This is a guest post from Jane Smith

As a procrastinating writer, you probably know full well that it’s not necessarily the scepter of “writer’s block” that is keeping us from our writing goals, although some may call it that. Writer’s block is more of a pervasive inability to put words on paper, a stunting ennui that may last either a few days or several years.

Most of the time, the biggest roadblock is just getting yourself to sit down and start. You have the words in you, it’s just procrastination that’s got you by the shirt collar.

For me, ritualizing the writing process is an incredible way to get you started.

Here’s what I do, though there’s a million different rituals you can dream up that suit your lifestyle:

1.    Have A Hearty (But Not Too Filling) Meal An Hour Before You Begin

Personally, I write best early in the morning, a couple of hours before I head out to my day job. I always have a hearty breakfast—eggs, bacon, etc—before beginning, with lots and lots of coffee. I try not to think about writing during my ritual breakfast.

After finishing my meal, I go out to the back porch, and enjoy the rest of my coffee, watching the birds and my dog play in the yard. I savor the peace and quiet.

2.    Read A Few Poems Out Loud Before Getting to Work

For me, the hardest part about sitting down to write is getting into “the flow.” While the “flow” is a pretty nebulous concept, for me it has more to do with the sound and rhythm of writing. And poetry is all about sound and rhythm.

Get out your favorite poems and recite them to yourself in the best poet-y voice you can muster. It helps and it’s pretty entertaining as well.

3.    Use A Few Different Methods for Physically Writing Your Work to Keep Things Fresh

Sometimes all you need is a change of scenery. Or writing equipment. If all you ever do is write on your computer, try using pen and paper instead or even pencil and paper. You could just as well acquire a typewriter from an antique shop.

By trying out different methods, you’ll see how much your writing changes when your physical tools have changed. It’ll breathe new life into your work.

These are just a few ways that I get my inner writing machine started. As you can see, rituals are always very personal, so you can adjust your own accordingly. Start with some that I’ve suggested and create your very own rituals.

Even if they aren’t necessarily effective, it still makes writing more fun!

What are your writing rituals?

About the Author: Jane Smith is a freelance writer and blogger. She writes about free background checks for Backgroundcheck.org. Questions and comments can be sent to: janesmth161 @ gmail.com.

Image courtesy of matryosha

I came across this productivity tool through Leo Babauta‘s blog, Zen Habits. I’ve been using it for awhile now. It‘s an extremely effective way to prioritize your daily tasks and accomplish a lot more than you even realize.

The 3 Most Important Tasks (MIT) are the 3 tasks you must accomplish that day—whatever they might be. I recommend at least one of those tasks be related to your writing projects and goals.

Now that‘s not to say you won‘t get a lot more done in your day then your 3 MITs, but having the MITs will help ensure you complete the tasks that you most need to get done.

The 3 MITs Process
Every writer needs to customize the 3 MITs process for themselves. To get you started, here’s the process I use for my 3 MITs:

• Each night before bed, I think about what I need to complete the next day.
• I grab a Post-It note and write my 3 MITs down on it.
• I attach the Post-It to the notebook I carry with me everywhere.
• The next morning, I review my 3 MITs for the day and think about when I‘ll be able to fit them in.
• As I complete each task, I cross it off.
• Then I repeat the process.

At least one of my tasks always relates to my writing; on occasion, all three of my tasks are related to my writing.

Knowing the most important tasks I need to complete helps me stay focused and get my writing done.

How do you ensure your most important writing tasks get finished?

Note: This post was excerpted from the eGuide, Butt-In-Chair: A no-excuses writing productivity guide for writers who struggle to get started. For more great ideas for sitting down and writing, be sure to grab yourself a copy.

About the Author: Jennifer Blanchard is the founder of Procrastinating Writers. She is co-founder of the Better Writing Habits Challenge. For more great writing tips, tools and advice, be sure to follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

Procrastinating Writers is celebrating its third birthday. To keep the celebration going, I’m hosting a scavenger hunt on this blog.

The Prizes

The first person to correctly identify all the answers to the scavenger hunt questions and post them in the comments below will receive:

• A Moleskine notebook
• a copy of  Butt-In-Chair: A no-excuses writing productivity guide for writers who struggle to get started
• A 1-hour coaching call with me (Jennifer)

And since I want to spread the birthday love as far as possible, the second and third people who correctly identify all the answers to the scavenger hunt questions and posts them in the comments below will receive:

• a copy of Butt-In-Chair

The Details

Here are all the details you need to know:

1. All of the answers can be found by searching and reading through this blog.
2. You must post all of your answers in full in the comments below.
3. You can only post once. If you post more than once, your first comment will be taken as your answer.
4. You are responsible for any taxes associated with the prizes.
5. The contest ends once three people have correctly identified and posted answers to the scavenger hunt questions.

Correct answers will be posted, along with the winner’s names, at the conclusion of the challenge.

If you have any additional questions, be sure to post those below too and I’ll answer them as quickly as I can.

The Scavenger Hunt Questions

Be the first (or second or third) person to correctly identify and post in the comments below:

1. What “things” do procrastinators fear?
2. What was the headline of the very first Procrastinating Writers blog post?
3. In writing and life, what’s the lesson?
4. What’s one idea for how struggling writers can get started writing. Be sure to include a link to the PW blog post idea.
5. What is the official name of the e-mail advice newsletter I send out to subscribers during NaNoWriMo?

Good luck! And  thanks for reading and subscribing to Procrastinating Writers. Here’s to another year of getting writing done!

And don’t forget: As a THANK YOU for being such awesome, supportive readers, I’m offering my eGuide: Butt-In-Chair at a 50 percent discount ($9.95). Just be sure to enter: PWBIRTHDAY3 in the discount code box at check out time. The code is good ’til March 27 at 11:59 p.m.

About the Author: Jennifer Blanchard is the founder of Procrastinating Writers. She is co-founder of the Better Writing Habits Challenge. For more great writing tips, tools and advice, be sure to follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

I cannot believe it’s been three years since I started this blog! And some amazing things have happened since then.

If you will allow me to be a little self-indulgent for a minute, I’d like to celebrate some of what this blog has accomplished over the last three years. (Or you can just scroll to the bottom for the birthday gift discount code.)

Traffic
Since launching this blog on March 22, 2008, Procrastinating Writers has grown from 0 visitors and 0 subscribers to:

• An average of 200 visitors/day
• An average of 5,000 visitors/month
• 977 subscribers

Amazing what three years and a whole lot of hard work will do.

Popular Posts
On July 2, 2010, this blog had its largest spike of traffic, thanks to the article: Create Writing Flow Using the 10 Minutes of Gibberish Method, being posted on StumbleUpon. On that day, 5,038 people came here to read the post.

Other than the article above (which is the most popular post of all time), here are four more of the most popular posts:

2) How To Create A Pen Name

3) 43 Most Inspiring Writing Advice Posts from 2009

4) Morning Pages: Results from my 2-Week Experiment

5) Resources to Help You Plan Your NaNoWriMo Novel

A Birthday Challenge
To help celebrate this major milestone and birthday accomplishment, I’m hosting a fun challenge (with prizes) on the blog. Stay tuned… full details are coming this Thursday.

In the mean time, as a THANK YOU for being such awesome, supportive readers, I’m offering my eGuide: Butt-In-Chair at a 50 percent discount ($9.95). Just be sure to enter: PWBIRTHDAY3 in the discount code box at check out time. The code is good ’til March 27 at 11:59 p.m.

What was your favorite Procrastinating Writers article from the last three years?

About the Author: Jennifer Blanchard is the founder of Procrastinating Writers. She is co-founder of the Better Writing Habits Challenge. For more great writing tips, tools and advice, be sure to follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

By Jennifer Blanchard

Today marks my 27th year on this planet. And it also marks an important day in my year—birthday goals day.

On my birthday last year, I suggested that instead of setting New Year’s goals, which are more easily tossed to the wind, we should set annual birthday goals.

Setting your goals for the year on your birthday works well for a couple reasons:

1. It’s More Personal–Trying to set realistic goals for your life at a time of year when everyone and their mother is obsessing about making changes for the “New Year” is like setting yourself up for failure. Most people give up their New Years resolutions before February.

   Setting your goals on your birthday, however, removes the “chaos” factor.

2. It’s Not About “Resolving” Anything–When you set New Year’s resolutions, it’s like you’re saying you’re not good enough as you are. Like there’s something about you that needs to be resolved.

   But when you set birthday goals, you’re focusing on improving yourself with each year that you celebrate. It’s not about “resolving” anything. It’s about knowing you’re already fabulous exactly how you are, but wanting to keep learning and growing.

My Writing Goals From 2009
In reviewing my birthday writing goals from last year, here is what I was aiming to achieve:

• Finish writing my first novel, Celebrity Soulmate
• Publish Celebrity Soulmate
• Start and finish writing novel number 2
• Finish and launch writing productivity eBook
• Continue writing and growing Procrastinating Writers

Now, to see how I did. Drum roll please…

• Finish writing Celebrity Soulmate—Fail. I didn’t write this novel. I didn’t even attempt to write it. I did, however, discover that I was, in fact, trying to squeeze two stories into one novel. So I separated them out and am now working through planning the first novel, which is temporarily being called “Friends Or Fate.” I’ll get back to “Celebrity Soulmate” once I’m finished.
• Publish Celebrity Soulmate—Fail. Without writing it, it’s kind of hard to publish it. Originally, I was planning on self-publishing. I am still debating that one, but mostly I’m removing my focus from publishing and putting it back on writing. For now.
• Start and finish writing novel number 2—Fail. I did start planning the second novel I had in mind, but I’m nowhere near ready to write it. I am still on my journey from pantser to planner. But I am learning a lot, and I know that what I’m currently working on is actually going to result in a novel I can publish.
• Finish and launch writing productivity ebook—SUCCESS!! In March of this year, I launched Butt-In-Chair: A no-excuses writing productivity guide. This is one of my proudest accomplishments to date. And the book actually did really well.
• Continue writing and growing Procrastinating Writers—SUCCESS!! Last year on my birthday, this blog had less than 300 subscribers. Today, it has 668. Traffic increases every single day and the weekly kick-start newsletter has a whopping 399 subscribers (last year it had less than 50). All in all, I’d say it’s been a very successful year for Procrastinating Writers.

While I didn’t accomplish everything I set for myself on my birthday last year, I did accomplish two very big goals. And each step you take in the right direction is a win in my book.

My Writing Goals for 2010
What would this post be if I didn’t share what my 2010 birthday writing goals are. So here goes:

1. Write my novel “Friends Or Fate.”
2. Polish “Friends Or Fate” up and get it ready to send to agents/publishers (or to publish myself, if that’s the decision I finally come to).
3. Offer my second-annual “30 Days of NaNo Tips for Procrastinating Writers”—Last year this wasn’t even on my goals list, and yet I still managed to make it happen. And it was so successful and well-received that I’m repeating it again this year.
4. Launch my super-secret writing project in January 2011 with blogger, Suzannah Freeman of WriteItSideways—More details on this project are coming in November, so stay tuned.
5. Continue writing and growing Procrastinating Writers–This goal had to stay on the list because this blog means so much to me. And I have big plans to expand it and offer more free content, as well as a coaching program for anyone who is interested. More details to come.

Looks like I’ve got the next 365 days of my life planned out. How about you? What are your writing goals? And what are your thoughts about birthday goals versus New Years resolutions?

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

By Joanne Elliot

A typical bad day: I wake up and my first thought is of the next five things I have to do in order to just get to my desk. That makes me want to go back to sleep. But no, I must get to work on my novel.

I sleepwalk through those five steps.

As I’m getting ready to work I keep thinking I’m not going to have enough time to get this done as well as my blogs and all the chores I’ve got on my list for today. I need to get those chores done because I didn’t do them earlier in the week.

Now I’m feeling time-pressured and I haven’t gotten any writing done yet.

I look at the clock. An hour has already passed in my time allotted for writing. I edit a few paragraphs, but because I’m anxious I’m not thinking clearly so I decide I’d better get moving on other things.

By now I’m even more frazzled and upset that I didn’t get my set amount of pages edited. Maybe I’ll do more later.

Later comes and I’m exhausted and anxious over not having gotten everything done on my list, including the writing. I can’t deal with it anymore so I call it a day and spend the evening watching the ball game. I don’t enjoy the game much because I’m still upset over my day.

This is a very stressful and unhappy way to live, which is why I’ve turned to blogs like the Procrastinating Writers blog and have read and worked with Jennifer’s eBook, Butt-in-Chair.

I’ve discovered that being stressed is what is partly causing me to procrastinate.

Here are some ways I’ve devised to help myself calm down and therefore not feel like putting things off. I hope these will be helpful to you, too.

Change Your Perception of Time
Time doesn’t have to be a source of stress. It’s all in how you perceive it.

Faced with a deadline we may feel overwhelmed, thinking, “Am I going to have enough time to complete this project?”

Slow down.

Ask yourself why you feel rushed: Do you have too many things on your plate already? The more tasks you set for yourself the more you perceive time as running out.

Try shortening your to-do list on a day-by-day basis. Break down those projects into smaller chunks.

Instead of trying to get five things accomplished today, try three.

Three’s not so bad, you think. Suddenly you feel spacious, relaxed and more willing to work. When calm, you’ll find you can accomplish more and may even do five things that day. It’s all in your perception.

Stop Thinking and Be in the Moment
Sometimes just thinking about those three things on your list can cause you stress. Stop thinking so much and just do.

Take one thing at a time and just begin to work, and then take the next and the next. Don’t think beyond what you’re working on. Keep focused, stay in the present and you’ll find you’re getting things done.

Practice Calm
The other ways I mentioned to cope with stress can help you get calm, but a regular centering practice can help you remain calm despite what is going on in your life. You can learn to stay centered and avoid becoming anxious.

Sometimes a crisis will happen. When you remain calm you can think clearly and can get yourself out of trouble.

Take some time out of every day to practice centering. Meditation is the best way I know to help one stay centered.

There are many types of meditation. Check out your local library or bookstore for books that can help guide you or search the Net. Meditating can make a difference in all areas of your life.

Stress is a Part of Life
I see procrastination as a symptom of too much stress. We can’t avoid stress all together, nor would we want to, but we can learn to not cause ourselves unnecessary amounts of it.

If you can learn to approach your life and your writing with calm, you will more readily dive in and get the writing done. You can be sure you’ll have fewer of those bad days if you slow down and tame your mind. Give it a try.

How do you cope with the stress of life and how it affects your writing?

About the Author: Joanne Elliott is a writer and poet. Currently she is working on a contemporary fantasy novel and encouraging her muse with a weekly poetry salon she puts on in her living room. You can find samples of her work on her blog. Being a writer she is fascinated by words and how we use them to create realities. Find out what she’s discovered so far here on her fiction blog.  Basically she’s your friendly neighborhood weaver of worlds and realities.

By Jennifer Blanchard

If you want to be a writer, you’re going to be put up against many challenges. And these challenges can either make you or break you—the choice is yours.

As a writer, you’ll face challenges, such as:

• The blank page.
• The inner editor.
• Finishing your first draft.
• Constructive criticism.
• Editing your writing.
• Finding an agent.
• Finding a publisher.

This list could go on.

And while these challenges are a bit scary, there’s nothing scarier than allowing fears to take over your life and prevent you from writing anything.

That’s why it’s so important to take on challenges and to take on the things you’re scared of. Because facing the fear is the first step toward overcoming it.

Facing Fear Head-On
One thing most people don’t know about me is that I’m terrified of dogs. Especially big ones.

When I was almost four, I watched my two-year-old brother get mangled by the German Shepherd that lived next door to my grandma. And my fear developed from there.

Growing up, I cringed when a dog came near me. I’d get sweaty; my heartbeat would quicken; and my body would freeze. This happened every time I was near a dog—and especially a dog I didn’t know.

But then last year I had a thought—Why was I allowing something that happened in my past to shape my future?

So last July, I decided to face my fear of dogs head-on: I bought a puppy. A sweet, adorable, little Toy Poodle puppy.

For the first few days, things were chaos. I was totally freaked out and afraid he was going to chew my fingers off. And I couldn’t sleep. I’d wake up every five minutes just to check on him.

After the second night of not sleeping, I was ready to give up the dog. I even went so far as to post an ad for him on Craig’s List (which like five people answer immediately!).

But then I realized that I was giving up too easily. I was allowing the fear to consume me so much that I didn’t see what a beautiful boy I had right in front of my eyes.

So I kept him.

I took the ad down and decided that we were a family now and I wasn’t going to back out of it. He is mine forever.

A couple years ago, if you told me I would own a dog one day, I’d tell you that you were nuts. But now, almost a year after I brought my puppy home, I can’t imagine my life without him.

And I never would’ve known the joy of dog ownership if I hadn’t stepped up to the plate and faced my fear head-on.

Step Up and Challenge Yourself
If you’ve been holding back from writing for whatever reason, now’s your chance to make a change. Now’s your chance to challenge yourself to write.

Figure out what fears are holding you back, and then make the decision to face them head-on.

Maybe you’re afraid of writing because you don’t want to fail. Maybe you’re avoiding writing because you don’t want people to think differently of you. Or maybe you don’t write because you’re allowing excuses to hold you back.

Whatever your fears might be, challenge yourself to face them. Do something you wouldn’t normally do (me getting a dog!). Try something new. Be OK with the outcome you get.

If you allow your fears to hold you back in life, you’ll never reach your writing dreams—and isn’t that scarier?

So face your fears. Be brave. Stay strong.

What fears are holding you back from writing? What challenge are you going to take on?

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

Hey Procrastinating Writers,

I just wanted to take a moment to let you know that IT’S FINALLY (FINALLY!!) HERE!!!!!!

Butt-In-Chair: A no-excuses writing productivity guide for writers who struggle to get started launches tomorrow.

That’s right, you can get your copy tomorrow…and I’ll be giving a few copies away, too.

Want a discount? Then be sure to sign up for the free Procrastinating Writers newsletter. I’ll be offering a discount on Butt-In-Chair exclusively for newsletter subscribers.

See you tomorrow…

jb

And in case you didn’t see the link above, you can get a sneak peek of Butt-In-Chair here.

By Jennifer Blanchard

It’s finally here. Well…almost.

The very first Procrastinating Writers eBook–Butt-In-Chair: A no-excuses writing productivity guide for writers who struggle to get started is making its debut on in the next week (or so).

In the newsletter I sent out Monday I said the official launch date was March 24, which it was, until I learned my designer had an untimely death in the family over the weekend. Although we’re still aiming for March 24, we may not make it ’til the final week of the month.

But no matter if it’s launching on the 24th or the week after, I’ve gotten so many awesome comments from my pre-launch reviewers and so much support via Twitter, that I wanted to share with you what you can expect:

Butt-In-Chair is pure writing-life guidance and motivation. Each section of the eBook contains thought-and-creativity-provoking writing prompts to get you working through your procrastination and writing on a regular basis.

The eBook will guide you through everything from figuring out why you want to write to determining what causes you to procrastinate to finding the solutions that best suite you and your writing.

Butt-In-Chair  includes some of the best, most popular posts from the Procrastinating Writers blog, as well as several never-before-read posts that are only available in the eBook.

You’ll get printable worksheets and checklists that you can fill out, write all over, tear apart and utilize to help you make the most of the available writing hours you have each day/week.

Here’s what one Procrastinating Writers reader had to say about Butt-In-Chair:

“What a great and useful book.  I love the exercises.  The worksheets in the back are awesome.

Over and over, I read observations of my procrastinating self.  Fortunately, over and over, I also read the solution for me.

This book is an excellent resource for my writing life,”–Mary Eagan

If you’re ready to give up your excuses, overcome the things that hold you back and finally get serious about your writing, Butt-In-Chair is your step-by-step guide to getting writing done.

Be sure to subscribe to the Procrastinating Writers newsletter. Not only does it deliver useful writing tips, tools and motivation once a month, but I’ll be offering a discount on Butt-In-Chair exclusively for newsletter subscribers.

By Jennifer Blanchard

Thirty-one days from tomorrow, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) starts.

For those of you who haven’t heard of NaNoWriMo, you can read more about it here.

Simply put, NaNoWriMo is a crazy time when writers all over the world attempt the challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days.

Starting at 12 a.m. on November 1 and ending at 11:59 p.m. on November 30, your goal is to write the first draft of your next (or first!) novel.

The main idea behind NaNoWriMo is output–quantity versus quality.

NaNoWriMo founder, Chris Baty, is a genius. He found a way to simplify the writing process and help writers give up procrastination by setting a short deadline.

And year after year, thousands of writers cross the 50,000-word finish line and call themselves NaNoWriMo winners.

For your novel to count toward your NaNoWriMo goal, however, you can only write it between November 1 and November 30.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t take the month of October to prep for it.

As you probably already know, the more prepared you are, the more likely you are to actually sit down and write (unless you are one of those writers who can sit down and start typing without any planning. If you are–congrats. Do what works for you.).

Here’s how I recommend you get ready for NaNoWriMo:

• Create a Plan–As a writer who can’t just sit down and start typing, I need a plan. I need to plot out my story to have a basic idea of where I need to be by the end of each chapter. If you’re like me, then you will love Holly Lisle’s free Create a Plot Clinic. This short, but effective, guide to creating a plot for your novel will get you on the right track for November 1.
• Get to Know Your Characters–One of the best ways to prep for NaNoWriMo is to get to know your main characters. You can use the character structure discussed in this post onbuilding complex characters to get you started. Or if you want to dig in a little deeper (since you have an entire month of prep time), you might want to check out Create A Character Clinic, by Holly Lisle. This hands-on book helped me make the main character in my first novel well-rounded and complete. I highly recommend it.
• Get Familiar with Your Daily Word Count–In order to hit 50,000 words in 30 days, you need to write–at minimum–1,667 words each day. Before you get too overwhelmed by that number, thou, you should check out exactly what 1,667 words looks like. It’s about 4 pages, single-spaced. Not too bad.
• Clear Your Schedule–In order to write 1,667 words a day, you’ll need to set aside between one and two hours of your time, depending on how long it takes you to write four pages. You may need more or less time. Just be sure to squeeze at least an hour of writing time into your schedule everyday. And on days when you have extra time, write more words. That way you’re ahead of schedule if something pops up that’s beyond your control.
• Read No Plot? No Problem!, by Chris Baty–This 176-page NaNoWriMo guide book is a quick read and has lots of tips for staying on track. It also includes a week-by-week overview to getting your novel written. It’s a great tool for all NaNoWriMo-ers, but especially for first-time NaNoWriMo-ers. I just finished reading it for the second time last weekend.

For the month of October, I’m going to be bringing you weekly posts to get you prepped for NaNoWriMo. Here’s what the schedule looks like:

• Week One (Oct. 5-9)–Plotting: All the tools, tips and resources you need to plot your NaNoWriMo novel.
• Week Two (Oct. 12-16)–Characters: Meeting your main characters and getting to know them.
• Week Three (Oct. 19-23)–Scheduling Writing Time: Tools, tips and resources for getting your schedule NaNo-ready.
• Week Four (Oct. 26-30)–Final NaNoWriMo Prep: Motivational tips to get you moving on your NaNo-novel.

Stick with me, Procrastinators…the completion of your first novel is just around the corner.

Have you ever competed in NaNoWriMo? How did you do?

Also, if you’re participating in NaNoWriMo this year, be sure to come back tomorrow and sign up for my 30 Days of NaNoWriMo Tips for Procrastinating Writers e-mail newsletter.

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