Procrastination is motivation

    In school I was always a procrastinator. There's nothing like a deadline to light a fire under my ass, and deadlines were my motivators for essays and projects. The funny part is, I do better work when I'm pressed for time. I focus better and work harder and for some reason brilliant things end up finding their way into my writing when I'm facing a nearing deadline.  Anytime I worked ahead in school and got my essays and projects done ahead of schedule I always received worse grades than when I whipped something up the night before. Strange, isn't it? I wonder if I'm the only one who finds creativity and motivation under pressure. Perhaps this is why my new buddy system is working so effectively. Knowing I need to have a chapter done each Friday really forces me to pry myself away from the television and just write for a few hours each week. I realize a few hours a week isn't much, but when you work full time it's a lot.
    Speaking of my weekly deadline, I am behind this week. The first two weeks of Leah and my buddy system I wrote about 1-2 pages per day and was done by Friday morning. This week I am seriously behind schedule. I've only written two solid pages and it's Wednesday evening...actually it's an hour away from being Thursday morning...ACK! But it's all okay. Because this means the fire under my ass is about to be lit and I will get some good writing done, even if I finish my chapter by Friday afternoon instead of morning. It was only a matter of time until my procrastinating side came out I suppose.
   

The buddy system

The buddy system is a helpful tool in writing. Find a good friend whom you'd trust with your precious, infantile writing and allow them to tell you what they think. Take the bad criticisms along with the good, because the bad ones are what will help you see the flaws in your story. Take the good criticisms and let them motivate you to keep writing. This is week 3 of my BFF and I holding each other accountable by having a deadline every Friday by which we have to swap chapters. And guess what? Just knowing I'd let my best friend down by not having a new chapter ready for her every Friday is enough to make me want to write and I've written more than I had during the last three months of 2009. So I highly recommend using the buddy system in writing.

New year, new book!

Whew, the end of last year was crazy! Now it's a new year and I have a new book I've started writing, so it's back to the grindstone. Let's play catch up since I haven't posted in over two months!

• I submitted my manuscript to several agents and a couple of first time YA contests, but got rejections or never heard back. I'm going to be totally honest, for awhile this bothered me and made me kind of doubt my writing but after some healing holiday time with family and many talks with my best friend and fellow writer I'm back on the writing wagon.
• Starting out the new year fresh, I decided to revamp my writing style and try my hand at childrens' lit instead of YA, which I thought was my passion. I'm finding my style and voice fits childrens' lit much better and I enjoy writing for kids. My best friend reassured me by reading the first finished chapter and declaring that she thinks I found my voice!
  

• Said best friend and I have decided to start our own critique group, just the two of us. Every Friday we must submit one chapter of at least five pages to each other. Since we both work better under pressure, deadlines are good, and this way me are made accountable for having something done each week. It's also a motivation booster because each week you get to have your chapter edited by someone else so you can immediately see areas that need work. The good comments make you feel good and like your writing isn't total crap, which it always will be with first drafts.

So, my goal for 2010 is to finish a chapter each week and hopefully have a completed first draft by summer. Do you have any writing goals for the year?