Procrastinating My Way into Blog Posts

By Elaine L. Orr

The first full year I had this blog I had 50 entries, though many are what we would today think of as social media posts rather than blogs entries. I went way down a few years later and finally settled on doing three per month. I don't usually get to 36, but I get close. February of this year (after a compression fracture) was the first zero month in years.

As with many things in my life, if I don't set a target, I put things off.  Maybe, as in when I'm writing, I do more research. If you look at the dates of my blog posts, sometimes all three are the last week of the month.

If blogging were an important part of my business mode, for lack of a better term, I'd set a schedule -- every other Saturday or something like that. But my model is writing books, and I have to push myself to do that. I like to write stories and very much dislike deadlines. Without deadlines, though, I'd dilly dally and write (or publish) far fewer books. I also like money, so I set deadlines.

The website, Hacking Your ADHD, has an article on "The Surprising Magic of Setting a Deadline." It goes through why they help and what their impact is in a practical manner. I found it very useful.

I remember a management seminar decades ago in which the instructor asked how many people believed they worked more efficiently as a deadline grew closer. I think we all raised our hands. He said we could work that way all the time if we chose to do so. I suppose I buy that, though I'm not sure I have that energy level at this point.

I believe in deadlines enough to put my books up for preorder on Amazon before I've finish them. Some people would say that's foolish, and for literary fiction it probably would be. For my mysteries -- good books but not as complex as Water for Elephants -- it's doable.

Now, back to The Judge's Last Contest, which has a looming deadline. Wish me luck.

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To learn more about Elaine's writing, visit her website or sign up for her newsletter.

Twelth Anniversary of Blogging. Who Knew?

By Elaine L. Orr

On October 16, 2011, I wrote the first post on this blog, Irish Roots Author. Its title was "First time blogger at what age?!" Below is the post:

I have long been a writer, but have never blogged.  It took me a couple years to get a Facebook account, and I still prefer email -- faster and fewer distractions.  Now that I have "retired" I am publishing more of what I write, and would love to have people read my books or articles.  Does that happen if you sit in a home office and keep the cat off the laptop keyboard (which kitty believes is her electric blanket)?  Nope. 

So, here I sit with not a clue about how to use a blog to my advantage and willing to learn.  Did I mention I can't update my web site because the host site (Yahoo) no longer allows Microsoft Front Page?  Learning new software for the web site and creating a blog?  Yikes.

If you had told me I'd write hundred of posts on reading, writing, publishing, and what I term musings, I would have scoffed. (There's a word you don't get to use too often.)

Early posts were shorter than most current ones. However, as I learned more about publishing, I tried to share what I'd learned. It didn't take me long to figure out that I might spend hours learning how to do something (load a book to a website, develop marketing ideas), but I would use two minutes of those hours to get the job done. I kept trying to compress the information so others could take less time.

Now I try to write mostly about writing, though I diverge or relate what I write to other aspects of life. The hardest part is to write steadily. I've set on three posts a month, and appreciate forcing myself to do it. When you write fiction, self-discipline is your friend and your nightmare.

No words of wisdom today. Just acknowledging that I'm still here, pushing the electronic pencil.

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To learn more about Elaine L. Orr, visit her website or sign up for her newsletter