Levels of Doom

- a post by Jeanna Mason Stay

I have been stuck stuck stuck on several WIPs for . . . longer than I care to admit. I’ve been avoiding them in every way possible—Facebook and games on my phone, email and book-reading, and of course the always available mountains of laundry, dishes, and household projects. Pretty much ALL THE THINGS. I’ve been rather aimless in my writing, not to mention extremely dissatisfied.

My mom was an avid crocheter.* When she died, she left me boxes and boxes of yarn. One of her favorite things to crochet was beautiful afghans; she made and gave away dozens. But she also loved crocheting bookmarks. Friends, family, and random strangers have all received bookmarks. And after that, probably more random strangers too.**

When I inherited all her yarn, I started out making an afghan for me and my husband. It was to be for our wedding, which occurred about four months after she died. . . . I finally finished the afghan for our second anniversary.

Since then, I mostly make stuffed animals.

Which leads me (finally) to the title of this post: levels of doom. Some projects are just easier and faster to finish than others. Afghans take longer; stuffed animals are shorter. Afghans are a higher level of Doom.*** Both, however, are generally less emotionally and mentally draining than writing.**** Writing projects also have levels of Doom, though: little Doom like blog posts, or higher levels of Doom, like novels.

Lots of Doom was involved here, trust me.

Sometimes we don’t have the desire or tolerance for the higher levels of Doom. I love writing novels; some part of me feels like it’s what I’m supposed to do with my writing. But there’s another part of me that derives immense satisfaction from the thrill of actually finishing something—and not taking two or three years to do it (hence the stuffed animals). And it doesn’t have to just be one or the other, it can be a little of both, with something else entirely on the side.

So if your writing goals are getting you down (as they were me), I highly recommend asking yourself some questions:

~ Where are those goals coming from? (Are they external or internal? What is influencing them?)

~ Do they inherently matter to you or are they pressured from external sources? (I found that I had this weird inflated notion that the only kind of thing that mattered was for me to write books. This wasn’t true; it was just something I’d always assumed.)

See? Less Doom!

~ Is this the best time to pursue them? (Are there other things that are more important right now? To everything there is a season, and all that jazz.)

~ Will taking a break and focusing on different goals give you some renewed joy and energy? (Lately I’ve found that I’m very excited about teaching a year-long writing class for teens at my homeschool co-op, and I’ve remembered lately how much I love editing, and I’m especially glad to be reading good books and hanging out with my kiddos.)

I think it can be scary to admit that maybe what you were pursuing doesn’t matter as much as you thought, but it can be freeing too. At least, I hope so. I’ll let you know how it goes.

* Apparently this is not a word, but what exactly does one call someone who crochets?
** If memory serves, we even gave them away at her funeral as well, per her request.
*** No, not real doom; I don’t expect the world to end or anything if I don’t finish my afghan on time (although my mom is probably sitting up there on the clouds in heaven and shaking her crochet hook at me). I just mean the emotional and physical energy and the amount of time devoted to something.
**** Unless you’re inventing your own pattern because you’re insane and you just really don’t like the alligator patterns you find online, but that’s a digression.

Keep On Truckin'

by Patricia Cates

"Success is never final, failure is never fatal; it is courage that counts.”   -
Winston Churchill

Many of you may be too young to remember this, but in the 1970’s there was a slogan on a bumper sticker that had a thumbs up sign with the words “Keep on Trucking.” There were several variations but the one I recall had a funky font and a dude wearing bell bottoms. I think it was meant to be encouraging to those who read it, and surely brought many a smile.  It’s now mid-March and I am curious how many people have managed to stick with their New Year’s resolutions. Do we need some encouragement at this point?  We are not even a full three months in, but surely it's felt longer for some. Especially for those of us who have managed to fail to some degree.

What are you currently working on? Some statistics from the Journal of Critical Psychology, out of the University of Scranton, reported that the top three resolutions for 2014 were:

1.      Lose Weight
2.      Get Organized
3.      Spend Less, Save More

Most of us have "Work On Book" in there somewhere right! And although that all sounds about pretty typical, it is quite accurate. Sadly the study showed that 45% of people nationwide made resolutions, but only 8% managed to keep them! That doesn’t sound terribly encouraging. So why make any at all?

I know why!!! Because...a wise man once said, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Ah, ha! 

Although not in the top three, my personal favorite and current resolution works hand-in-hand with the others...which is, “Stop Procrastinating!” In order to help achieve this goal I went to the library to enlist some help.  On the focus shelf sat a terrific little book entitled, “The Procrastinator’s Handbook.  Mastering the Art of Doing It Now,” by Rita Emmett. So far it has been quite enjoyable. I had a goal to read it for the New Year and am about half way through. I am really looking forward to finishing it...

One of the many exercises the book suggests is that you make a list of 101 things you want or need to do. It instructs you to walk through every room in your house and jot down anything you see that needs to be done. It even asks you to consider goals for your spiritual and mental health, your family, friends, pets and social life. I already had three separate lists I’d been working on, so I was half way there.

An insightful quip this book shared is something called Emmett’s Law. It states that, “The dread of doing a task uses up more time and energy than doing the task itself.” This could hold true for various habits or tasks we are trying to embark upon. I found my favorite chapters to be the ones devoted to excuses, clutter, planning, and just being plain overwhelmed.

Here's a good one. On a recent segment of a popular news show they had an expert suggest that we set aside just 10 minutes a day for household tasks.  Easy right! He argues that before we know it, they will all be completed. The show spotlighted a family with 9 children and had them all working together. It was quite inspiring. I think I will try that with my family next week.

    So what if some of us have not been fully on track with whatever it is we are trying to accomplish, yet. Maybe we have stumbled and haven’t gotten up at 6 a.m. every day of the week, with a spring in our step and a song in our heart. Maybe our book is at a standstill, or losing that weight hasn’t happened as quickly as we would have liked. The wonderful thing about all of this is that we still have a chance to do better. Tomorrow holds hope. We can take the dogs on a walk today, and the next, clean out the kitchen junk drawer. It may be past January 1^st, but that’s alright. We don’t have to be down on ourselves for slip ups or stalls. I think the true tragedy would be losing the desire to progress and better ourselves.  To simply strive is enough. Maybe all we can do is just “Keep on Truckin’!” Whatever the rest of the year holds in store for us, is truly up to…well…US! 

Be good to yourself.

Procrastination, Thy Name is Katy

by Katy White

Summer.

Le sigh.

Since graduating college over a decade ago, I've never quite been able to shake the notion that summer means a break from all my cares. Like two months worth of Saturdays.  Unfortunately, as we all know, that doesn't translate to real life. And it doesn't translate to my writing life, either.

Since my cruise a couple of weeks ago, I've been struggling to get my fingers moving. So I went on a quest to find some inspiration, reading great quotes from famous authors. They all centered around one thing (spoiler alert!): you just gotta sit down and write.

Surprise, surprise.

The annoying part about this is that I was on a serious roll right before this weird lull hit, writing several hundred to a couple thousand words a day for the three weeks prior! And now, pfft. Nothing. Maybe my motivation is the Bermuda Triangle's latest victim (okay, okay, I know that's not possible. We were nowhere near the Bermuda Triangle!).

Alas, here's my cry for help. Words of inspiration, a challenge, heck, a triple dog dare! If you have any rut-busting tips, please, comment below! I'm begging you.

60 Ways to Not Write Your Novel

1. Blog about writing.

2. Read a book about writing.

3. Join a fan forum.

4. Listen to Writing Excuses.

5. Make a snack.

6. Join Twitter.

7. Post "Twitter is confusing!" on facebook.

8. Read a book you've been meaning to read for a long time.

9. Write a review about that book.

10. Read all the other reviews about that book.

11. Get into a Goodreads war.

12. See the @ column on twitter.

13. "Ohhhhhh... THIS is why people love twitter!"

14. Join a blogging community.

15. Write your synopsis.

16. Write your query.

17. Write back cover blurbs. For the entire series of eight epic fantasies you plan on writing.

18. Have a "job" that pays you "money" for "doing stuff" that "isn't" writing.

19. Remember Chris Farley did an SNL skit with extraneous sarcastic air quotes.

20. Look up the skit on YouTube.

21. Fall down the YouTube rabbit hole, emerging four hours later with a new-found appreciation for Nerdfighting.

22. Organize your desk.

23. Vlog.

24. Download the More Beaute2 app and edit a selfie.

25. Take way more selfies.

26. Research mundane details of your novel.

27. Fall down the Wikipedia rabbit hole, emerging five hours later with a working knowledge of pulley systems, Napoleon Bonaparte, and cheese.

28. Say it with me: NETFLIX.

29. Write your acknowledgments page.

30. Write your dedication. Make sure it's so steeped in inside jokes that no one but the person it's meant for can understand it.

31. Have a social life.

32. Fake a social life on Instagram.

33. Agonize over your first sentence. Minimum time spent on this task: three to four hours per day, for no fewer than nine days straight. 

34. Research agents.

35. Research editors.

36. Research movie options and rights and merchandising clauses.

37. Use imdb to cast your novel's movie adaptation.

38. Design your own cover in Photoshop "just in case" you ever decide to self-publish.

39. Realize all the pre-installed fonts on photoshop are worthless.

40. Scour the web for the "perfect" font.

41. Research how to make your own font.

42. Worry a lot about your klout score.

43. Register for a conference.

44. Research conferences.

45. Create your own business cards to hand out at the conference.

46. Eat.

47. Exercise.

48. Sleep.

49. Be involved in your family's life.

50. Write short stories to "break up the monotony".

51. Create a short story event.

52. Pick a title for your book.

53. Google that title to make sure no one else has used it, or if they have, that their book sucks sufficiently for you to feel confident in outselling them someday.

54. Change your title.

55. Watch movies to "analyze" them

56. Analyze your favorite books. (Fan forums are really helpful for this)

57. Analyze your family. For research.

58. Create a Pinterest inspiration board for your book.

59. Fall down the Pinterest rabbit hole, emerging three hours later with a new commitment to health, wellness, and Nutella.

60. Make really long lists of pointless stuff.