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Confessions: My Counterproductive Habits

Image source: YULKAPOPKOVA VIA GETTY IMAGES

If you are a writer reading this, you might agree that there is just too much generic and paraphrased information about writing out there. The internet is saturated with how to articles and top ten tips on the matter, and I do not waste my time reading these copied and pasted SEO clickbait articles anymore. Here, on my blog, you won't find any of that. The advice I offer and the experiences I share are authentic.

Writing Rules Suggestions

I have exhausted the internet and library researching the subject of writing. The "rules" to the thing include to read more, to write every day, have an outline in place before you start, carry a notebook with you everywhere etc. In my opinion these aren't rules, they are suggestions. There are no rules. So, where are we to look for guidance on the matter? Should we find a mentor? Perhaps. This is another popular suggestion on honing your craft. A successful author who takes leave especially to help you get there. Yes, there must be hundreds of best selling authors out there just pining to help you. Do you know such an author? I sure don't.

Writing Is A Business

My goal is not (and neither should yours) to write for love or charity or exposure. The latter word will never be mentioned in a font size larger than what it deserves. We have to derive income from writing and we need to remain motivated to do so. Writing is a business. And who do I look to for business advice? Yes, to businessmen and -women. Google this before you google time wasting things like how to avoid writer's block. 

Mentionable side-note: I understand the vague concept that is writer's block. When you have trouble writing it's usually because you are under pressure and working towards a deadline, forcing yourself to write when you don't want to, or maybe you are not really passionate about the project you are working on and you have some better to do, you're just lazy, or the influence of a transmitting Mars in retrograde is eclipsing your ability to stay the course.

Alright, so this isn't a post on my tips and tricks on how to become a better writer. You can find those in my next post. This here is a confession post: I am a procrastinator.  

PROCRASTINATION:
the act of delaying or postponing something. 
Synonyms include dithering, delaying, humming and hawing, dilly-dallying, shilly-shallying, kicking the can down the road.


I am really good at kicking cans, normally just down the hallway (I don't get out much).

Here are my top ten counterproductive habits
  1. too much social media, in particular Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube - five minutes turns into an hour pretty quickly.
  2. binge watching a season of your favourite TV show - I've spent many hours feeding my New Girl addiction.
  3. the need to eat and drink constantly - leaving my desk every five minutes because I think I need coffee, then popcorn, then cookies, then lunch all of the sudden, and then wine, and then more coffee because its too early in the day to be tipsy.
  4. using YouTube to listen to music - not having a playlist on hand and searching for a new song on YouTube every 3 minutes actually takes more time than you might think. And sometimes you even end up watching the music video and you don't even realise what's happening because you then watch another and another.
  5. redesigning your logo for your blog or rewriting your bios for every social media platform - Pic Monkey is my time stealer.
  6. daydreaming and researching the things you will buy with that advance once published - a favourite in this particular category is looking at properties for sale in my area.
  7. reading about humanitarian issues until I spiral down a dark internet rabbit hole where awful shit happens to people, animals, and the planet and then I lose my will to write as well as my will to live.
  8. arts and crafts - I often unpack crates of art supplies just to find my water colour pastels and end up making a beaded necklace, a mixed media scrapbook page or journal entry or both, and add a few rows to that scarf I've been knitting since 2015. 
  9. cleaning up art supplies after impromptu craft day mentioned above.
  10. getting drunk - no explanation needed. I don't understand how Hunter S. Thompson did it.


Do you have any counterproductive habits? I would love to know. Feel free to leave a comment! 

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