My Second IWSG: Obstacles
Created by Alex Cavanaugh, assisted by many, the Insecure Writer's Support Group is a great way of expressing your insecurities. Now...to mine.
As you might remember, last Saturday was Halloween. I had just finished cleaning my house, icing an angel food cake and preparing a pan of lasagna when I decided to watch a movie. I popped a movie in the player and the phone rang so I walked to the telephone to look at the caller's ID.
Imagine my
surprise when I saw that Teresa Coltrin was calling me from her landline number.
First and foremost,
I thought that I needed to get my glasses on, except, I had my glasses on to
find the movie, thank you very much. I thought about my son playing a prank on me.
Finally, and this scared me, I wondered if someone might be in my house calling me from the other
phone.
After I cleared
the house of all strangers, killers and practical jokers, I googled this (not so
natural) phenomenon, and I calmed down. It’s one of those spoofing, spamming,
scamming things. The phone call led me to imagine one more thing: how awesome it would be if I were cloned
and one of me could do all of life’s bidding and the other me could do my
writing. You know, I would leave her at home and she could write for eight hours each day.
I write more words today than I did before I started blogging in 2009, but I still can't write over 500ish words a day (on new stuff). Much less wordage on drafts. My biggest problem is that I find it difficult to sit and write for long periods of time even though that's when I produce my
best writing. Obstacles that get in my way of productive writing:
*I am too fidgety (ADD) to sit still.
*Neighbors are always driving down the road (outside my window) and I wonder…where are you going?
*I’m bothered by nagging tasks in my brain until I get out of my chair and do them (i.e., mail in the box, clothes in the dryer).
*Millie pesters me to pet and play with her or let her outside. It's not easy to say no.
*I am too fidgety (ADD) to sit still.
*Neighbors are always driving down the road (outside my window) and I wonder…where are you going?
*I’m bothered by nagging tasks in my brain until I get out of my chair and do them (i.e., mail in the box, clothes in the dryer).
*Millie pesters me to pet and play with her or let her outside. It's not easy to say no.
Of course, these
are all excuses and the last time I checked the word “excuse” does not spell
the word "success". Am I right?
I know I’m not
lazy, so that’s not my problem? Why do I let obstacles get in my way of writing? What’s wrong with me because I feel like I'm self-sabotaging myself.
What's your main obstacle that gets in the way of getting things done?
Comments
My worst is wanting to do all the little things I need to do - but not actually doing the important things ... so I'll try and overcome that route towards my older life in the coming weeks!
Cheers and good luck with your writing ... Hilary
Sometimes life gets in the way or the cat sits on the computer or I just be lazy and procrastinate, so yeah, usually if anything gets in the way it's just me.
I've gotten those calls on my cell. It's really weird that they'd spam you with your own number.
And if you are determined to expand your writing time, I suggest trying a "second sitting" at another time of the day, if you can manage to fit that into your schedule. I like to take breaks and walk away, and I use a timer on my busy days so that when I'm writing, I'm just writing for 30 minutes or 45 minutes. Beyond 45 minutes, I have to take a 5-30 minute break before I can get anything done.
You and I are on the same page it seems. Yes, I want some of those clones to help me with other things while I focus on writing. We'll have to ask Alex where he got his. I know he must have clones.
Lee
Amazon
Denise Covey November co-host IWSG
Enjoyable post and you are in good company.
My main obstacle? My job which seems to eat up all my time!! Ouch!!
Like you, I too am easily distracted, but I follow the BICHOK method (butt in chair hands on keyboard) and force myself to continue writing.
I'd say don't beat yourself up. Instead learn to work with yourself. If you pound out 500 words then need to get up, do it. Go do something, shake out the restlessness and then sit back down and write another 500. We all write differently.