Mar
16
Procrastination Station
March 16, 2009 |
I tend to blog a lot about technology (and culture) as it relates to reading, but it took a conversation with my friend Marla, a “life coach for writers”, to put into words my concerns about technology as it relates to writing. I wanted to understand why I was not getting any actual writing done. Discussing the problem out loud instead of with myself in my own head was revolutionary and completely useful. Go figure.
As writers we have so many tools of convenience now. We are able to wrangle type instantly and easily. Not that we would, but we could write a novel on our cell phone in the middle of the jungle somewhere and then email it back to our agent instantly. This is quite an evolution from ink copies made by hand in candlelight, or for that matter, from writing a college paper on a typewriter and then trekking up hill both ways to a photocopy machine to create a backup. And yet where is the spare time generated by these conveniences? Should I not be brimming with extra hours per day in which I could create giant quantities of creative outpourings, novel after novel after novel? In fact, I seem to have less productivity during writing sessions than I did when I was a college student with a manual typewriter. Why? Just voicing the problem to Marla was enough for me to conceptualize the cause of my vanishing writing time.
The answer in two words: Digital fidgeting…
Checking email; tweeting tweets; creating digital lists for everything from favorite baby names to inventions I’ve thought of in the middle of the night, to ideas for future novels as well as great lines I need to use in a book someday; cross-referencing spreadsheets; organizing bookmarks; keeping up on Facebook; emailing colleagues whenever anything comes to mind that may be even slightly work-related; video blogging my child’s important moments; uploading digital images; downloading digital images; remaining perfectly up to date on news and information related to my work and my craft. I know you know.
It’s really no wonder I can’t get any actual writing done these days.
What have I done in light of the realization that I am drowning my creativity and productivity in convenient technology and that I am slowly organizing my own writing to death? I’ve decided that I must turn the internet off for several hours a day. This won’t cure the problem of compulsive organizing and list making (see: The Secret Society of List Addicts), but it should at least curb the compulsive internet grabbing. Do you know how this plan makes me feel? It scares the hell out of me. To be typing on a device that does not also instantly link me to the entire world of resources and research and human beings with whom to share my experience? This feels like I am about to crash land myself on a deserted island, alone and without input. A disconnected computer feels almost dead. A lifeless, inert, metal brick. And yet, disconnecting is what is required to battle the new breed of writers block that has taken hold of me, to re-connect to myself…
Here is an excerpt from a recent blog post from Coach Marla that touches on this subject: “Confusing ‘Busyness’ with ‘Business?’ Two Productivity Tips for Writers“:
…Resist the temptation to confuse these writing-related tasks with the task of writing itself:
- research
- revision
- platform-building (teaching, social networking, blogging, etc.)
- marketing (researching/approaching agents, setting up readings, etc.)
- purchasing, record-keeping and other administrative tasks
For more on this from Marla, click here.
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