Procrastinate

procrastinate (v) proh-kras-tuh-neyt
to defer action; delay

From Latin prōcrāstināre, “to put off until tomorrow”.

So, if I don’t do it tomorrow either, does that mean that I’m not really procrastinating?

See, there are times when I just don’t feel like sitting down and writing. Everyone has been there. You’re just not in the mood, or maybe the idea isn’t fully formed quite yet and you don’t want to force it. Sometimes you’d like nothing better than to park in front of the computer for a few hours and slam out a couple thousand words, but you know your tax returns aren’t done yet and the IRS isn’t going to wait forever. Maybe the season finale of The Walking Dead is on and I want to watch it live. (Oh, cool, Fringe is back next week too.)

I’ve taken procrastination to a whole new level…I’ve gone “pro” in the crastination department, as it were. When my heart just isn’t in it, I find myself writing a sentence or two, sometimes a whole paragraph, and then getting up to go do…something. Checking email is the obvious choice, but that’s too easy. I’m talking about checking on the temperature (yep, it’s still warm outside!) or looking up the theater schedule or paging through my Amazon wish list to see if anything has gotten cheaper. (Blast, last season’s Doctor Who blu-ray is STILL $64...)

Strangely, one of the things I most often do when procrastinating from something else is clean stuff. There’s never any shortage of that needing to be done, of course, but sometimes something that I’ve ignored and tolerated for months will suddenly find itself getting cleaned up and put away when I’m in the midst of a completely different project.

Weird.

If you were hoping I’d conclude by passing along something useful I’ve learned about tackling the whole procrastination thing, I’m sorry, but I’m about to disappoint you. It just happens sometimes. Could I work a little harder at it? Sure, no doubts there.

But it’s summer! (Close enough, at least…) It’s the weekend and it’s nice outside! Why would I want to sit in front of a computer all day? I do that at work enough already.

Plus, you know, The Walking Dead is on in a bit.

Jason R.

To Be The Hero

Ask any of my close friends or family, and they’ll tell you that I have a bit of a hero complex. That’s not to say that I walk around wearing tights or have a flowing cape draped around my neck, but I do have a hero complex. When I was very young (2 or 3), my mother bought me a set of superman pajamas. Now, to a normal kid, this might seem REALLY cool! But to me, it was so much more than that. In my mind, I was now Superman. I refused to take it off most days, and I would walk around the house, looking all tough and watching for any form of danger or evil that might lurk into my house. It reached the point where anyone who would call me by my name would get the response of “I’m not Adam. I’m SUPERMAN!” (Yes, I actually have numerous video recordings of this from when I was a child)

After a time, that wore off and I realized that wearing a costume all the time wasn’t normal. This realization, however, didn’t change my thoughts on being a hero. In one way or another, I have always tried to be the hero. From getting in a fight when I was in 3rd grade against a bully who was mocking my friend, to standing up to the mean teacher in 7th grade who would grade the boys harder because she was obviously sexist, my youth was full of me trying to be the hero. Even the jobs I chose as I grew were affected by this mindset. I have been a life guard, a camp counselor, a home medical aid, and now am a Youth Pastor. All of these jobs, in one way or another, feed into my need to try to be the hero. I can’t say if this is an entirely healthy mindset, but I’ll admit that it is the mindset I have.

What does this have to do with writing, you might ask? Well, like all other people, how my mind works is where my interests lie, and that affects what I write about. All of my stories I write tend to feed into this hero complex I have, and I believe it makes me a better writer because of it. It’s not that I have an unrealistic view of what a person can and should do, but I believe that to be a true hero, one must put others before oneself, as well as being brave. History is full of stories of heroes, and I believe that is because all of us, on one level or another, crave heroism. I can’t speak for everyone else, but I crave to BE that hero, not to see one. I crave to be the one that has to sacrifice, to fight, and to push away fear and do what needs to be done. This is partially a selfish thought, because there is a level of pride in being the hero, but to me it’s more than that. It’s the thought that in being the hero, others don’t have to suffer, and they can live a happy life due to the actions I’ve done. This is the reason I write. It is because, with all the things in my life, there is still that draw to be the ultimate hero. To give up my life for another. To protect, and to inspire. Few things in life are more inspiring than a true hero in a compelling story, and that is something that is often on my mind.

Now, I am a Christian, and while I don’t feel the need to preach to people constantly about it, I will say that it very much defines my life and the actions I take in it. The Bible tells us that we are to put people before us, to love our neighbors, and to even love our enemies. In my view, a person who can love their enemies, and choose good for people, instead of the bad thoughts and actions that so many spit out into the world, is the ultimate hero. Heroism isn’t about action so much as it is about a mindset, and the person you are inside.

So my question to you is, how do you feel about heroism, and what causes a person to be heroic?

Adam

If a tree falls in the woods...

Ok, so if a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

If I write something and no one ever reads it, am I actually a writer?

I am terribly undisciplined when it comes to my writing.  Not as in, poor comma placement and misuse of the word “their” (though I write with a plethora of em dashes, you will find), but I only ever write for myself.  I’m not self-conscious about my writing.  (OK – not entirely true – I AM self-conscious about letting someone read a straight-up word spew that I wrote just for the sake of word count.)  But provided I’ve been through a chapter enough to make sure I didn’t repeat myself, didn’t accidentally call one character by another character’s name, or have any glaring typos… I kind of like what I write. 

So why don’t I share?  Because the thought of trudging through an entire novel(la), where I already know what happens, is a long and tedious job.  Or at least I assume it is… I have never bothered to do it.  Even the thought of editing bores me.  Once the thrill of creation is over – it’s just work.  I’ve gotten what I want out of the story.  I don’t need my voice heard, I really just needed the story to be written.  I am a selfish, selfish writer.

But is that really what writing is about?  Is it the act of creation, or is it ultimately the presentation?  After all, I don’t abandon the craft after the story is done… it’s just that the next time I sit down to that blinking cursor, it’s with a new passion for a new idea.  The old one is lovingly stored away in my archives, never to be seen again.  So am I a writer?  Or am I a fake?  A tourist?  If my fallen tree goes unheard, did it ever really make a sound?

What does writing mean to you?

~ Adrianne