April 18th
Today’s Post Has Been Canceled or Postponed…Not sure which
Hi folks - I’m having a bad day. I’ve been fighting with my son’s school, haggling with tree men and my computer crashed just as I was about to post today’s pearls of wisdom - which I lost. There may be a post today…there may not.
Here, I’ll throw out a topic…
How do you stay focused when you have to write about something truly boring?
Discuss…
Posted
on
Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 3:16 am under
Hey Deb: Sorry to hear that you are having one of those days. Sending a virtual (((hug))) your way!
When I have to write about something boring, I try to divide the article into subsections, at least in my head. Then I focus on each subsection separately. If I “only” need to come up with a short blurb for the section, it doesn’t seem as overwhelming for some reason.
I guess the bottom line here is that I try to find something interesting about the topic, because I need to write the thing anyway. The old “Suck it up and do it anyway” approach, ya know?
April 18th, 2008 at 3:23 amSorry to hear you’re having a lousy day!
I get through it by setting goals and giving myself little rewards along the way. Write 100 words, then get five minutes of Internet time or a handful of M&M (or both if it’s a real snoozer) - whatever it takes to get it done.
April 18th, 2008 at 3:57 amI find that anything can be made more interesting with a little injection of toilet humor. Who doesn’t like fart jokes?
Of course this might also be why I can’t get hired anywhere.
April 18th, 2008 at 4:09 amI hook up a car battery to my fingers and every time they stop hitting the keys I get zapped. Works like a charm. :oP
Just kidding. I try to suck it up and will usually reward myself with something fun to write. If I get through writing about this horribly dull topic, I get to write something for me. It doesn’t always work but sometimes. I also agree with Teresa about the 5 minutes after a hundred words but I usually have to make it more than a hundred.
April 18th, 2008 at 4:25 amSometimes you just have to “Get Er Done” and reward yourself.
Wait til your son’s a teen, the the real fun begins (I have two).
April 18th, 2008 at 5:14 amI ran into that today. Our Walker Hound died last night. She was 13 and had a full life, but still took it a little hard. More like my kids were saying - you’re STILL weeping, followed by “What’s wrong with us if we aren’t feeling that sad?”
I’m heading up to Maine tomorrow, so I had five articles I had to do today despite the fact I REALLY didn’t want to do them. Then the topics were dull - Pay Per Click Marketing Manager jobs, SEO Optimizing, etc.
I’m still on now so that I can get this last one done and then ignore the computer completely for the next four days.
April 18th, 2008 at 5:19 am@ Ann G: I’m sorry to hear about your loss. Our pets really do become part of the family, don’t they?
April 18th, 2008 at 5:38 amso sorry Deb.
Well, I’m with Teresa. Break it down into 100 words. Take a break and get back to it, and repeat.
April 18th, 2008 at 5:45 amSorry for your loss, Ann G
April 18th, 2008 at 6:37 amI must admit that if I have to write something I’m not interested in I usually don’t do it until right before its deadline. I suppose then I’m able to stay focused because I refuse to miss a deadline.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:26 amI’ll also admit I do the same as Robin!
April 18th, 2008 at 8:03 amI use a trick I learned from a novel. Pick some ridiculously inane subject and write 1000 words on it. Do that over and over again with any just plain stupid object you can find. Once you do that enough times, you’ll find that no matter how boring or tasteless the subject, you can still write about anything at all.
April 18th, 2008 at 8:13 amI sometimes do the same as Robin and Samantha, but I also reward myself. You know, every hundred words or so, I get to do something else for five or ten minutes: search the web, play with the puppy or read a few minutes of whichever book I”m reading.
April 18th, 2008 at 8:46 amI usually just turn on the music and go from there.
April 18th, 2008 at 9:08 amRewards… be it a walk, a chat with a friend, anything to get through it…its good when I get sufficiently fed up with it because then I just write the blasted thing, even it if means I have to edit it completely.
And Ann I’m so sorry. 3 nights ago our family dog of 17 years passed away. He died peacefully and we were with him and I knew I should have prepared myself, but still. I even thought I felt a bit better and then all of a sudden yesterday it just hit me. It is strange how empty the house feels (even with 2 cats) and my concentration went out the window.
April 18th, 2008 at 11:25 amThanks Jodee, Phil and Bertas.
I have to agree at how the house seems empty. On top of it, there are a pair of Mourning Doves that nested in one of our pine trees, so their cooing has this weird quality at times of sounding like her whine. And we’ve already had two people offer us dogs they are trying to find homes for, but she’ll be our last dog. I feel really guilty that we didn’t have mroe time for her in her latter years.
Last night, I slept through the night though and am feeling refreshed and ready to go hang out on the beach even if it will only be 60 - that’s good enough for me!
April 18th, 2008 at 4:38 pm@Ann
My childhood cat was quite old and died the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college. He had kind of a spasmic attack when he was in bed with me one morning, and I knew he would die sometime that day.
I said goodbye to him and went to work crying, and couldn’t come home until late that night. My family buried him in the windbreak out back so I wouldnt’ have to see him already dead.
That is still one of the hardest days I can remember and it’s been more than 15 years ago. Pets really do matter. Enjoy your day at the beach in his memory
April 18th, 2008 at 4:58 pmHang in there, Deb. Stress has a way of leaving as quickly as it arrives.
How do I stay focused while writing something truly boring? I visualize the check.
Actually, since I do write a lot of techical, “boring” stuff, I’ve begun to think of it as a ticking clock. See, I’m so punctual it’s unreal. I’m habitually early for everything. If I’m on time, I feel slight relief, but if I’m one minute late, I’m tense. So I stay on task by psyching myself into believing that if I don’t stick with it, I’ll miss my deadline - something I WILL NOT do.
It’s another form of self-torture. Sort of like Equal in your tea when you really want sugar.
April 18th, 2008 at 5:06 pm@Deb: Sorry to hear things aren’t going well. Hope it all gets resolved soon.
@ Ann G. Animals are such a comfort, that’s why we miss them so much when they’re gone. I am so sorry to hear about your loss.
I know this is going to sound so Madison Avenue; but I write a lot of articles on risk management, which fits the bill when it comes to boring. What I generally do is brew myself a cup of coffee and sit down with the day’s crossword in the newspaper, a trick I learned years ago at a seminar I was attending.
This not only relaxes you to face a heavy task, it exercises the brain and gets it reved up to start formulating what you want to say even before you sit down to say it.
April 18th, 2008 at 5:28 pmOh, I hope your day gets better!!! I think we can all survive one day on our own.
I can’t stay focused when I’m writing about a boring topic. I just accept the fact that it will take me twice as long!
April 18th, 2008 at 8:13 pm@Ann G.
I’m so sorry for your loss. I have a walker hound named Blossom Possum, of all things, and she is the sweetest dog I’ve ever known. Good stuff, these hounds!!
April 18th, 2008 at 11:34 pm