By Jennifer Blanchard

The other day on Copyblogger, Catherine Caine wrote a post that offered seven quick-start techniques for fighting the fear to write. One of those techniques really stood out to me:

Write 10 minutes of gibberish.

“If you’re looking at the blank screen with mounting horror (Have I forgotten the English language entirely?), open a new document and pound out anything,” Caine says.

Her ideas of gibberish included:

• A history of cheese
• The lyrics of your favorite song
• A stream-of-consciousness piece that starts with “Daffodil Philomena carousel elf-wine fodder marmalade”
• A cake recipe
• An imaginary shopping list
• Endless lines of All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

Making It Work
The idea behind this method is just sitting down and writing something. Doesn’t matter what it is.

“Don’t force it to make sense!” Caine warns. “Just let it flow out with no judgment or expectations. When there’s no pressure to get anything Right, for many people the mental vapor-lock vanishes. They can go back and start writing the important stuff.”

By jump-starting yourself with this simple writing exercise, you free your mind from the fear of getting started. What happens next is brilliant.

Since you’ve already been writing for 10 minutes, you’re in the “flow” and are able to keep writing without a problem.

Essentially, you’re building writing momentum.

Next thing you know, you’ll have typed 500 words of the novel you’re working on. And then you’ll type 500 more.

The next day, do the same thing again–Write anything. And then you’ll work on your novel.

The next day, do the same thing again…

And that, my procrastinating friend, is how you create–and sustain–flow.

How do you jump-start your writing?

About the Author: Jennifer Blanchard is founder of Procrastinating Writers. For more great writing tips, articles and information, follow her on Twitter.

By Cristina Picozzi

Not only have I been having a hard time deciding on what to write for this post, but I was definitely procrastinating as well. It took me a bubble bath to realize what to write.

I’ve decided to write about why I write.

I write because of the satisfaction I get after writing something powerful, small and rhythmic for an audience or for myself.

I write because it’s something I like and something I’m good at. I feel accomplished when I write, even if it’s something only a teacher will see.

It’s that great feeling that I get that makes me want to keep writing and not put it off.

Being in college, I don’t find a lot of time to write for myself or for fun, especially because I’m getting deep into my major and I’m surrounded by writing twenty-four-seven.

I’m on the newspaper staff at Utica College and, of course, I don’t procrastinate the stories I have to write for publication, but I sometimes find myself putting off my own writing because I believe I don’t have the time.

However, the past few days I have been finding a few minutes here and there, and I don’t know about other people, but I get my best ideas in the shower.

I have been having awesome ideas for stories, poems and plays. I’ve had so many concepts evolving in my head that I knew I needed to write them down. So I’ve been writing things on Post-It notes.

My reason for doing this is so it’s out of my head and written down somewhere.

It’s my first step toward sitting down and writing anything at all; getting the first idea down on paper.

After that I go back when I have more than a few minutes and I jot some things down on the same Post-It or I hop onto my computer and start writing.

The whole idea of Post-It notes or note pads is to help get things down on paper, even if it’s a quote or a random thought you have about a character in a piece of writing.

There are things every writer should remember when writing little notes for later:

• Put them in a space where you won’t lose them. Keeping your notes together will make it easier when you go to look back on your ideas.
• No idea is too dumb to write down. Sometimes we over-think our own thoughts and ideas and start to worry they aren’t good enough. It’s your writing, only you say what is good enough or not.
• Even writing for a few minutes is a big deal because you took the time to sit down and get something down on paper instead of letting it sit in your head, or worse, letting yourself forget about it.

Just by getting things out of your head you can easily develop characters for stories, build a climax in a chapter and decide on dialogue for a scene.

Writing things down also gives ideas a more physical form, so it’s not just something in your head.

It also allows you to work at something. No one can just sit down and write a whole book in one sitting. By writing for 5 or 10 minutes a day and writing yourself little notes about ideas, you can slowly develop your writing and your story.

There’s no need to be in a rush to finish—of course deadlines and goals are important—but pacing yourself is too.

About the Author: Cristina Picozzi is a writer, an undergraduate at Utica College and one of the three Procrastinating Writers interns

By Jennifer Blanchard

Since I’m a huge fan of and believer in the law of attraction, my mom bought me the newly released DVD, Beyond the Secret, a follow-up to the international best-selling book and DVD, The Secret.

I’ve watched it twice already, but as I was watching it the other night, I heard one of the contributors say something I didn’t hear the first time.

Mary Morrissey, a speaker, consultant and best-selling author, said, “Some people live 90 years. And some people live 1 year 90 times.”

After hearing it, the thought didn’t really sit well with me. Most likely because I fall into the latter category (living 1 year over and over again).

The sad truth of the matter, thou, is that most people—and especially procrastinating writers—live life in the past: Past mistakes, past errors, past problems, past people, past events.

But living in the past is holding you back from your future.

Why? Because you’re continuing to live your daily life based on people, events and mistakes that are over.

You’ve already paid for the mistakes of your past (not writing, not reaching your writing goals). Why continue to pay for them in the future?

Breaking Out of the Mold
Here’s the truth—Life is meant to be abundant. You are meant to live your dreams. You are meant to be a writer.

If writing wasn’t a big deal to you, you wouldn’t be reading this blog. You wouldn’t be trying to overcome your procrastinating behaviors day-in-and-day-out. You wouldn’t care whether or not you sit down to write.

But you do care.

You care because deep down inside you, you love to write. You love to wordsmith and create fictional realities. You love who you become when you’re writing.

Writing builds a passionate fire inside you. One that can’t be snuffed out too easily.

But every day that you don’t find the time to write; every day that you don’t make writing a priority; every day you don’t sit down and write, that fire dies down a little bit.

And without ever taking any action toward what you want, the fire will eventually fizzle out.

Don’t let that happen to you.

If writing is important to you, if writing is what fuels you, if writing is what makes you tick—Don’t spend another day not writing.

Write!

Write to save your dream. Write to keep your muse happy. Write until your fingers are cramped and you know that typing one more word will cause you to have permanent carpal tunnel syndrome. Then write a little bit more.

This is your year to make your writing dreams a reality.

You can do it.

About the Author: Jennifer Blanchard is founder of Procrastinating Writers. Be sure to follow her on Twitter.

By Jennifer Blanchard

Writers are always complaining that they just can’t find enough time in their day to sit down and write. Sure, it’s often difficult to find writing time. You’re busy. Life is crazy. You have priorities that are higher up on your list.

But the mistake most writers make—and especially procrastinating writers—is using the all-or-nothing approach.

What’s the all-or-nothing approach, you ask?

Simply put, it means you do things all the way or not at all.

So, for example, if you feel that you write best when you have an hour or more to dedicate specifically to writing, then unless you can find an hour of writing time in your day, you don’t sit down and write. It’s all or nothing.

Why This Approach Is A Mistake
So why is being an all-or-nothing writer a problem? Because it’s yet another barrier that keeps you from writing. It’s another form of self-sabotage and self-set limitations. It’s another form of procrastination.

Because when it comes down to it, you can get writing done whether you have 10 minutes or 10 hours to spend dedicated to it.

All it requires is you giving up your all-or-nothing approach.

The all-or-nothing approach keeps you from writing. It keeps you from creating. It keeps you procrastinating. It keeps you from reaching your goals.

Real-Life Example
When it comes to exercising regularly, I’m terrible at it. I’m lazy and I find every excuse in the world not to do it (my head hurts, I’m too hungry, I’m tired, I don’t have enough time).

But recently I learned that I was taking an all-or-nothing approach to exercise.

Instead of hopping on the treadmill for 10 minutes whenever I had a chance, I’d tell myself unless I had a solid 30 minutes to dedicate to working out, I wasn’t going to bother.

The all-or-nothing approach is not a good way of looking at things because it causes you not to get writing done.

There are plenty of ways for you to find at least 10 minutes a day to write. You just have to let go of your idea that writing can only happen if you have a large block of time.

Chances are you’ll rarely—if ever—have large blocks of time to dedicate to your writing.

Steps to Letting Go of the All-Or-Nothing Approach
If you’ve been using the all-or-nothing approach for awhile and are ready to let it go, here are some steps you can take:

• Take things one day at a time—Rather than trying to schedule in large blocks of writing time, spend a week writing for as long as you can whenever you can. No more all-or-nothing. No more waiting until you have a solid hour to write. If you find 10 minutes while you’re waiting for dinner to cook, write. If you have two minutes in line at the grocery store, make notes for the story you’re working on. If the kids fall asleep early one night, write.
• Break your writing into manageable pieces—Rather than trying to knock-out large sections of you novel at once, break your project into smaller pieces. Maybe you set a goal of writing one page a day. Easy enough, right?
• Write whenever you have time—Write whenever you get a chance. Don’t try to plan out a large block of writing time. Just write! As often as you can, for as long as you can.

Remember, any time you can find to write is better than not writing at all.

Do you tend to use the all-or-nothing approach? How has this worked against you and your writing?

About the Author: Jennifer Blanchard is founder of Procrastinating Writers. Be sure to follow her on Twitter.

By Jennifer Blanchard

It’s two weeks until the start of NaNoWriMo.

You’ve prepared your plot. You’ve met your characters. Now it’s time to prepare your schedule for the 30 days ahead.

Writing 50,000 words in 30 days is quite a challenge. But if you work out your schedule so you always have at least an hour or so of writing time a day, you can manage to write 1,667 words everyday.

Here are some posts to read to help you get started prepping your schedule:

• Creating an Unschedule–This will help you figure out exactly where you have available writing time.
• Block Writing–This post will give you an idea of a simple way to break up your writing time so you’re as productive as possible.
• Ideas to Get You Writing Everyday–It’s a good idea to start practicing writing every single day starting now so you’re in the habit of it by the time NaNoWriMo rolls around. If you’re already writing something everyday, good for you! Keep at it!
• 17 Ways to Find 10 Minutes to Write–This post will show you how many 10-minute writing blocks you can find throughout your day. If all you have is 10-minute writing blocks, USE THEM!

Yes, your schedule is busy. But if you take some time finding ways to fit writing in, you can do it.

Be sure to come back for tomorrow’s post, which will give you some ideas for clearing more time in your schedule.

If you’re participating in NaNoWriMo this year and would like help staying motivated throughout the entire challenge, be sure to sign up for my 30 Days of NaNoWriMo Tips for Procrastinating Writers e-mail newsletter.

By Jennifer Blanchard

One of the most common excuses many writers give for why they procrastinate is “I don’t have the time to write.”

True, people are busier these days then they ever have been before–we’re multi-tasking machines, filling every second of our days with a task of some kind, always so busy….blah, blah, blah.

If you stop for a second and take a look at your day, I bet you can find at least 10 minutes somewhere that you can write (and you could probably even find a few 10-minute blocks of time).

You don’t have to be writing all day every day in order to get your writing done. You’d be surprised how efficient you can be when you only have ten minutes to write (especially if writing is something you truly love to do).

Inspired by the blog post, 10 Ways to Find 10 Minutes to Write, on DailyWritingTips.com, I am going to give you 17 ways you can find at least 10 minutes to write everyday. So here they are…17 ways to find 10 minutes to write every day:

• Before you get out of bed in the morning–when you wake up, roll over, turn on your light, grab your notebook and write for 10 minutes (this is an exercise called “Morning Pages“).
• While you’re waiting for your girlfriend/husband/kids to get out of the shower so you can get in.
• While you’re waiting for the coffee to finish brewing
• While you’re waiting for your kid’s school bus to come.
• While you’re sitting in traffic–I don’t condone you write while you’re driving, but if you are sitting in traffic that is completely stopped (which happens a lot when there’s an accident), it’s ok to grab a notebook and jot a couple ideas down. (Just be sure to watch the road for when the cars start moving again.)
• As soon as you get to your desk–when you get to the office, instead of spending a half hour checking your e-mails, take a quick glance to see if there are any e-mails that need immediate response, then grab a notebook or bring up a Word document and spend 10 minutes writing. You can always go back to the less-important e-mails later.
• During your morning coffee/smoke break–bring your notebook with you and write.
• During a meeting–yes, we all know that most meetings are a waste of time, so if you find yourself in one of these meetings, jot down some notes for your next story or poem.
• On your lunch break–if you’re not using your lunch break to run errands, grab your laptop or notebook and head outside or to your company’s breakroom (or stay at your desk) and write while you eat (you may even get more than 10 minutes of writing time at lunch).
• During your afternoon coffee/smoke break.
• As soon as you walk in the door from work–yes, dinner needs to be made and there is homework to be done and a Girl Scout’s meeting and spending twenty minutes on the treadmill before bed. But before you do all that, take 10 minutes and write. Just getting down on paper those poem ideas or that great opening line to your next short story you came up with in your morning meeting will help you put your focus on the rest of your evening, while also keeping your writing on the back of your mind.
• While dinner is cooking–unless you’re a beginner, you’ve probably mastered the art of making dinner. That also means you’ve got at least 10 minutes of time–while the rice is cooking, while the burgers are grilling–to write.
• After dinner before you settle in to watch your favorite TV shows.
• During the commercial breaks of your TV shows.
• Before you go to bed–just quickly before you go to sleep, write for 10 minutes.
• In place of watching a TV show you’ve already seen–you know what I’m talking about because we all do it: watching reruns of a show you like because there’s nothing better on. Instead, write for 10 minutes (or longer!).
• After you put your kids to bed–once the little ones go to sleep, write!

So as you can see, there are plenty of ways to find 10 minutes in your day to write. No excuses, put pen to paper (or fingers to keys) and write for 10 minutes today.