My Ivory Tower

My name is Karin Huxman and I write romance for New Concepts Publishing. You can find my author page at http://newconceptspublishing.com/karinhuxmanbooks.html. I write a mix of time travel, contemporary, paranormal, and sf/fantasy and love every minute of it.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

New Links and Procrastination

I've spent the past couple of weeks adding links from fellow romance authors to the space at the right. I hope you have a chance to visit the pages of some of these awesome authors. You'll also find links to New Concepts Publishing who publish my romance novels, my children's book site, and the home page of my children's book publisher Kittycat Books.

I've been in procrastination mode this past week. Guess I'm dawdling over revising a manuscript. Here's what's going on. I've started writing the first draft of the last book in a three book series. I got to a point where I realized I'd forgotten little details from the two earlier books. So I went back and read the first story, which is a completed manuscript that my agent is shopping around, and started taking notes. You know, hair color, eye color, names, places, and stuff like that. The second book in the series is finished in draft form but instead of taking the time to edit/revise when the first draft was done, I just started in on the third book. Big mistake. I started having trouble with who did what and when, the timing of everything was off. So now I'm reading the second manuscript and doing some revision work at the same time and taking notes, of course. It's kind of tedious work. Okay, necessary because rarely does an author get it completely right on a first draft. And I always learn a lot about my own writing when I revise and edit a manuscript. But I really am itching to get back to the third story. So I'm finding ways to keep from doing the revision.

With that in mind, here's my list for today.

5 ways to procrastinate when you should be writing:

1. Write a blog post. :)
2. Online catalogs are great, I spent way too much time today "shopping" for things I don't need and will never buy.
3. Check my email over and over and over again.
4. Staring out the window. I could say that I'm brainstorming or my right brain is working something out, but mostly I'm just staring out the window.
5. Making a list of all the things I should be accomplishing and are not.

How do you procrastinate? Do you convince yourself it's all part of the creative process or allow a little guilt to seep through. Please write something. Reading it will give me something to do when I should be writing!

6 comments:

Lori Avocato said...

This is funny! I just wrote my blog about procrastinating about going for my daily walk. LOL I have my eyes examined(hours ago) but I'm sticking with that excuse...er...reason for not being able to walk. The light hurts my eyes. Being creative people, we writes can come up with some doozies for excuses not to write too. One day I found myself vaccuming BEHIND my refrigerator--and I haven't cleaned my house by myself since the seventies!

Karin Huxman - Romance Author said...

Truly, some days I'll find any reason not to write, then feel bad at the end of the day because I didn't. Don't think I ever used vacuuming behind the refridgerator as an avoidance strategy, though. LOL Hope your eyes are back to normal soon. - K

Anonymous said...

There must be something in the Great Collective Unconscious that decreed today "blog day" for writers. I hadn't posted on my blog for weeks, but today was the day. It really is a great form of procrastination. Which reminds me, Karin, I haven't yet posted your link on my page. I've meant to, and I will, but...
I have checked my email though and managed to take a few turns in the two online Scrabble games I have going. I didn't make my word count in the novel I'm working on. OK, I'll admit it, I didn't write today. I blogged! I procrastinated. I'm guilty!
Tomorrow won't be much better either, but there's always Saturday...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for passing along the procrastination gene. I find myself blogging (or reading other people's blogs-- surprise!) when I'm procrastinating. There are a lot of sites online that make for great inspiration, but sometimes it's just an avoidance strategy. When procrastinating art projects I often find myself wanting to draw everything but what I should be drawing...

Going to the gym is also a good tactic because I can always argue that it's good for me.

Anonymous said...

Karin:

I have three main activities in my life -- writing, quilting and gardening. I alternate procrastinations -- and they all work together to help me avoid housework. What a great life!

I got my thousand words in today -- even though I know I should have done more. I weeded and planted some seeds in the garden. I washed dishes three times -- and ignored the quilt that needs some work picked out. One of these days, picking stitches out of that quilt will be the most attractive option.

Karin Huxman - Romance Author said...

Naturally I procrastinated on replying to your posts. Okay, I worked two days straight and procrastinated.

Yes, my husband and I both passed along the procrastination gene to all three of our children. We were hoping it would skip a generation but...

Thanks everyone for sharing. :)