Writing – Page 2 – Kathryn-Burnett.com

Show Me A Perfect Writer & I’ll Show You A Unicorn

July 20, 2018July 20, 2018procrastination, Writer, WritingScreenwriting, writer, Writing, writing workshopsLeave a comment

When I speak with writers about what’s getting in the way of them finishing their projects I tend to hear the following reasons:

Lack of time
Lack of motivation
Lack of momentum

And then I hear … I’m worried that it’s not good enough – so I just keep fiddling with it.

Just so you know – the endless fiddling isn’t you improving your work, it’s fear thwarting your writing goal. And you know I’m right…

Here’s the thing – if you’re waiting for your work to be perfect you’re going to be waiting for a very long time. If you can’t share your work until it’s perfect you’re going to be waiting a very long time. Sure, you’ll be safe from potential criticism and rejection but your work is never going to see the light of day.

And I don’t know many people who write for the audience in their bottom drawer.

So if perfectionism (aka cunningly desired fear) is getting in the way of your productive writing – here are some thoughts to consider.

Writing is a messy, imperfect process – so why do you expect your work to be perfect?
You’re going to get it wrong at some point – especially if you’re a new-ish writer. You’re going to get things wrong even if you’re not!
Getting critical feedback is invaluable to you as a writer and will help you improve your craft. You can’t get that if you don’t finish your work.
There’s no prize for being perfect. Seriously – zero prizes!
Perfectionism is stopping you finishing because after you’ve finished the next step is invariably putting your work out into the world. Never finishing means never having to show anyone your work = your work is NEVER seen. And that’s sad.
Everybody wants their work to be amazing! Plenty of successful and talented writers struggle with getting their work bang on. The difference is they don’t let that worry stop them finishing their project. They finish, then they may go through the agonies of self-doubt and then they rewrite.
What’s worse? Feelings of self-loathing because you never finish your story OR someone (directly or indirectly) telling you your story needs more work?
What’s the worse thing that could happen if you get negative feedback? And just so you know – everybody gets negative feedback at some point. And getting it helps you build creative resilience.

Want some support to keep your project on track? Check out my Writing Room page.

©Kathryn Burnett 2018 – For reprinting permission please get in touch via my contact page.

Writing Mojo AWOL? 8 Simple Ways to Stay Motivated

June 25, 2018June 25, 2018Writingmotivation, procrastination, Writing, writing goals, writing workshopsLeave a comment

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” Zig Ziglar

We all experience those crappy times when our writing mojo is AWOL and we start to think things like…”What’s the point of this writing lark?” or “I’ve put in years of work – where’s the movement I’ve been promised for working so hard?” “When is IT going to happen?”

And worst of all (my personal favourite) – “am I just wasting my time?”

We have the desire and the ideas but things just aren’t going how we hoped or taking way, way too long. How do you keep writing when it feels pointless or you just can’t be bothered? I wish I could offer a magic bullet for this – but there ain’t one to offer. There’s only one way to stay motivated and that’s to get your internal monologue in hand and take action you feel your mojo starting to flag.

Here are some simple things you can do to motivate yourself right back to that keyboard.

Consciously spend some time with people who ARE motivated. Let the energy and enthusiasm of other people who kick butt inspire you. Follow their lead. Conversely, spend less time who are constantly negative about their own writing – negativity diminishes your energy and tends to reinforce any negative feelings you might have. Not really helpful, right?
Use your failures constructively. Get the best from your setbacks by asking yourself this – what can I learn from this and how can I do better next time? And then ask yourself – what’s the one positive that has come from this situation? It might be a small positive but it’ll be there.
Compare yourself to where you were 5 years ago. And realise how far you’ve come and how much more you know now. As opposed to comparing yourself to others – which is waste of time. Take a couple of minutes to look back and focus on your successes. Close your eyes and let the memories of your biggest successes – no matter in what part of your life – remind you of what you’re capable of.
Take 5 Minutes to think about why you want to write. It’s easy to lose sight of why you’re doing this stuff. Remind yourself of what your writing dream/goal is and why. Then think about the one thing you can do straight away to move towards that dream.
Park it! If you’re not feeling the love for your current project – park it for a couple of weeks and indulge yourself in another creative pursuit like reading an author you like. Then come back to it. It’s amazing how some distance gives you new eyes – and you might just find a renewed enthusiasm.
Coffee! Grab a coffee with a friendly writer and talk through your idea with them. Ask them for a positive comment about it and encourage them to ask any questions. You’ll find out what excites you about this project when you start talking about it.
Step back and appraise your current project. Write down two lists. One list that notes all the positive aspects of your project while the other mentions all the negative. You may be surprised how much you like about it.
Reassess your writing goal – is it still right for you? Is it still what you want? If it isn’t – then maybe it’s time to amend your goal.

Mojo flagging because of self-doubt? Check out my article on fighting doubt.

Distracted rather than unmotivated? Check out my advice on avoiding distractions.

Make it a great day, peeps.

©Kathryn Burnett 2018

Pesky Distractions Thwarting Your Writing Goal?

May 11, 2018May 18, 2018Writingprocrastination, Writing, writing goalsLeave a comment

If your writing life was a work of fiction, endless distraction would be your arch nemesis. And our world is a smorgasbord of potential distractions. How the hell are we supposed to focus our whole being on our project when there are fifty gazillion things competing for our attention ALL DAY LONG?

How are we supposed to write productively when things keep pinging and ringing – and demanding our eyeballs and time?

I discovered this little nugget in an Unmistakable Creative article recently…

“Every time you’re interrupted by a person, checking email, a social feed, or respond to a notification, your mind requires 23 minutes of re-focus time – just to get back on task! This doesn’t count the time you spend being distracted, this is just to get refocused again.”

Which means, good people, that 30 minutes of undistracted writing is way more productive than 2-3 hours of distracted writing during which you’re constantly checking your phone, social media and emails.

When I’m taking a workshop – I sometimes see people spend 2 minutes doing the creative exercise I’ve set before reaching for their phone to start scrolling. Here’s the thing – I personally don’t care how people spend their valuable creative time with me – it’s their time. BUT it makes me kinda sad to think people can’t focus on creative work without seeking a distraction from it.

I find the whole short attention span thing quite sobering – particularly as I find myself being regularly distracted. But what I’ve realised is that this is a relatively new development – I simply wasn’t like this 15 years ago. And there’s a pay-off to allowing yourself to be distracted. Giving in to that pull to connect with others by checking texts, emails and Facebook likes feels satisfying – and it FEELS like you’ve achieved something. But it’s not a productive pay-off.

But the GOOD NEWS is that we can unlearn those bad habits and get better at staying focused.

So here’s my best advice on how to start avoiding distraction TODAY – and, yes, I’m taking that advice myself.

Turn It OFF. When you sit down to write – turn off any distracting background noise, close open windows on your computer and turn off the ringer on your phone for a chunk of time. Try placing your phone in another room for the amount of time you want to write. You might feel twitchy about it initially – but it won’t kill you.
Do One Thing at A Time. Time block your tasks and focus on them one by one rather than multi-tasking. Write down a short to do list then allocate a small amount of time to each item – and spend that time working on that task only. It’s a ploddy methodical way to get through your list but it works better than getting a bunch of stuff half done. The problem with something half done is that it sits in your head along with everything else you have to do. Once you’ve allocated time to the things you actually have to do – allocate a chunk of writing time – and then focus solely on that task.
Time Block + Set an Alarm. Short on time? Then set the alarm for an hour and give your project 60 mins of undivided attention. You’ll be surprised how much you do and how quickly the time passes.
Learn a Calming Breathing Technique. Every time you start to feel like you better check one of your gadgets or start thinking about another task – stop and breathe. Consciously draw your attention back to the work at hand – i.e the writing task you’ve allocated a block of time to.
Stop Browsing. Use the internet for specific tasks rather than just pottering. You know how that goes – if you allow yourself to be distracted, 10 mins to research a piece of information easily becomes an hour and a half of mindless, time wasting.

Best of British with your new, focus habit!