With my family, I didn’t even have a chance of not inheriting the “feel guilty yet?” gene. I’m pretty sure it’s mapped on the genome and the subject of hundreds of experiments at some secret lab under the sand in New Mexico or something. Anyway, being so prone to feeling guilty, when I should be writing (or…revising… *cough*) and I’m not, I habitually beat myself up about it.
Strangely enough, though, feeling guilty isn’t incentive to actually get my butt in the chair to do anything. Oh no. Instead, I procrastinate. Look, a new Entrecard member! I must drop a card! Hmm… I wonder what my stats are now? I wonder if I got any hits in the last twenty minutes.
It’s easy to find distractions and the distractions feed the guilt. I’m trying a new approach. I’m giving myself permission to putz. Sure, I’m way behind on my revision schedule and can think of at least half a dozen things I need to be writing (aside from the blog!). But I need downtime. I’m burnt out and that’s why I’m having so much butt-not-in-the-chair-syndrome (BNiTCS for short. How’s that for an acronym?).
So, if you’re prone to procrastination, writer’s block or any other form of BNiTCS, maybe you need permission to not write for awhile. Then maybe, just maybe, when we get back in the chairs, the muse will plop on our laps and grace us with the ability to create worlds on paper.
Matt-Man
February 7, 2008 - 9:02 am ·I procrastinate quite a bit. I use Stream of Consciousness to get out of my writing funk. A little cheap wine doesn’t hurt either. Cheers!!
harleyblues
February 9, 2008 - 12:02 am ·hoya nice blog and yes I do procrastinate and did write a posty about it a few months back
ta
hb~
Writing Nag
February 9, 2008 - 11:02 am ·I like the permission to putz rule. Since the addition of entrecard and project wonderful I’ve been using it a lot more.
Czecho
February 9, 2008 - 12:02 pm ·Permission to Putz: I like the sound of that but I am afraid that it’s just another way of giving myself permission to procrastinate, and that is dangerous and is just prolonging the inevitable. I prefer to eat my spinach first, then enjoy dessert.