Write Better Under Pressure?

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Lately, because of the WordPress Post-A-Day and Post-A-Week challenges, I’ve noticed a lot of writing advice on finding time to blog daily.  I agree that many of us will benefit more from our blogs if we write in a stress-free, comfortable environment with limited distractions.  But I feel like some people are being left out of this widespread advice.  What about the procrastinators that work best under a bit of stress?  Maybe you need another way to motivate yourself, and my advice to you is:

Give yourself a deadline!

No one is looking over your shoulder or evaluating your blog’s timeliness and currency.  So what’s the rush?  I know this feeling, and it leads nowhere.

If you want to write daily and you’re struggling, give yourself a daily deadline.  If you’re usually up until midnight, make that deadline midnight.  If you want to write weekly, pick a day of the week and stick to it.  If you know you have a Thursday deadline, for example, you’ll write every Thursday because you’ll feel the pressure!  Consequently, your readers will begin to expect a new post from you every Thursday.  Expectations are good, and will reinforce your deadlines as time goes on.

Retain flexibility

With deadlines, you still have freedom when it comes to writing.  You have a whole day’s worth or week’s worth of freedom, in fact, depending on your preferences.  With a midnight deadline, you can write at 6 am or you can wait until 11:30 pm- whatever works out best that day. But if you work better under pressure, chances are you will wait until the last minute to post.  That’s just the way some of us are, and it doesn’t matter as long as we achieve our goals.

So if you’re struggling a little with the self-discipline it takes to keep up with your blog, try giving yourself a deadline.  Don’t stress out too much over it, because, like most bloggers will agree, writing should be fun.  But maybe an extra kick is just what you need to get in gear for whichever challenge you’ve accepted this year.

 

© Alexis Jenny, 2011.

Hope: A Stubborn Thing

Today’s topic asks, “What gives you hope?  And what, if anything, makes you question hope?…”

Hope, as a concept, is a survivalist.  Even when everything goes wrong, people cling to it.  And not wrongly so; hope can bring us back from those darker places.  It’s interesting, however, that events themselves cannot cause hopelessness.  If a person is hopeful, they always will be despite their circumstances.  Hope is a constant.  People can ignore it or embrace it.

No fiction today.  Today is all about fact and how to perceive it.  I’m inspired by Olivia Tejeda’s blog, Away with Words, to write a haiku.  As a result, I wrote three somewhat connected verses in regard to today’s topic.  Traditionally, a haiku references nature in some way, and I’m not sure if “darkness” and “light” are enough of the natural elements one would expect from a haiku.  In a way, however, darkness and light define everything found in nature.  Light forms images and decides how we see the world.  Today, I see the world in haiku.

I also came across an instructional and interesting quote by Matsuo Basho, the Japanese poet.  He cautioned, “The haiku that reveals seventy to eighty percent of its subject is good. Those that reveal fifty to sixty percent, we never tire of” (from Wiki, Note 10).

This gave me an idea.  Although I’ve graduated, I’m still (and always will be) a student of writing.  As I come across new ideas, whether they are informative or inspirational, I should share them.  If I immediately adopt new perspectives into my writing, it’ll be easier to incorporate good ideas into my writing habits permanently.

And so, for now, this:

 

Hope dwells in darkness,

small spaces between the light;

We see it through cracks.

 

We question our hope,

confuse it with naïvety

wonder what to think.

 

See small bits of light

survive our doubts and worries,

Smile through the cracks.

 

© Alexis Jenny, 2011.