Pebblepup's Writing Den

So, you’re having trouble accomplishing things you set yourself to do. Why is that? What’s stopping you? Are you sure you’re not getting in your own way? Are you expecting too much of yourself? We often are the ones who put the most pressure on ourselves to succeed and do things. I’ve been having a lot of trouble with that myself lately. I have a to-do list that I follow through on or try to. Most of them are small stuff, it’s reminding me to do things that I need to do. And I’ve taken to adding things to a paper planner. And I’m looking at today’s and I see I have 4 items. One of which is to write a blog. And that is this blog that I’m writing now. Well, aside from work, I have 4 items on my list in this paper planner. I need to take do the work part, so that’s important that I’d have to leave that on the list. What can I cut from this list? And continue with later. That’s what I must ask myself. Which items do I have to do. The problem is, I want to do all the things on that list, and it’s not that big.

I’m taking an online course. I have all the time in the world to do that course. Can I leave it off? Sure. Do I want to take it off? No. What I can do is control how much of it I do. If I set a limit of an hour. That would be good. I could do that. Then I have an item I called scene descriptions. I’m trying to develop a story and I’m at the stage where I write scene district descriptions and I’m not writing them. Could I leave that off? Yes. Do I want to? No. So I’m going to limit them. Write two to three scenes and then stop. There’s another item, another little class that involves reading. I can do that at work. It won’t take that long either because it’s reading a page and. Making notes. It’s all doable, so why am I not doing it?

The reason is pressure. I’m pressuring myself to do this stuff and I need to stop doing that. Limiting the time, I spend on the items is helpful. That would help me do that, and I’m sure it will. You have likely been pressuring yourself to do things too. We both need to stop that. That’s easy to say. It’s not so easy to do. This is where deadline can help you and hurt you. It can hurt you because it can put a lot of pressure on you and you don’t need that. My idea of using only an hour or so for each project I’m working on is a good idea. But it’s limiting, it’s also putting pressure on me, and I don’t need that.

So, what solution did I come up with? I broke the project down into steps. I created a to-do list for the online course. And I can put each part into my To Do List and set a deadline for it. By setting interim deadlines, I can ensure that I do it. Yes, I’m using deadlines. But I’m using the deadlines in such a way that I can manipulate them. And get only part of the task done. It might work, at least for that class. For the scene descriptions, I’m going to look at my beat sheet. And create a list of what I need to do. Of the scenes I need to do for that. Make a to-do list for that. Finish that list off. Then see if there’s any places I need to add more scenes to fill in ant holes in my plot. You don’t want plot holes.

That’s what works for me. You may be different. But the first step is to identify the pressure that you’re putting on yourself. Then find a way to ease that pressure. Or at the very least, spread it out. For me, interim deadlines do the job. Give them a try and see if it works. Good luck and keep writing.