Why is it that P-time (time spent procrastinating) always subjectively moves so much faster than W-time (time spent writing). I've just carved through nearly an hour of P-time without so much as batting an eyelid, yet earlier this afternoon when I spent over two hours in W-time, it felt like I was wading through molasses and achieving very little (three pages, to be precise).
Ideally, I'd like to get into F-time (W-time spent in a focussed state), when hours seem to evaporate yet at the end of it you realise that you've written bucketloads, but that heaven-sent state has been eluding me for quite a while. I get something close to F-time when writing this blog, but as blog writing is actually a P-time process that doesn't really help much.
Anyway, I know what you're thinking. Stop talking crap, Charman, and get on with it. I'm going, I'm going…
Yo.
Listen.
You're doing a 'Tom Sawyer'.
You've separated your writing into FUN (blogging) and WORK (slaving on the olde SP).
Trick yourself.
BLOG into a private area. BLOG entire scenes or just extended outline chunks. Leave 'em. Keep BLOGGING in pieces.
Think about it. Why is Blogging 'fun' and SP 'work'?
Could it be the existence of an Internet 'audience' for whom you are performing, via writing?
Try mixing the two metaphors and confuse that procrastinating part of you that would rather Blog than write.
BTW I enjoyed the virtual tour of London.
I'll visit later.
Karl in Arizona
karl [mkarl2@qwest.net]
Karl, glad you liked the virtual tour! I'm going to post my pics of North Wales soon too.
I think I do sometimes get a bit 'oh this is difficult' with the writing at the moment because this happens to be a tricky screenplay to write. It's much more serious than the first piece, much more character driven, much darker.
Plus I'm writing it out of order, which kinda slows me down a bit as I am having to interleave new scenes with old. And although I have a clear idea of what I want the piece to communicate, I'm not always sure how I'm going to communicate it, which makes for hard going.
The blog, on the other hand, is a piece of cake (as was SP1). And yes, having an audience does help. I think I produce better work when I'm thinking about the people who are going to read it than I do when I'm not. That might sound counterintuitive, but it's just a matter of quality control and being aware that I can't be too selfindulgent.
However, I did, after writing this entry, get much more into what I was doing with the sp, and was getting on very well until I came up against a gap in my knowledge of Brussels, and then got a phone call.
Whichever way you look at it, though, writing is a matter of perseverance and of just writing your way through the difficult bits, almost regardless of how it comes out.
You just have to work your way through the W-time, without giving in to too much P-time and hope you end up in that hallowed F-time.
😉
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