Time to Write

Overcoming Procrastination (The Lesser of Two Evils Method)

Procrastination is a problem for writers and just about everybody else. Let’s look at a method that can help you manage it—I call it the Lesser of Two Evils strategy.

Let’s say the  dreaded task is getting all of your financial documents together for your accountant. You’ve been putting it off for days, just shifting it from one to-do list to the next.

Also on your to-do list are tasks you don’t mind doing or that you think can be done more quickly, so naturally you gravitate toward doing those. My favorite excuse is that “I’ll just get these out of the way, and then I’ll do the dreaded task.”

Guess what? Often by the time those are out of the way, there’s no time left to do the dreaded task. Oh well, I’ll do it tomorrow for sure!

Sound familiar?

With the Lesser of Two Evils strategy, you add something to the list that you’d like to do even less than the one you’ve been dodging.

For instance, although I dislike having to go through piles of paper to find all the relevant tax documents, one thing I dislike even more is cleaning the shower and the bathroom. So I put those two tasks at the top of my list. My deal with myself is if I do one of them, I won’t have to do the other today.

I’ll choose getting the documents together and breathe a sigh of relief that at least I don’t have to clean the shower and bathroom today.

Of course at some point you will come up against a task for which you can’t think of anything worse that needs to be done. In that case, make a deal with yourself that when you have done that task you will take the rest of the day off, or will give yourself a reward of some kind that evening, like going to a movie or a music event or a dinner at your favorite restaurant.

(For lots of tips on creative time management, get my book, "Focus: Use the Power of Targeted Thinking to Get More Done," published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

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What if your writing obstacles are actually your strengths?

Psychotherapist Dennis Palumbo, who previously was a screenwriter, wrote in a column in Psychology Today about the kinds of “stuff” that gets in the way of being able to write:

Because the simple fact is, we do bring our “stuff” to our creative endeavors...Some artists can’t get past their fear of failure; some struggle with a nagging sense of inadequacy regarding their talent; some feel the pressure of being unknown and thus feeling powerless. 

Add to that the relationship issues, financial pressures, marketplace fluctuations, and sense of isolation that creative types must contend with on a daily basis---and suddenly the amount of “stuff” you’re supposed to put aside in order to “get out of your own way” starts to feel like a veritable mountain of personal baggage.

He suggests rather than trying to solve all of these issues, we accept that they are part and parcel of  what we do:

One particular subset of human beings, creative artists, have all the same “stuff” as the rest of the tribe. Except for the need and desire to create art out of it. We may produce stories or screenplays. Or films or TV pilots. Or novels, poems, and songs. But what all artists, regardless of approach, really do is try to make sense of their “stuff.” In a language or medium or form that is understandable to the audience. In other words, “stuff” talking to “stuff.”

Rather than trying to eliminate all such elements, we need to reframe them:

From my perspective, a creative artist who invites all of who he or she is into the mix---who sits down to work engulfed in “stuff,” yet doesn’t give these thoughts and feelings a negative connotation; who in fact strives to accept and integrate whatever thoughts and feelings emerge---this artist has truly gotten out of his or her own way.

From this standpoint, it’s only by labeling a thought or feeling as either good or bad, productive or harmful, that you’re actually getting in your own way. Restricting your creative flow.

When you think about it, we write about conflicts, about desires, about obstacles, but we put them into stories about characters that we make up. It's only our own experience of those things that gives us the raw material to work with.

Palumbo admits that while embracing one's fears is a simple notion, it’s not easy to put into practice. However, thinking this new way about the things that you feel are in your way might be the start of being able to work more freely.

(You can read his whole column here: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hollywood-the-couch/201303/getting-out-your-own-way

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If I ever write a book about my time working in Hollywood I'll call it "Just one small change." 

An interview with Bad Plots

 

The next series of workshops (which you can take individually or as a series) at the time of this writing is March 18 and the following four Monday evenings. If you're seeing this after that series is finished, please go to www.Raindance.co.uk and check the "courses and events" listing to see when the next series will start.

Tasks more urgent than getting back to work on my novel (The Writer's Life Series)

 

(Would you like some writing advice from Charles Dickens as you accompany him on his rounds assisting fallen women? How about having F. Scott Fitzgerald tell you about revealing character as the two of you have a drink--actually, 12 drinks--at his favorite bar? Or maybe you'd like to ask Beckett for some tips afte he tells you his favorite "Knock-knock" joke: Knock-knock/ who's there? /(silence). Sorry, they're all dead but you can still get their writing advice in my book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller. Well, except Beckett's advice. I'm still waiting for that.)

The next time you think you're too burdened to write or be creative...

The next time you think you’re just too busy or overburdened to get to work on your novel or screenplay, take a minute to consider Susan Spencer-Wendel.

She was 44 years old in 2011 when she was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). She decided to do lots of things on her bucket list one of which was writing a book that might inspire others and would remind her family and friends of her when she is gone. 

The book is 89,000 words long. 

She wrote it on her iPhone. 

She did it using only her right thumb.

I know hearing about somebody else’s difficulties doesn’t make yours any less troublesome, but what her story demonstrates is that it’s all about priorities.

Susan Spencer-Wendel really wanted to write that book, so she did. It's called Until I Say Good-bye.  

If you really want to write your book or your screenplay, you will. 

If this inspires you to get writing, it’ll be proof that she achieved what she set out to do.

(This item is also in my Brainstorm ebulletin this month, but I think it's worth featuring in both places.  You can read more about Susan Spencer-Wendel here. There’s also a link to the 6-minute NPR story there.)

How to build a villain or just an unlikeable character

What are the hallmarks of an unlikeable character for your novel or screenplay? 

One easy way to come up with ideas for that is to look at what makes people likeable and then have your character do the opposite.

In the book “Likeable Business,” Dave Kern lists the following as the characteristics of likeable business leaders:

LISTENING —to customers, colleagues, shareholders—and competitors

AUTHENTICITY—because today’s savvy customer always knows when you’re faking it

TRANSPARENCY—honesty builds trust and any deviation can destroy your reputation

ADAPTABILITY —managing change and finding new opportunities is critical to success today

SIMPLICITY—in design, in form, and in function

GRATEFULNESS —every “thank you” is appreciated . . . and generates surprising returns!

I think we could say those are the hallmarks of likeable people in general. When we reverse them, we come up with a character who:

• Never listens to other people, being too busy trying to think of what to say about themselves next.
• Never admits there’s anything they don’t know or haven’t done; instead, they fake everything.
• Lies, cheats, and steals.
• Refuses to consider changing.
• Complicates everything, perhaps trying to keep people confused so they won’t see through him or her.
• Never says thank you, just assumes that every body should help them or do what his or she wants.

It could be overkill to give one character all of these negative traits, but having them show two or three gives you a good unlikeable character.

This can also be helpful for creating credible protagonists--give them a mild form of one of these faults. For instance, not somebody who never listen to anybody else, but maybe someone who tunes out when under stress.

(Do you want practical guidance in writing your book? Get a copy of Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Write strong characters - the "spite house" example

I'm sure you have read about the importance of giving the characters in your novel or screenplay a strong motive, as well as how vital it is to show the behaviour engendered by these motives, rather than just telling us about them.

Recently I ran across a great real-world example of this: "spite houses."

These are houses whose main function is to annoy someone else. Sometimes they block somebody's light or view, sometimes they prevent access, sometimes they are built to mock legal restrictions. 

Strong motives in action! How mad would you have to be to build a useless or at least very impractical house? 

I'm not suggesting that you have your protagoist build a spite house, but maybe there is an equivalent drastic measure they take that reflects the passionate motive that drives them.

By the way, the spite house shown above was built in 1830 in Alexandria, Virginia. The owner of the homes to its left and right was annoyed that horse-drawn carriages were using the alleyway in between them. He constructed this seven-foot wide house using the walls of the houses on either side.The house is still occupied. (photo credit: shorpy.com)

(Authors who created vivid characters include Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain. They are among the many whose writing advice I collected and put into my book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass. It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller.)

One-third of the way through writing a novel (The Writer's Life Series)

(Want a friedly guide that takes you all the way from your idea through to publication? It's my book, "Your Writing Coach" published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Get Inspired to Do Something Different: Prince & the Price of Your Book

The artist formerly and once again known as Prince as been pretty generous to his fans. When he played the O2 in London he made sure the ticket prices were kept relatively low. 

He gave away two of his albums via free downloads.

Recently he decided to charge for something he created:  the eight-minute video download of his new song, Screwdriver. For the princely sum of $1.77.

On the Spin music website, the headline was "Prince Demands $1.77 to Watch 'Screwdriver' Video."

Demands? Is it me or is does that connote unhappiness with the charge? They also warn, "You will never get that $1.77 back, so decide wisely." Do they give that kind of warning when somebody is about to spend that amount on a cup of coffee at Starbucks? Or half a pint of beer at the pub? 

NME reports "Prince has upset fans by charging them to see his new video."

The Independent writes: "Outraged fans took to railing on Twitter: 'Way to alienate your core audience Mr. Purple Badness,” said one. “Tight arse – I’m sure he doesn’t need the money,” said another.

The Independent goes on to inject a note of sanity: "But what difference does it make whether Prince is a million-selling recording artist or a struggling up-and-coming singer-songwriter? Every musician is entitled to be paid for their musical output – or is this something that we’ve forgotten in a world of YouTube and Spotify?"

I think Prince has unwittingly trained at least some his fans to expect everything for free. 

Now, what does this have to do with "doing something different" with your writing project? 

We authors are being advised by the top internet marketing gurus: give things away to draw people to your site. Give them really good material for free. They'll think, 'If material this good is free, the things they charge for must be phenomenal, I'll order some of those things right away!"

Is that what they think? Or do they think, "I don't have to pay for good stuff, it's free. The heck with paying for anything, I'll see what else this person offers for free to keep me on their mailing list. I'll look around the web for other free stuff, hee hee!"

Of course those are the people who don't just find a pirated version. When I looked up Prince's new song the first half dozen or so Google results were for illegal sharing sites. 

In today's world of free, doing something different is charging a price that reflects the amount of effort and expertise that went into what you have created. 

Can this work? Would people think, "If they're charging for this, it must be worth more than what I get for free"? Or would we be left lonely in our little paid space with everybody rushing past us for the free stuff? 

I don't know. Seems worth a try, though. 

(Another thing that seems to work is to offer people a "free gift"...as opposed to a gift you pay for, I guess...)

(Take a stand for charging for things by paying for my books: "Your Writing Coach," and "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," both published by Nichoals Brealey and available, at a very reasonable price, from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

Drive your story with the Three Excitements (great rewrite tool)

On his blog, graphic novelist (writer and artist) Garen Ewing talks about what he calls The Three Excitements: Action, Tension, and Comedy.

He advises, try to use at least one in every scene.

You could translate those to "Something's happening!" "What will happen next?" and "Ha ha!" (the latter giving you a chance to vary the pace so readers can catch heir breath--after all, non-stop tension and action are wearing).

I think The Three Excitements is a great tool for rewriting. We can look at each of our scenes and ask ourselves which of the three it represents...and if it doesn't represent any of them, maybe it should.

(How about writing tips from Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut and many more? You'll find them in my book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

Writers: use clothing to reveal character in your novels and screenplays

In the previous post I discussed how you can use dialogue to reveal a character's secondary intentions. Another tool is  what the characters wear. Novelists use this quite a but, but screenplay authors often don't--and should.

The two most common messages that people try to send via what they wear are, "I'm high class/rich/important" or "I'm just one of the folks."

Ironically, people who don't have much money spend a lot on clothes that suggest they do, and people who do have a lot of money spend a lot to make it appear they don't (high-price clothes designed to look like those worn by poorer people--but with a label to prove you did actually pay a lot for those torn jeans, for instance.)

The poorer people are sending the message, "Don't judge me for my lack of money," and the richer ones are sending the message, "Don't resent me for my abundance of money--but also don't fail to notice it."

Beyond these broad strokes, people use what they wear to send other messages.

In college I knew of someone who wore Native American jewelry to suggest this was his heritage (I think he was actually Italian, but this got him dates).

Some people wear an item of jewelry they hope will be a conversation-starter (they're ready with the story behind it). Or it might be something they inherited and wear in memory of someone special. 

Some people have a wardrobe that is predominantly one colour. For a while, all black was the badge of the hipster, now it's more of a cliche.

Then there's body art. When I was a kid the only people who had tattoos were sailers and the guys who worked at carnival sideshows. These days it's so common that having one doesn't mean anything in particular and you have to have something pretty intense to be noticed for it, but that's an option.

For another character the traces of a tattoo they had removed might be revealing of an incident they came to regret.

Just as dialogue can reveal what people want to communicate beyond the words, so can what they wear, and it's a tool you can use to give the reader subtle (or not so subtle) clues.

(For more on creating characters and crafting powerful plots, see my book, "Your Writing Coach." It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

The best writer's success strategy

Below is an item from a list written by an online marketer who calls himself Johnny B Truant.

The best moneymaking and success strategy is to be awesome. It’s amazing how many people fret about perfecting their marketing strategy when what they have to offer is total shit. Sure, marketing and SEO and positioning matter… but only once you are producing awesome stuff. No matter how many times we talk about marketing funnels or KDP Select promotion strategy on the podcast, the bottom-line advice always boils down to, “Keep writing awesome books that people love.” That philosophy applies to everything.

 This resonates with me especially because I was approached recently to work on a book series that has a lot of promotional angles to it, but when I read the description of the actual content, it was terrible, so I declined.

It's easy to get so hung up on marketing--which certainly is important--that sometimes core quality gets lost. We have to  remind ourselves that while hooks and gimmicks can help sell things, we have to be careful not to let the marketing dictate the content, or at least not to the point where it hurts the quality. This can be very hard when we are working for someone else so we owe it to ourselves even more to to do it when we do our own work.

(Want to learn how to focus and overcome procrastination? Get my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done." It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

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If you want to write, you'll get friendly guidance in my two books: "Your Writing Coach" and "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," both published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.