As probably about half of the people who will see this post already know, I spent part of the day writing (yeah, you know 'cause you were doing it with me xD). In the afternoon, I did some word wars with a few people, all writing something or other. And lo and behold, in ten minutes I could produce about 250 words on average. I'm not too thrilled with this rate - back during NaNoWriMo and whenever I've done any similar challenge previously, I've been able to crank out at least 400 in 10 minutes, although it's usually closer to 500, with the occasional 600s when it's really going well.
(Personally, I think that "going good" looks better due to the alliteration, even if it isn't grammatically correct. But that's beside the point.)
Unfortunately, even at this snail's pace, I wrote more today than I have in a long time. Which, on the one hand, is good, since I'm writing again, but on the other hand, it's bad because it shows just how even more bad I have been. This failure to write has absolutely nothing to do with my desire (or lack thereof) to write, but everything to do with Procrastination.
Yes, that word was worthy of being bolded and capitalized.
I think anybody who isn't Superman or at least in possession of a Superman will knows the beast that is Procrastination all too well. If you happen to be one of those rare people that has never procrastinated, I commend you and will tell you not to read the rest of this post lest you also be captured by the beast.
Now that I have done my superhero duty in saving that poor person from being devoured by Procrastination, I will go on to help the rest of us, who have already been attacked once, to fight back.
Procrastination is rather addicting. Once you start procrastinating, you find more and more things that really aren't very productive in any way whatsoever, which makes it easier and easier to start procrastinating in the future. For instance, the person that I saved up there by telling them not to read on has never spent time on MLIA or FML or anything of the sort. There was once a time when I had not either. Unfortunately, Procrastination hunted me down and I succumbed to the lure. So now I know about MLIA and FML and various other sites that I can *waste* use time on to procrastinate. In the future, though I may fight back against Procrastination, it will be harder for me since I now know more places where I can go to procrastinate.
(Another side note: I still have a hard time saying waste time or kill time after reading The Phantom Tollbooth for the first time. If you haven't read it, finish reading this post and then go read that book.)
However, though there are many sites that you can go to that are frequent feeding areas for Procrastination (he/she visits them often to make sure his/her prey is obeying him/her), there are also sites that you can go to that are prime fighting arenas. Though this post is rather long already, I'm going to go on with those sites and other ways to keep yourself writing.
Number 1! My personal favorite, is Write Or Die. (Links to sites mentioned will be at the end of the post.) This site (created by Dr. Wicked) has a web app. It's essentially a text box that you write in - but! If you slow down (i.e. don't type), the background starts turning red in gradually darkening shades. If you don't type for long enough, it turns completely red and starts playing some awful noise to remind you. Oh, and there's a pause button in case you need to go to the bathroom in the middle of your time - but to fight Procrastination even more, you can't go to any other tabs while WoD is on pause.
Personally, I find that the noise isn't that bad - the most useful part is the shades of pink to red. Usually by the time it gets to the second or third shade, I'm sufficiently reminded to start writing again. Because that's how Procrastination starts: first you stop doing what you're doing, even if you don't realize it, and then before you know it, you're surfing the web under the spell of Procrastination.
Number 2! I don't particularly like this one, since I don't find that it fights Procrastination enough. But I know many other people like it so I'm putting it here anyway. Written Kitten! For every 100 words (number of words variable), you get a new, cute, adorable picture of a kitten on your screen! This one's more of a positive reinforcement site - perhaps that says something about me. I prefer the "do or die" sentiment than the "good job, here's a carrot" sentiment.
I suppose the carrot comes from the carrot and the stick saying, but I think that a piece of chocolate would work better than a carrot. Of course, the saying was talking about a donkey, not me.
Number 3! Moving on from the sites, these next two require another person to join you. Team work! Sort of the opposite of divide and conquer. Anyway, word wars! If you don't know what a word war is, it's when a group of people (group being more than one) decide to start writing at a certain time, for a certain period of time, and when the time is up, whoever has written the most words wins. Main point is to add a little competition to try to inspire faster production than Procrastination would otherwise allow.
I really like word wars because I'm competitive, and it gets me to the point where I can say, "Ok, at such and such time, I'm going to write as fast as I can for this amount of time, now GO." Short attention span works for me. Usually I and whoever I'm doing it with will do 10 or 15 minute spurts, with around 5 minutes in between.
Number 4! Word sprints. I don't use these very much myself. But they are similar to word wars - you need 2+ people. Set a word goal, and write as fast as you can, starting at the same time as the other person, until you reach that goal. Then see who got to the "finish line" first. Sometimes I'll throw one of these in with the word wars just to change things up, but I prefer the word wars due to the fact that I don't have to keep track of the number of words. It's really helpful to have a program that automatically tells you how many words you have as you're writing for word sprints, so that you don't waste time checking your word count.
What are your favorite ways to procrastinate? And when you don't want to procrastinate, how do you stop the beast? (answer the last one especially - I need more help in that area. The first area I'm doing just fine in.)
Write Or Die: http://writeordie.com/
Besides the web app, which is free, you can also get an app for Ipad and/or Desktop, which cost 10 dollars each, but well worth it.
Written Kitten: http://writtenkitten.net/
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