Procrasination

I'll get around to writing this post ... later.

Yes, you know the feeling - you'll do it later, you'll put it off, it's not going anywhere. President's week was, for me, a week I had to myself - there was nothing besides homework that I had to do. I could have wrote anything that I wanted to all week long ... but I wrote next to nothing. I wrote much less than I would have if I had been sitting in a classroom.

Why is that?

I haven't quite discovered the answer to that yet, but I've noticed an interesting phenomenon.

When I'm busy, all I want to do is write.

When I've got nothing to do, I'm bored as all get out.

I think that all of this concludes to one very true thing: the world is a very strange place.

Not Reading

Recently, I've found that I'll pick up a book and find myself unable to read it. That's not because the book isn't good - in fact, it's worse if the book is good. I'll find that the book is so good that I'll put it down because I want to write, instead. It's led to a lot of books not being finished recently. It's such an annoying habit that I'm trying to put an end to.

As a writer, I find that there are days where it is impossible for me to write. When I try, I get nowhere. And when I stop, sit back, and think about what I want to write, it seems so attainable, but when I try to write it doesn't work.

Usually, these moments last entire days. I'll wake up one morning and find that I can't write that day. And then the next morning, I'll find that I'm able to write again. It's inexplicable, and I don't quite understand it.

Is it just me, or has this ever happened to anybody else?

Run-Ins

I have several characters in the novels that I write who decide to butt in on normal every day activities. It's especially bad when your friends know about your characters and are writers themselves - they only add to the situation.

An example of this would be my character Rowan Cordone, an FBI Profiler/Agent. She's only a side character, but she's one of those characters that seem to write themselves. There are times when I'll look at something a person or someone on TV did and think "that was a very Rowan thing to do."

Or, have you ever practically run into your characters on the street? Either by looks or personality? I've done that several times.

Novels and Characters

Sometimes, there are characters that take over your writing. They were intended to be side characters that appear once and then exit stage left, never to be seen again.

Like people from life, there are those characters who decide they're sticking around no matter what you try to do to them. I have a character in my current novel - a detective named Theodore Wallace - who was supposed to be so insignifgant that he never truly had a first name.

Like I said, sometimes characters decide they just need to stick around: for either the case of love, of hate, or perhaps they just have a bigger part to play. "Wallace" is now working the kidnapping case as the first detective assigned - he made me realize that there was a whole other story before the novel begins to take place.

Does anybody else have a character like that? Ones who take over?

Writing and TV

Does this happen to anybody else?

When I write during the later evening hours, the TV is on. Hey, what can I say - I'm eighteen, I'm going to watch TV. It's something my family and I do every night - we sit down and watch TV together, which is something that I am truly proud that we do. (There is no fighting over the remote - only who HAS to control it, because they're the one who has to fast-forward the DVR.)

To the point of this post,

I do a lot of writing while I'm watching TV. It doesn't bother me or hinder me: it, in fact, sometimes gives me the time to pause and write thoughtfully instead of too quickly, as I do often.

Does anybody else do this?

Pen to Paper

Writers, have you ever noticed this?

You'll sit down to write, the notebook and pen - or perhaps laptop - in front of you, and you'll stare into space. You can do this for hours, thinking about what you want to write and what you want to get accomplished with this bit of writing, and it will all seem so clear in your mind.

However, when you put the pen to paper, it all flows away and nothing will come out right.

I highly doubt that this phenomenon is solely mine.