PROCRASTINATION:

 

 

Tips and Strategies:

 

There's a 5-step process to overcome my first-day-back syndrome:

1. ask myself why I'm writing it
2. ask what the absolute best case scenario for when I've finished it could be
3. brainstorm a whole bunch of ideas
4. organise them
5. figure out what I have to do next.

 

If I'm feeling frustrated, angry and a little depressed - due to my impatience at not making progress on the script - see if I can use that impatience to overcome my first-day-back syndrome.

 

If I'm a little freaked out about starting to tackle a project, break it down into manageable bits and choose the first (or easiest) bit. Tackle the smallest part of the very next problem I had to solve.

 

Try vividly visualising the scene. It works, and makes scenes fun to work on.

 

I can work up bits and and pieces of ideas, layering them, over a couple of hours - and then plunge in once I've reached a critical mass.

 

If I'm angry, I can focus on that and use it. Focus on how much I want to finish it so I can get it out of my life and do something new.

 

 

I can take a day off, to let my mind refill with creative goodness and to get some distance from the project / problem.

 

If I'm trying to make things perfect, I should switch to making rough, necessary changes, and complete the draft / scene / problem.

 

If I'm blocked on a script, I actually get a lot of work done if I take a train up to the Kapiti Coast. The secret is to not bring anything else to read or do . There's something about boredom that really forces me to write.

 

Get a good night's sleep and try and settle back to my daily routine of exercise, writing and everything else. That takes a lot of the pressure off.

 

Relax my goals - for instance, focus on creating something that was readable for others as opposed to getting it perfect right now. Also, just focus on doing one thing at a time - for instance, don't try to proof read and write at the same time.

 

 

 

Types of Procrastination:

 

I have a standard "first day back" slowness, where I get my head round the fact that I’m in a new phase of the project, and after any type of break. One of the causes (I’ve just discovered) is that it takes me a while to regain the confidence to make rapid decisions about the writing – as I start getting back into it, I prefer to fluff around paralysed by the choices I could be making rather than commit to something & lock it down.

 

If I'm not inspired by what I'm writing, then I get disillusioned because it all feels like a sterile, mechanical exercise. That can lead to a week of avoidance and coming up with reasons not to write.

 

  

If I feel like I have to do two things at once - for instance, come up with cool new stuff AND rigorously proof read the script.

 

If I feel the scene is "TOO IMPORTANT!". I can usually tell this because there's an editorial voice screaming in my head. It makes me "scared of getting it wrong."

 

If I need to make a change that has big ramifications for the rest of the film, its implications can stop me from going ahead and making the change. Instead I'll analyse.

 

If there's no immediate pressure on me to make a decision about a line of dialogue or an approach to the scene, it can lead to perfectionism.

 

 

 

While the pitch currently is good for the purpose of timing, I have to accept it doesn’t plausibly convey this sudden shift. So I have to re-write it so it does.... and that's made me stall out. It’ll be hard work but probably not anywhere near as hard as I’m imagining. In fact, I’ll probably spend longer procrastinating than I will in re-writing it.

 

 

I have been getting less than an hour of work done on The Limit every day. I may even just not use the internet at all - after all it is the timesuck of doom for me.

I’ve mapped out this rewrite on four A3 pages – and today I crossed over into the fourth and final page. Once again, I slowed down - kind of freaked out & scared – and began a massive blast of procrastination.

 

 

 

Other Stuff:

 

 

I was finding the mis-direction scene a bit difficult. Coupled with my now consuming desire to FINISH something, I spent Thursday through to Saturday morning writing a playtest draft of my new RPG, The Luck of the Joneses.

 

After that, I came back to the scene I’m been blocked on and finished it in a couple of hours.

 

I’ve been procrastinating a little the last couple of days. Working on a dialogue scene, trying to find Taine's voice. But I may have just had a break-through with how the parents find out Taine's gone missing - I can visualise it very clearly, so that immediately puts it at the top of the list of all the ideas I've had.

 

 

I mentioned a 'breakthrough' a couple of days ago? Yesterday I realised the ramifications of it meant a HUGE rewrite of the script. First I was angry, then panicky ... then, slowly, I calmed down and am now gunna look through it methodically, seeing exactly what would need to be changed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The more important I think a scene is, the longer it seems to take me to write. Thinking of something as "important" makes me freak out, because I need to get it "right".

 

But at this stage of the script, every scene should be important. Every scene needs to contribute. Every moment, too.

 

That means I'm going to have to develop some way off de-freaking-out. Being a full-time writer would be good too (more dedicated time to solve problems and get into a groove). Unfortunately, I may have to let that ambition go for a while, and content myself writing on the bus.

 

 

I tried a writing routine which was three days on, one day off.

 Create your own educational wiki!Support CommunityPublic, not yet premium Privacy Policy RSS