How do you get yourself actually writing?

[littlebutfierce]

OK, folks, help me (& your other comm members!) out here. I'm sure many of us are masters of the art of procrastination.

How do you get yourself to actually sit down & write? Internet blockers (or maybe even -- shudder -- going offline entirely)? Bribing yourself? Getting other people to nag/threaten you? Signing up for challenges?

I write something every day using 750 Words; I've posted before about what a good tool this is for me. Sometimes it works brilliantly, as both a way to get words down on the page & sneak past my internal censor. But often I don't write fic there; I'll just brain-dump. Which is good -- it's still writing -- but I feel like I need to kickstart my word count for fic.

Things I have done today instead of opening up a file to work on fic: updated my reading journal w/what I've read lately; updated another comm; answered DW comments; signed up for Diaspora; took down last year's calendars & put up this year's; put up random things I've had around the house to put on the walls but have been lying around for ages; made tea.

And now, my latest avoidance technique: posting here!

My word count is begging you for help. What are your tips? What have you tried that didn't work for you? (It might work for someone else!)

& just for LOLs, what are your favorite things to do when you're resisting sitting down & actually writing?

Comments

[revena]

The two things I do that help most with getting words out are using a timer and using a spreadsheet. With the timer, I set it for an hour, make a goal (500 words within the hour is my usual), and then hit start. It doesn't actually matter if I hit the goal or not, but having set aside an hour to work on it makes me focus. This works even better if I have a friend available who wants to work on something for an hour, too, since I know I'll be checking in with her at the end of that time and want to be able to say I accomplished what I set out to do.

I also use a spreadsheet thing that I downloaded aaaages ago for NaNoWriMo (in 2004 or something), which can be set up for any length of time and any word count. It makes it easier to track how much time I'm spending on a particular project and how many words I have left to go, when I have a specific end-goal in mind.

I don't really have a favorite thing to do when I'm procrastinating on the writing, because I feel too guilty to have fun. Usually I end up doing dishes, which is pretty much a punishment.

[littlebutfierce]

Oh yeah, when I did the WIP challenge, I had a couple of writing sessions w/people, & that helped a lot -- there was one that wasn't even the two of us writing at the same time (due to time zones); I promised that I'd send PMs at the start, middle, & end of the time I'd committed to write, & faced w/either having to lie or, well, write, I managed to write!

I may have to look into fancy spreadsheets or word meters. I'm not sure quite how I'm going to track my word count for inkitout yet but it would be good to figure out.

At least dishes are good productive, maybe? If the house is too cluttered w/stuff or undone dishes or laundry or whatever it stresses me out, so for me at least I think even though it'd be procrastination in the short term it might (as long as I go back to the computer to write) work out better for me in the medium term.