Monday, May 08, 2006

Discipline

To get anywhere in this business, one must be persistent. Not just with submitting books and proposals despite the long response times that end in rejection. With the act of writing itself.

Things are not going well with the new work-in-progress. Words are coming slowly and crappily. It reminds me of when I took up yoga again after a three-year hiatus. My muscles remembered the movements as if they had happened in someone else's dream, they couldn't stretch as far or as gracefully as they once did, and boy, did they hurt the next day.

It hasn't been three years since I wrote fresh material. It's been two weeks. But the styles of Bad Company and the Crow books couldn't be more different, so maybe it's the equivalent of starting yoga after playing nothing but rugby for three months.

So it's time for Frau Blucher [horses whinny] to step in and impose some discipline. I'll allow myself one hour of internet a day until I catch up. Nearly half of that hour got Hoovered writing this blog entry and reading quotes from Young Frankenstein on imdb.com.

What are your best methods for imposing self-discipline? And keep it clean. This is a family blog.

But not too clean. I'm gunning for higher ratings.

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5 Comments:

Self-discipline? Never heard of it.:-) Well it usually comes in for me when I absolutely can't afford to spend anymore. That's about it.

Posted by: Blogger Kathy at 5/08/2006 12:02 PM

Time is like money in so many ways. Being broke is sort of like running up against a deadline. When both happen simultaneously, life really sucks.

Posted by: Blogger Jeri at 5/08/2006 12:55 PM

I have over 20 papers to grade by Wednesday. So what do I do? Buy a book and make a phone call. Oh, yeah, and post on your blog.

Cecilia

Posted by: Anonymous Anonymous at 5/08/2006 3:08 PM

The internet is a horrible temptation for me. If I can stay away from it, I'm usually ok.

Strange as this may sound, ritual sometimes helps. Priests and practitioners of majick will burn incense or ring a bell - this clears the air, symbolically sweeping out the chaos and shuffle of the day. I heard of one writer who actually went outside and fired a pistol into the air before beginning to write.

Laugh if you will, but this kind of ritual actually works. It clears the head and focuses the thoughts.

Posted by: Blogger gugon at 5/09/2006 1:10 PM

Hey, gugon, welcome to the blog! I definitely agree--ritual helps. Sometimes I need to be reminded of this, so thanks for bringing it up. For me it's usually musical. I think my ritual for this next book will be playing the song "She" by Green Day every morning before writing. It's the first modern song I've thought would be perfect for my pre-modern fantasy protagonist.

Posted by: Blogger Jeri at 5/09/2006 4:04 PM

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Jeri Smith-Ready

Jeri Smith-Ready is a Maryland author of adult and teen urban fantasy.

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