 

i won't do things now that aren't vital or important. i especially won't do them grudgingly and then moan about them because moaning seems like just another pointless time-wasting exercise. i have purposely worked out what's important to me, and tried to cut out the things that aren't important. for example, it's not important to me to see my friends regularly, or even to have that many friends. seeing people every week would be boring for me, so i don't do it. i would rather spend that time doing what i DO love. the friends i have understand this.

 

storyrider, for years i put off writing fiction. i always told myself i would do it one day; i was just waiting for the right time, the right idea, the right circumstances. then i realised the real reason i was putting it off was that i didn't actually believe i could do it. as long as i told myself 'one day' i could maintain the fantasy that i could do it without having to prove i could.

 

so i went out and got myself a job where i had to write for a living. i did it for six years, and never failed to deliver, on time, whatever i was asked to write. news, features, reviews, whatever. i learned the craft of how to write to remove the obstacle of my disbelief. it was then that i realised maybe i wanted to BE a writer more than i actually wanted to write. that took some figuring out, but it was rooted in the same kind of feelings and doubts i've always had - that i don't have anything to say and that i can't say it in a way that will be interesting to anyone else.

 

my point is that many people want to BE writers, without actually having the patience and the belief to write anything worth reading. writing is a terribly hard job. it's year after year of hard graft, of not getting published, of having to work alone, of having to maintain the belief you can and will do it, even when there's no hard and fast evidence.

 

all i can say is that if you're meant to be a writer, you'll write despite everything. you'll write because you have to - because that feels like the only thing you're supposed to be doing. you'll get to the stage where putting it off makes you angry with yourself. you'll get to the stage where you hate LS if it keeps you away from it.

 

now i write most days, and i come to the shack infrequently. i even changed my avatar to remind me of a character i'm working on. when i see her, i think of my writing and want to get back to it. if i don't write, i think about writing. i design narative structures in my head. i see what works and what doesn't. if at the end of the day i have discounted everything i've written, it's still a good day because i've discovered how NOT to write that particular idea that particular way. remember edison? he didn't fail to invent a lightbulb 2,000 times before getting it right. he invented 2,000 ways how not to make a lighbulb.

 

if you can get into this mindset, even the days of frustration and waste are good days - because they're days that bring you closer to being unable to put it off any longer. it's a sobering thought that shakespeare and mozart had exactly the same number of hours in their days as i do in mine. what made them create was NOT their fortune at living in a time when telly hadn't been invented. they created because they had to. it defined them. if you're a creative soul, you'll know this feeling. some souls are content to experience, and they'll never be writers. if you're a creator, and you probably are if you feel the way you do, try to figure out what you gain by procrastinating. if you procrastinate, it is because at some level you want to. rooting that 'want' out is the first step.

[Storyrider]

as i've got older my exhuberance for doing things that don't truly interest me has seriously waned...

 

many, many mundane things seem irrelevant to me now and slowly i have tried to exclude them from my life. i realised that 'finding motovation' for things i find dull wasn't going to happen. my life has a purpose that is only going to be fulfilled if i make it happen - and for that i need to cut out most of the crap. so i came to the realisation that either i had to learn to shut up and do stuff because it was necessary for my health or for the people i've chosen to have in my life, or cut those things out.

 

i won't do things now that aren't vital or important. i especially won't do them grudgingly and then moan about them because moaning seems like just another pointless time-wasting exercise. i have purposely worked out what's important to me, and tried to cut out the things that aren't important. for example, it's not important to me to see my friends regularly, or even to have that many friends. seeing people every week would be boring for me, so i don't do it. i would rather spend that time doing what i DO love. the friends i have understand this.

 

storyrider, for years i put off writing fiction. i always told myself i would do it one day; i was just waiting for the right time, the right idea, the right circumstances. then i realised the real reason i was putting it off was that i didn't actually believe i could do it. as long as i told myself 'one day' i could maintain the fantasy that i could do it without having to prove i could.

 

so i went out and got myself a job where i had to write for a living. i did it for six years, and never failed to deliver, on time, whatever i was asked to write. news, features, reviews, whatever. i learned the craft of how to write to remove the obstacle of my disbelief. it was then that i realised maybe i wanted to BE a writer more than i actually wanted to write. that took some figuring out, but it was rooted in the same kind of feelings and doubts i've always had - that i don't have anything to say and that i can't say it in a way that will be interesting to anyone else.

 

my point is that many people want to BE writers, without actually having the patience and the belief to write anything worth reading. writing is a terribly hard job. it's year after year of hard graft, of not getting published, of having to work alone, of having to maintain the belief you can and will do it, even when there's no hard and fast evidence.

 

all i can say is that if you're meant to be a writer, you'll write despite everything. you'll write because you have to - because that feels like the only thing you're supposed to be doing. you'll get to the stage where putting it off makes you angry with yourself. you'll get to the stage where you hate LS if it keeps you away from it.

 

now i write most days, and i come to the shack infrequently. i even changed my avatar to remind me of a character i'm working on. when i see her, i think of my writing and want to get back to it. if i don't write, i think about writing. i design narative structures in my head. i see what works and what doesn't. if at the end of the day i have discounted everything i've written, it's still a good day because i've discovered how NOT to write that particular idea that particular way. remember edison? he didn't fail to invent a lightbulb 2,000 times before getting it right. he invented 2,000 ways how not to make a lighbulb.

 

if you can get into this mindset, even the days of frustration and waste are good days - because they're days that bring you closer to being unable to put it off any longer. it's a sobering thought that shakespeare and mozart had exactly the same number of hours in their days as i do in mine. what made them create was NOT their fortune at living in a time when telly hadn't been invented. they created because they had to. it defined them. if you're a creative soul, you'll know this feeling. some souls are content to experience, and they'll never be writers. if you're a creator, and you probably are if you feel the way you do, try to figure out what you gain by procrastinating. if you procrastinate, it is because at some level you want to. rooting that 'want' out is the first step.

 

Good insights bluetuesday. I get the feeling you're writing a novel? That is very exciting. I know much of the stuff you've said here, and some of it reminds me that I can't be a great parent and write anything too substantial at the same time. However, I could use much of your advice on a smaller scale.

 

LS is filling my need for adult interaction right now, which writing won't fill, so what I need is more balance, and a little more fire in the belly on the writing side. I wrote many short stories to get my MFA, so there is a model there already for my doing this kind of work. I just have to get back in the goove with it.