Advice and Procrastination

Today's Guest Post Kay Kauffman, author of Tuesday Daydreams: A Journal in Verse and A Song for All Seasons: A Journal in Verse.

 

I love my bedroom.  The door has a rather impressive deadbolt on it, which allows me the necessary peace and quiet to get some writing done every once in a while.  And I’ve decided to make use of it.

See, I’m in the middle of rewriting a novel, and lately I find myself completely unable to block out the background noise of my life.  But I have writing that needs doing, so up to my room I go, rather like I used to do as a teenager.  In my room, I can lock out the world and tackle the task at hand.

But first I’d better change clothes.  It’s been a long day and I need to relax.  Like, for real – my calves and my shoulders are killing me.  I ought to rub them, but rubbing one’s own achy muscles just isn’t as satisfying as having someone else do it.

Of course, now that I’m halfway relaxed, my two toddlers’ voices have picked up a little bit in the volume department.  They’re supposed to be sleeping.  Oh, well – at least no one’s crying.  Yet.  Time to go bust ‘em.

And now, to get rid of the flashing blue notification light on my phone.  Guess I’ll be checking my email tonight after all.  Maybe there won’t be too many…If I can stay off Facebook, I’ll be fine.  My productivity can still be salvaged.

The wind’s picking up.  In my mind’s eye, I see a heavy curtain of silver mist descend over the countryside, flapping away in the crisp April breeze.  I could totally write a poem about that…

Hey!  That clock can’t possibly be right!  I just sat down *yawn* a few minutes ago – how can it be nearly midnight already?  And how many words did I get down?

Five?  Are you joking?  You can’t be serious.

Well, so much for writing, I guess.  At least there’s still tomorrow…

*studies page*

*binks*

Well, what do you know?  Looks like I got this post written!  Yay productivity!  I might not have written what I set out to write, but sometimes when the words won’t flow, it helps to work on something else for a little while.  Sometimes it doesn’t, but you never know till you try.

Either way, you need to protect your writing time.  If you really want to write, you’ll make the time for it, so put it to good use when you’ve got it.  Whether that use is actually writing or just letting your ideas percolate, it doesn’t matter – both are important parts of the writing process.  At some point, you have to actually write, and maybe you won’t keep all of what you’ve written in your final draft, but that’s okay.  That’s what revision is for.

Finally, don’t be afraid to write tired.  Some of my best ideas have come when I’m tired.  The world looks a little different, and altogether more interesting, when your sight is dulled by exhaustion.

As a girl, Kay dreamed of being swept off her feet by her one true love. At the age of 24, it finally happened…and he’s never let her forget it. A mild-mannered secretary by day and a determined word-wrangler by night, she battles the twin evils of distraction and procrastination in order to write fantastical tales of wuv…twue wuv…with a few haiku thrown in for good measure.

The author of Tuesday Daydreams: A Journal in Verse and A Song for All Seasons: A Journal in Verse, Kay is currently hard at work on the first book in a fantasy trilogy. She resides in the midst of an Iowa corn field with her devoted husband and his mighty red pen; four crazy, cute kids; and an assortment of adorably small, furry animals.

Tuesday Daydreams captures the life and imagination of the author in vivid detail, touching on joy and loss, life’s everyday hassles, and the many faces of Mother Nature.  A Song for All Seasons paints vivid pictures of the Iowa landscape in all its glory, in addition to intimate portraits of family life.  From frost-covered windowpanes and snowy vistas to rolling green fields and bright blue skies, each poem is a peek into a fading world of untamed beauty.  If you’d like to pick up your own copy of Tuesday Daydreams or A Song for All Seasons, you can find them at Amazon, Amazon UK, Createspace, Smashwords, iBooks, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble.

Care to save her from the chaos? You can find Kay in the all the usual places:

At her blog, where she shares random pictures and silly poems; on Facebook, where she shares things about cats and books; on Twitter, where she shares whatever pops into her head; on Pinterest, where she shares delicious recipes and images from her fantasy world; on Instagram, where she shares pictures of pretty sunsets; and on Tumblr, where she shares all of the above.