Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Procrastination

I started out this summer saying I was going to write, write, write first and foremost. Thus far, I am not holding up my end of the bargain with myself. I've procrastinated and tackled everything else but just simply writing. The chaos of summer with three kids in various activities as well as vacations are certainly not helping my motivation either! I am about to embark on a lengthy family vacation and realized that upon my return, there is only a month or so of summer left before the kids go back to school in August. Now, I seem to be modifying my plans to just write, write, write and am focusing on all of the ideas behind the writing. My youngest is about to start Kindergarten this Fall, and I really want to enjoy the remaining summer with the kids. As we've worked our way through some fun summer activities, such as the zoo, I've collected numerous ideas for articles and stories to research and write and hope to do the same on this upcoming vacation.

A quote in Walking on Alligators by Richard Ford helped me feel OK about this current plan: "I collect lines and snippets of things somebody might say--things I overhear, things I see in the newspaper, things I think up, dream up, wake up with in the middle of the night. I write a line down in my notebook. If I can get enough of those things, then characters begin to emerge."

Ideas are found in a variety of ways and places, and my kids and their friends are great inspiration. So, for now, I am looking at my summer procrastination as idea generating research. Hopefully, I will be able to utilize all the scraps of ideas and starts of stories and formulate them into something worthwhile in the end.

How are summer goals going for all of you? I'd love if any of you have any words of wisdom to share.

2 comments:

  1. Karin:

    I can totally relate and as we all know our children grow up so fast enjoy your remaining days of summer. Happy 4th of July to you and your family.

    Regards,
    Donna
    Children’s Author
    Write What Inspires You Blog
    Donna M. McDine’s Website

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Donna, and same to you!

    Karin

    ReplyDelete