I'm really good at procrastiprose, a term that had escaped my attention before now. For example, I've done a fair amount of writing and writing -related stuff lately while avoiding writing the article for which the deadline is in two days' time!
Mark, just terrific! Usually I hate “procrastiprose” and I’ve vowed not to publish it myself (it’s one of my rules). I hate it because it usually doesn’t offer anything new to think about it--it’s just transparently self-justifying and self-loathing and, I don’t know, embarrassing. But yours is interesting, not least because you’ve put such depth and analysis into it. I mean, a spreadsheet with word counts!!! I knew you and I shared parts of a brain, but I didn’t know it was the spreadsheet part. More reasons I like this one: I love a good neologism and I’m gonna use this one! And I love the “shitty first draft” bit, in part because it’s another way of describing the way I motivate myself to write that which is swirling around in my brain. I tell myself “barf it out,” and everybody knows that something that is barfed out is not going to be pretty; it’s going to be shitty. What do I barf out? A shitty first draft! (I barfed one out yesterday, considered sending it to someone else to review, but then realized I was only looking for them to tell me what I already knew: I needed to just throw it out and write something else. Do you have a neologism for a draft so bad that it’s never shared?”
Good post. Funny, but I always thought writing was procrastination by sitting down to write and suddenly realizing the dishwasher must be cleared. The quote about four o'clock in the morning is true. Usually relative peace at that hour.
Another great post, Mark! I love the river analogy. Not fanciful, as you put it: rather, it's delightful, and I dare say a pretty accurate representation!
Great line here: "Writing defies numerical compressions like word counts." Oh boy, it does!
And it's all very well having a target - specific word counts keep us real when it comes to fulfilling a writing brief, for instance - but given my penchant for editing (the editing stage pleases me so much that I'd often rather skip the WRITING part to go straight to editing - yeah, I know that's impossible, but that's how I feel!) I commonly find my word count shrinking alarmingly....!
I'm really good at procrastiprose, a term that had escaped my attention before now. For example, I've done a fair amount of writing and writing -related stuff lately while avoiding writing the article for which the deadline is in two days' time!
Mark, just terrific! Usually I hate “procrastiprose” and I’ve vowed not to publish it myself (it’s one of my rules). I hate it because it usually doesn’t offer anything new to think about it--it’s just transparently self-justifying and self-loathing and, I don’t know, embarrassing. But yours is interesting, not least because you’ve put such depth and analysis into it. I mean, a spreadsheet with word counts!!! I knew you and I shared parts of a brain, but I didn’t know it was the spreadsheet part. More reasons I like this one: I love a good neologism and I’m gonna use this one! And I love the “shitty first draft” bit, in part because it’s another way of describing the way I motivate myself to write that which is swirling around in my brain. I tell myself “barf it out,” and everybody knows that something that is barfed out is not going to be pretty; it’s going to be shitty. What do I barf out? A shitty first draft! (I barfed one out yesterday, considered sending it to someone else to review, but then realized I was only looking for them to tell me what I already knew: I needed to just throw it out and write something else. Do you have a neologism for a draft so bad that it’s never shared?”
Good post. Funny, but I always thought writing was procrastination by sitting down to write and suddenly realizing the dishwasher must be cleared. The quote about four o'clock in the morning is true. Usually relative peace at that hour.
Another great post, Mark! I love the river analogy. Not fanciful, as you put it: rather, it's delightful, and I dare say a pretty accurate representation!
Great line here: "Writing defies numerical compressions like word counts." Oh boy, it does!
And it's all very well having a target - specific word counts keep us real when it comes to fulfilling a writing brief, for instance - but given my penchant for editing (the editing stage pleases me so much that I'd often rather skip the WRITING part to go straight to editing - yeah, I know that's impossible, but that's how I feel!) I commonly find my word count shrinking alarmingly....!