With my family, I didn’t even have a chance of not inheriting the “feel guilty yet?” gene. I’m pretty sure it’s mapped on the genome and the subject of hundreds of experiments at some secret lab under the sand in New Mexico or something. Anyway, being so prone to feeling guilty, when I should be writing (or…revising… *cough*) and I’m not, I habitually beat myself up about it.

Strangely enough, though, feeling guilty isn’t incentive to actually get my butt in the chair to do anything. Oh no. Instead, I procrastinate. Look, a new Entrecard member! I must drop a card! Hmm… I wonder what my stats are now? I wonder if I got any hits in the last twenty minutes.

It’s easy to find distractions and the distractions feed the guilt. I’m trying a new approach. I’m giving myself permission to putz. Sure, I’m way behind on my revision schedule and can think of at least half a dozen things I need to be writing (aside from the blog!). But I need downtime. I’m burnt out and that’s why I’m having so much butt-not-in-the-chair-syndrome (BNiTCS for short. How’s that for an acronym?).

So, if you’re prone to procrastination, writer’s block or any other form of BNiTCS, maybe you need permission to not write for awhile. Then maybe, just maybe, when we get back in the chairs, the muse will plop on our laps and grace us with the ability to create worlds on paper.



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Comments

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 9:26 pm and is filed under Struggles, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Comments so far


  1. Matt-Man on February 7, 2008 9:52 am

    I procrastinate quite a bit. I use Stream of Consciousness to get out of my writing funk. A little cheap wine doesn’t hurt either. Cheers!!

    Matt-Man’s last blog post..The Day of The Matt in the Year of the Rat

  2. harleyblues on February 9, 2008 12:26 am

    hoya nice blog and yes I do procrastinate and did write a posty about it a few months back
    ta
    hb~

    harleyblues’s last blog post..Drugs Politics and Musicians

  3. Writing Nag on February 9, 2008 11:12 am

    I like the permission to putz rule. Since the addition of entrecard and project wonderful I’ve been using it a lot more.

    Writing Nag’s last blog post..In Love With Language

  4. Czecho on February 9, 2008 12:26 pm

    Permission to Putz: I like the sound of that but I am afraid that it’s just another way of giving myself permission to procrastinate, and that is dangerous and is just prolonging the inevitable. I prefer to eat my spinach first, then enjoy dessert.

    Czecho’s last blog post..Who Will Take Home the African Cup: Cameroon or Egypt?

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