Motivation!

note to self

Freezing temperatures, delayed trains and overcrowded trains did their best to thwart my quest, but there was no stopping me getting to the SCBWI Masterclass in London today. Staying Motivated and Beating Procrastination All Year Long was just what the doctor ordered as we head into a cold and frosty slump-tastic February. Bekki Hill (aka The Write Coach) ran the workshop, supplying us all with buckets full of good advice, perfectly tempered with warmth, wit and wisdom.


What a joy to find out that my worse procrastinatory (if that's even a word?) habits were shared by the other writers and illustrators gathered around the table. Compulsive micro-editing, spending hours on fascinating-but-hardly-vital research, getting distracted by e-mail, Facebook or housework, or bogged down in lists of smaller jobs . . . yep, I put my hand up to all of those.

But now I'm armed with lots of tools to beat off those dastardly time-stealers. I'm so focused now I'm even going to resist the temptation to check whether procrastinatory is a real word, because I know what happens when I start looking in dictionaries . . . three hours later and I'm still on the trail of an obscure Sanskrit derivation . . . so no, I'm stepping away from the dictionary . . . no more faffing about for me. I'm going to start writing NOW!