Procrastination or Proactive?

The mere fact that I never write these SFF7 posts until the day before they're due to go live doesn't mean I procrastinate, right?

I'm very good with deadlines - the old day job at NASA/JPL was a place where if a deadline was missed, you might blow a launch window or an entire planetary encounter so....kinda had to meet the due dates on stuff. Mars is there in a certain spot of its orbit around the solar system when it's there, not a day earlier and not a day later. I did contracts, not science, but the principle was the same.We had gigantic systems to track deliverables, both flight hardware and contractual.

All my life, I've found that I do better if I work on something right before it's due, a day or a few days ahead. I need that feeling of urgency to do my best work. The thrill of possible danger and defeat? I don't know, I just require the emotional pressure.

If a project is huge and in multi parts, I may break it down into components and assign each of them its own due date, culminating in the entire thing being ready when needed. We call that the critical path in project management. Certain activities will hold up the entire effort while other things may be nice to have but really don't affect  overall success or failure. Being an indie author, I set all my own due dates and there's not too much fallout if I'm 'late'. I do like to keep releasing new books every three or four months so I have to maintain a certain amount of discipline.

For the author interviews I write for USA Today HEA, I have to get in touch with each author a certain amount of time ahead, give them time to answer the pithy questions, leave time for me to ask clarifying or backup questions, write the post and then leave my editor time to go over the column before it goes live. So I have mini deadlines all along the way.

What we have in our family is a problem known as 'dithering'. This happens when too many things show up on my To Do List and they all seem to have equal weight, so my internal deliverables' tracker gets overwhelmed and I can't work effectively on anything. So I kinda do nothing or go off and do something totally not on the critical path of any project. Binge watch "Top Chef" maybe, or go thrifting at my favorite  store - fun but not ultimately productive. And I'll feel faintly uneasy the entire time because I KNOW there are things I should have been doing instead.

If there's something I really don't want to do, I'll make myself assign the task a due date and then I will do it on that date. I might reward myself with chocolate later, and I might not schedule anything else stressful for the same day. but usually what I find out is that the item I was dreading isn't really that hard or scary or unpleasant. And it feels so good to cross it off my To Do List!

So I'm proactive about my procrastination....

In other news, my Lady of the Star Wind was selected as an EPIC eBook Award Finalist last week! WHEE! I've put the book on sale for $.99 in honor of the honor...

The story:

Are they merely luckless lovers … or a legend come back to life?

Mark Denaltieri, ex-Sector Special Forces, has been hired by the Outlier Empress to rescue her granddaughter, Princess Alessandra, from kidnappers. Since the Empress once had him tortured and banished, she’s the last person Mark wants to work for. But he takes the job. He’ll save Alessandra, his first love, and discover why she didn’t speak for him when he desperately needed her. Then he’ll be on his way, finally free of his past.

Alessandra would rather her rescuer was anyone but Mark–after all, he let her believe he was dead all this time. But when the couple are forced to flee her captors by Traveling via a strange crystal globe, they find themselves in a lovely Oasis on a desert planet, the old attraction sizzling between them again.

They soon discover they are far from alone. The Oasis holds the entrance to another world, one in which the inhabitants are convinced Sandy and Mark are the Lady of the Star Wind and her Warrior, come to free them from an evil Queen.

Mark and Sandy must work together to unearth an ancient mirror, and crown the true king of this land.  Can they fulfill the prophecy of the Lady and her Warrior … and this time, will their love survive the test?

Buy Links:  iBooks     Amazon    KOBO     Barnes & Noble

Here's the gorgeous book trailer video Cheri Lasota did for me:

Procrastination Advantage

Procrastination is defined as the act of postponing or delaying something.

Resistance is defined as the refusal to accept or comply with something; the attempt to prevent  something by argument or action. Or in a writer's case - inaction.

Which, when you think about it, is really what's going on with procrastination. We're postponing (and/or preventing) the work. I think of procrastination as a symptom of resistance. It's a non-useful safety mechanism, some primordial brain space activating when we contemplate pursuing something that matters to us. Steven Pressfield has built a career out of describing resistance and has specific advice for combating it.

But are there times that procrastination is an advantage? Maybe. In rare circumstances. But let's be clear. 'Advantage' is pushing it, in my opinion, because I have to say that procrastination feels TERRIBLE. It's an awful place to be. So any benefit it confers is weighed against chest crushing pressure it exerts. These are the rare circumstances where the advantage of procrastination edges past its ickiness.

1. Procrastination is a symptom of an ailment. Not mine. A book's. Procrastination can be a little bit like waking up with a sore throat. It *could* just be a silly thing that will go away after a cup of tea. Or it could be strep. For me, if I go two days procrastinating, then my book probably has strep. Diagnosing the problem can take days. DAYS. Because it means disengaging from a novel in progress enough to get the 10,000 foot view so I can ID what's wrong. The problem could be in the previous chapter, or it could be in the first part of the story. Once I figure out the problem, it may take another couple of days to work out how to fix it. Only then can I move on. This is procrastination acting as a signpost that says "Hey, dummy, here be plot hole!" Let's not get into the psychological reasoning behind why my brain cannot possibly leave that stuff until the editing phase.

2. Procrastination as means of knitting up a raveling brain. Modern life is full of distractions, noise, and demands on our time. You know. Your beloved can't find his or her car keys. One kid is having a melt down about the diorama due in history tomorrow (no, of course he hasn't started it), another is going to starve to death RIGHT THERE on the kitchen floor if food isn't shoved at her this instant, and the dog just threw up all over your dining room carpet. And you're trying to write. Our brains become noisy, crowded places when we're juggling all of the roles adulthood requires. Procrastination is occasionally a means by which we let some of the excess sturm und drang ooze out our ears. It's meaningless activity meant to soothe some of the frayed and ragged edges so we can restore mental silence and focus. If that's the case, directing procrastination activities to that end (meditation work, working out, going for a walk in nature - alone) can actually get you back to work faster than if you just try to suck up the randomization and work through it.

3. Procrastination as serendipity. This one hasn't yet happened to me. I've only heard about it happening to someone else who had a contract for a project that she just kept dragging her feet on. This frustrated her no end and she could never articulate why she had so much trouble approaching the work. She liked the story and liked the work she'd done to win the contract, so what was going on? Just as she bit the bullet to call her editor so she could beg for a deadline extension, word came that the house had closed. She ended up feeling like she'd dodged a bullet. Now who can say whether she, on some level, saw and registered the warning signs of a publisher in trouble and then signed with them anyway - or if the whole thing was a coincidence. She did write the book thereafter and ended up self publishing it.

I've heard it said that procrastination is your subconscious extending you a vote of no confidence. If you're procrastinating, it's because you don't have a goal and a plan in place to get you to it.

Is that true do you think?

Procrastination; or, Trying To Get Things Done In A Release Week

If you haven't noticed, I've got a pretty intense writing schedule.  The Holver Alley Crew just came out, and The Imposters of Aventil is out in the fall (Pre-order now!), and Lady Henterman's Wardrobe next year, and... you get the picture.  I don't have a too much wiggle room in there.

But that doesn't mean I don't have days where I'm all, "Yeah.... writing.  Need to ... words... or something."

I definitely have days where I I whiff it.  ESPECIALLY right now, when a book has just come out, and all my brain power is used by "BOOK!  OUT!  ARE PEOPLE BUYING IT?  ARE THEY LIKING IT? WHAT IS HAPPENING?"

This is my fifth book, and it's still pretty much like the first one.  I've curbed some of the less-healthy behaviors (refreshing Amazon ranking constantly), but it still is occupying a heck of a lot of brain space.  My head is a spinning rainbow wheel.

Procrastination is part of how things go, it's a natural part of the process.  And as much as I try to make progress on a daily basis, I have bad days.  I have days where I can't get my head into my primary project (current primary project: drafting A Parliament of Bodies), and that's why you have secondary projects.  (Though now some of those are in my agent's hands, and thus I'm on NEW secondary projects-- one that's been a back-burner tertiary project for a while.)

But right now, I'm in that happy-distracted place about the release of The Holver Alley Crew.  Have you picked it up yet?  Then GET ON IT.  Meanwhile, I'm going to get on the writing.  Soon.  Any minute now. 

Procrastination vs.Causation

I'm at Cleveland Concoction this weekend, Friday and Saturday March 10th and 11th. If you're in the area of Northern Ohio, check out the website: HERE for details, location, hotels, and all the info!

My CLEVELAND CONCOCTION Schedule:
FRIDAY:
9PM What is Urban Fantasy?

SATURDAY:
1 PM Character Creation Challenge
7 PM Elevator Pitch Tutorial
10 PM Writing Fantasy Romance

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"Everyone procrastinates sometimes, but 20 percent of people chronically avoid difficult tasks and deliberately look for distractions..."  -Psychology Today

Procrastination is not something I often do. If there's work to me done, it's getting done. That said, when those times appear, those times when I just 'don't wanna,' its become apparent to me that there is more of a reason than avoidance of adult responsibility.

Sometimes, it is a need for more information. Once that hurdle is leapt, then the desire to get back on task reappears.

Sometimes, it is overwhelming. For instance, ProTools. Oh. My. God. ProTools. If you know this program, I need not say more. If you don't...the instruction manual is like reading 200 pages of stereo instructions. *headdesk* Just seeing the vastness of this dream-come-true access to such resources...it sent me straight into ripping down the wallpaper in the bathroom. I spent two weeks in that bathroom, wearing myself out physically (wallpaper removal. wall washing. wall repairing. raised stencils. painting. decorative painting. disliking and repainting. touching up. buying fabric for curtains and sewing. and so much more.) It seems it was all a subconcious plot to get me to sit for a bit every day and read in that manual, then give me something physical to do while ruminating over the information I'd just taken in. By the time the bathroom was done, my fear-induced procrastination about the program had turned into a ready-to-work attitude.

My advice: think about what is truly at the root of the procrastination. If it is just 'don't wanna' find a way to make yourself 'wanna,' such as a reward. The purpose of the reward is to keep you from producing 100 % crap work. If the reason is something else, take steps to tend to that ASAP.

Progress is active. 

You may spin your wheels, 

zig and zag a bit, 

but eventually 

you'll get the traction 

and move forward!

Release Day: The Holver Alley Crew by Marshall Ryan Maresca #Fantasy

It's a fabulous day in the SFF Seven as we celebrate Marshall's newest installment in the Maradaine universe; a perfect read for fans of fantasy, mystery, and adventure!


THE HOLVER ALLEY CREW

The Rynax brothers had gone legit after Asti Rynax's service in Druth Intelligence had shattered his nerves, and marriage and fatherhood convinced Verci Rynax to leave his life of thievery. They settled back in their old neighborhood in West Maradaine and bought themselves a shop, eager for a simple, honest life.

Then the Holver Alley Fire incinerated their plans. 

With no home, no shop, and no honest income--and saddled with a looming debt--they fall back on their old skills and old friends. With a crew of other fire victims, Asti and Verci plan a simple carriage heist, but the job spirals out of control as they learn that the fire was no accident. Lives in Holver Alley were destroyed out of a sadistic scheme to buy the land. Smoldering for revenge, burdened with Asti's crumbling sanity, the brothers and their crew of amateurs and washouts swear to take down those responsible for the fire, no matter the cost.

BUY IT NOW:     Amazon   |   B&N   |   BAM!   |  IndieBound

On the fine art of procrastination

Years ago I did an interview with Mark Rein-Hagen of White Wolf Games in which he said, and I'm paraphrasing, "I split my time between actual writing and creating." Tongue firmly planted in cheek I said the creation going on in that office had to be monumental. because there wasn't much writing going on .I was joking, of course, because really, he wasn't wrong.

Procrastination is a relative thing, but for me, as a writer, even when I'm doing nothing, there's a lot going on. When I'm driving log distances the odds are good that I'll have music going and I'll be plotting out a novel or a short story. When I'm watching TV, the same thing. When Im talking to people, not so much, because actual conversation requires that I pay attention.

When I'm reading a book, I'm automatically correlating the information into my reading list. Not on a conscious level, but often just to make certain that what I'm reading isn't too similar to what I'm working on,.When I wrote BLOOD RED I literally read fifty books on vampires and watched easily thirty movies for the exact same reason. Research is important. There are a LOT of vampire novels out there and a little crossover is going to happen but I wanted to try to make what I was doing as unique as possible.

Here's the thing: writers are often daydreamers. Even when doing nothing, the mind wants to wander and play what if. For that reason I will gleefully encourage procrastination, so long as it's within reason. Twiddling your thumbs will never take the place of hard work when it comes to putting food on the table. I can daydream a day away, but I still need to meet or exceed my word count whenever humanly possible.

Procrastination as a Positive

I’ve been a bit down the rabbit hole lately. An apropos metaphor for this post as I found this photo in a college friend’s scrapbook. That’s me at eighteen, dressed as Alice in Wonderland for a sorority party. This last weekend I met with a lot of my sorority sisters from college. We celebrated our chapters 100th anniversary, which meant we spent a lot of time talking, resurrecting old memories. We also met with the collegians currently in the chapter – as young and fresh-faced as I was then.

And this photo is me, too, many years later, taken by my friend, Karen Koonce Weesner, who I met as a pledge sister when I was eighteen. We gave a talk to the collegians and assembled alumnae. I called it “Now We Are Fifty” – and we wished that those girls would have the blessing of that same kind of lifelong friendship.

It’s been a good month for me that way. I spent a weekend with Grace Draven, and then my lovely friend Anne Calhoun came to visit me. This coming week I’m spending with family, celebrating my mom’s birthday.

I am overflowing with love and the best kind of connections.

Which is a wonderful thing, as there’s been some upheaval in my writing career the last couple of weeks also. The good kind! Out of respect for the people involved, I can’t tell you much until the end of March, but it’s going to be a really good change for me. But, you know, Alice taught us that about change – growing taller, smaller, eat me, drink me, through the looking glass – it’s always painful.

All of this means that I haven’t been writing very much. I’ve been taking a lot of days off to handle business, to travel, to be with people. When I have been writing, the project has gone slowly because all the upheaval has changed the trajectory of what I’m doing. Sometimes it’s felt like I’m procrastinating. I certainly haven’t been holding myself to a rigid schedule or wordcount production. 

I remind myself, though, that none of that means I’m not working on the book. Or books, which is what it really is.

That’s the topic for the week – When Procrastination Is Your Friend. There’s a lot that goes into writing. Done correctly, the stories we spin grow out of who we are, how we feel, what we’re experiencing. Instead of procrastinating this last month, I’m letting myself call it a time of refilling. All of these conversations and time spent strolling through wonderland and old scrapbooks are ways of relaxing and reliving.

So are stories.

I’ll be ready to write again soon.

Love to all my sisters in Gamma Phi Beta, in TTKE

Worldbuilding with Elderly and Young

A timely topic because in my personal, actual world, I now have a new grandbaby, and have been spending huge amounts of time where he lives.

So as I understand it (running on not too much sleep here, folks), this week we're to discuss whether we include older and younger folks in our books as secondary characters, or just the stalwart heroes and heroines? Well, there's a running joke between my editor and me that I tend to add a child to every book, whether the plot needs one or not, so....

My first scifi romance, Wreck of the Nebula Dream, is my futuristic version of the sinking of the Titanic, and as such, I definitely included children, Paolo and Gianna, a brother and sister who were my tribute to all the Third Class children who perished on Titanic. Every single adult main character in the book is dedicated to ensuring these two survive, and the children also have their key moment to be front and center in the plot. There's also a very elderly woman, Lady Damais, who is part of my small group of passengers trying to find a way to get off the Nebula Dream and survive.

My second published SFR was Escape From Zulaire, and one of the main plot points is that the human heroine, Andi, is trying to save the toddler son of the planetary ruler. She and the child and a small group of Sectors soldiers are trapped behind enemy lines when warfare breaks out.

My third SFR was Mission to Mahjundar and my editor put her foot down about why was there a child in the book and what plot point was he supposed to be advancing? I realized I'd written so much about him that at times the entire focus of the book drifted away from the hero and heroine. The thing was I'd given this boy such a great backstory....but it wasn't needed. I tried editing him out of a chapter entirely, as a test, and yup, you'd never miss him. So he was deleted entirely. Nothing is ever lost, of course, so maybe he'll show up in another book in the future, where he does belong.

Since then I watch out for my apparent inclination to add a child to the mix. I guess the point to me is that I include whatever characters are necessary for the plot to advance, and I happily assume all the rest of the population of the universe is happily doing their thing offstage.