IS SOMETHING BURNING?

BECAUSE I AM quite guilty of procrastinating, and have run into countless issues in the past because of that guilty habit, I figured I'd write about procrastination tonight. :)

So you might be a person who sets things onto your metaphorical back burner until the night before a deadline (or the morning of, in which case I admire both your spunk and your ability to get up early), or you might be the kind of person who immediately gets a project completed to lessen your stress load.

You I also admire.

Or you might be like me and be completely motivated to work on a project early on, but feel motivation wearing off about fifteen minutes later. Suddenly you realize that project you were going to get done a week early has now found itself simmering on your back burner along with all the other procrastinators out there.

The struggle, man. It’s real.

And sometimes we’re proud of our ability to continuously put things off and keep putting them off until we have no other choice but to get them done, because somehow we still end up doing a fantastic job on whatever it was we were assigned (or not… I guess some people half-ass assignments and receive grades that reflect their effort).

Some of us, however (like me), get away with procrastination most of the time. We luck out, and because of this we think there is no need to change our comfortable routine.

But is that routine actually comfortable?

I don’t know about you guys, but I would much rather float through life without an ounce of stress on my shoulders. And even though I know there is no such thing as a stress-less life, I most certainly do not need that stress to derive from the fact that it is minus twelve hours before a huge deadline and I have hardly even touched my work.

Yeah, no one needs that.

What’s funny is that we think about procrastination and immediately staple it to the concept of completing homework assignments (or I do, at least). But the fact of the matter is, deadlines are difficult to evade. Every occupation out there requires us to work and put forth effort, and nearly all these occupations contain deadlines of some sort. Considering the fact that this is a writing blog, I’m going to focus on writing related deadlines right now.

Every type of professional writing occupation (whether you want to be a journalist, critic, researcher, novelist, etc.) will demand that you meet deadlines, so why add the stress of cramming work in the night before to your already hectic life? Doesn’t seem worth it to me.

I say the sooner we conquer this bad habit, the sooner we realize it’s a lot nicer to be able to sit in bed the night before a deadline and watch five million episodes of your favorite TV show or read a book or even go out with friends. No more waving your arms and saying, “Nah, guys, I can’t go tonight. I have a revised copy of my manuscript due to my editor tomorrow and I still have five chapters to go through.”

Okay, so that was a bit over-dramatized, but you see my point.

So, if there is one thing I’ve learned, it is this: labeling yourself makes a difference.

If you say, “Yeah, I’m a huge procrastinator,” odds are you will continue to procrastinate. But if you tell yourself and others that you intend to get your work done early, chances are you might actually achieve that goal of yours. Now, will it work every time? Probably not, especially in the beginning. It’s a habit you have to establish for yourself, and habits take time to settle into your subconscious. It doesn’t mean it’s impossible to achieve.

So I suggest we all learn from our mistakes now and work toward procrastinating less before we regret something.

So while we're working on weekly resolutions, why not add some anti-procrastination habits to the list?

Lauren, out. *salutes*

WEEKLY RESOLUTIONS

SO, NOW THAT SUMMER IS HERE, I have finally found myself with some extra free time. Of course, for those of us who write, I think we can all agree that the phrase "free time" translates to "writing time." Not all of it (hopefully), but certainly a good portion! If you're anything like me, however, more writing time usually warrants an intense drive to actually do whatever it is you've put in your mind to do. And if I said I always had that drive, well, I'd most certainly be lying out my -

As a result of my shamefully easy distractability, I drew the conclusion long ago that what I need to do is form a set of short-time goals and work to reach them. As most professional procrastinators know, working on a deadline is virtually the only way to get things done at times. Why not give yourself some strict, short-term writing deadlines to ensure that you actually reach your writing goals?

This isn't limited to just writing related endeavors, either.

Recently I came across a bit of information about Benjamin Franklin (I mean, what didn't that man do?) and another little one of his ingenious habits. Topic of the day: weekly resolutions. I sort of wish I’d read about it before the start of the new year, but I think we all know that most New Year's resolutions go down the drain by March (and if you're one of the few people who has managed to stick to your goals, I seriously admire you. Seriously). Still, I figured now would be the perfect time to begin a new tradition for myself.

New Year’s resolutions? You cliché conformers *wink*. Weekly Resolutions is where it’s at (though while ending a sentence with a preposition would likely get me killed in a world run by a grammar-driven dictatorship, who really worries about that happening one day, am I right?)!

But I digress, as per usual.

What is my point? Most of my New Year's resolutions end up finding themselves sitting on the top shelf of my metaphorical storage room collecting a cozy film of dust. Not all of them, but a lot of them! And I know I'm not alone in this.

So how do we fix this? I think if we want to make sure we stick to these yearly goals of ours, we should start smaller first. Why not take it step by step and create weekly goals to meet that will take you a step closer to reaching your larger goal? This is what I intend to do from now on.

Consider Sunday nights (or Monday mornings) my time to compose a new list of weekly resolutions to meet by the end of the week and publish them here. I know it's Monday night right now... but we can look past that, right? But for someone who is convinced there is nothing in this god-forsaken world that won’t distract her from what she is doing, I’m going to need the right amount of motivation to keep at this new project of mine. I think it’s about time I meet at least one of my New Year’s Resolutions!

What are my resolutions, you ask? Well, as common and cliché as this might sound, I think we all wish to get ourselves back in shape as each year passes by, am I right? So, that’s one of them. My other, of course, is writing related.

I will be focusing only on my writing-related goals here on this blog, though.

First and foremost, I wish to finally begin my revised drafts of two of my novels. The first I will be calling Project C (yes, I’ve decided to call it that on this blog for now, though it already has a working title in my head), and the other I will call Five Years, because I have been working on and off on this series for nearly five years now. I will probably talk about these two projects in a separate blog post at some point in the future, but I won't bother y'all with that information now. :) Though whether or not these manuscripts will find themselves with an agent or book deal by the end of next year, I can only hope. Like I said, one step at a time, por favor!

So, my resolutions for this week are as follows:
         
          1. Complete chapters one and two of Project C.
          2. Complete chapter one of Five Years.
          3. At least begin a writing challenge on the Wattpad writing community.


So, let's see how well this will work out, shall we?

WELL, HOWDY THERE


THIS IS NOT MY first time attempting to start a blog, but I’d be lying if I said I knew exactly what I was doing here. I consider myself fairly adept with technology, but drop me into a sea of social media and I’d probably drown.

Do I have a Twitter? Yes.

A Facebook? Yeah, I actually do.

A Tumblr? Yep, I even have a Tumblr.

That, however, doesn’t exactly imply that I am any good at keeping up with them. Or with attracting followers. I have one person following my Tumblr blog right now and she just so happens to be one of my best friends.

You know what I think this all points back to? My childhood. Now, before I have people spontaneously combusting and torching my house in response to the cliché nature of that statement, allow me to say this word:

Diary.

Diary, journal, Secret Book of Me, whatever you like to call those notebooks and folders of thoughts in which you divulge all your most confidential matters and private affairs, I think at one point or another, nearly every young girl feels the need to imitate the girls in the movies and characters on TV and try to keep one. I know I did. Probably seventeen times throughout my middle school career alone. I failed miserably every time.

So I’ve decided to sit and try to maintain this blog for the next few years if things go by plan (then again, when do things ever go by plan?). I’m hoping to be active in this blog, because I feel like it might be a nice way to calm down at night or to take my mind off things if need ever be. I’ll probably rant on here sometimes about random things, sing about hot chocolate, or compose a to-do list (a habit I am in dire need of forming).

First and foremost, however, I am creating this blog for writing and for fellow writers! I think every aspiring writer and potential author-to-be needs a blog they can follow written by a person in their exact situation, struggling to reach her desired word count or grumbling choice words about how “writer’s block” should go shove a pick axe up its own rear (pick-end first, mind you) and twist it. In a sense, we can work on this together!

So I suppose I should begin this by sharing a little bit about myself.


*Inhales deeply*

I am a writer. I am also an actress, or a hopeful one at least. My name is Lauren; my pen-name, if I’m ever fortunate enough to use it one day, is Lauren Michelle *A smiley face should go here*. I’m random, I’m possibly crazy, I love singing, drawing, and playing the piano for hobbies. I have a large family, I’m a sophomore in college, I like hot chocolate, crackling fires, and rainy nights. Those suckers put me right to sleep (all five of them, actually).

How terribly cliché would it be of me to say that I love the beach as well? Well, I live in Florida, not fifteen minutes away from the Atlantic ocean and I happen to love it there.

I love reading YA fiction novels, and probably will until I die. So sue me! There’s something about them that feel magical, more so than adult novels, and I’m such a sucker for a good action-romance hybrid with lovable characters and an enticing plot. Some day I hope to create stories like these myself for the rest of the people like me out in the world to read :) (I had to actually insert the smiley face there this time).

I don’t expect my blog posts to be grammatically and mechanically flawless. I know I’m a writer, but spend my time slaving away at proofreading and editing a single blog post ten times over before publishing it online? That sounds horrendous! Like Chinese water torture meets 10K marathon.

...

I’m not a runner.

Anyway, I have created this blog because, well, when I began composing this post it was still January 1st, and I believe 2014 is the year that I might actually get somewhere with my writing! I’m not really sure why, but I have some high hopes for this year, and I’d like to take anyone who is willing to read and follow this blog (if there is anyone out there anywhere at all...) along for the ride!

Look for information about my writing, writing process, and other random thoughts in future posts! Or entries. Or whatever these things are called.

*Sigh* If ineptitude in social media and the lingo it brings with it was a disease, I’d have died years ago.