Tag: Blog

The Cost of “I’ll Do It Later”: How Procrastination Hurts the Writing Process

Claire Christoforo

By: Claire Christoforo

“I’ll do it later” is something we’ve all said. Whether it’s homework, a paper, or even a quick email, we’ve all fallen into procrastination, and oftentimes it feels like waiting just becomes part of the plan.

It feels harmless at first, but for writers, procrastination affects motivation, creativity, and the writing process. The longer you wait, the less time you have to edit, revise, and strengthen your work. It is a trap, but one we do not have to be stuck in.

To begin, the first reason we fall into procrastination is fear. Fear of failure, ruining a good idea, or not being good enough can paralyze a writer, making it easier to avoid a project than actually face it.

Moving forward, the second reason is perfectionism. Writers often expect their first draft to be perfect, which creates pressure to wait for the “right moment.” Instead of starting now, many find themselves overthinking and doubting the results of their work, which makes it a constant struggle to move forward.

Finally, the last reason is burnout. This occurs when writers are overworked or constantly pressured, and writing becomes a chore instead of a passion. Mental fatigue builds up over time because the brain doesn’t get enough rest to regain creativity. The result is procrastination, not out of laziness, but out of exhaustion.

So how can we beat procrastination? Shifting your mindset is ideal, but when deadlines are close, try these three simple strategies.

The first strategy is setting a 15-minute timer and writing as much as you can. While it may feel scary at first, the fear doesn’t go away by waiting. It usually gets worse. Writing, even when you’re afraid, helps you realize that the anticipation is often worse than the actual work.

The second is to set small, attainable goals to overcome perfectionism. Focus on writing your opening line, your first paragraph, and eventually your first draft. Process matters more than perfection, and small goals allow your work to come together without overwhelming pressure.

The last idea is to write what you love outside of your work. When you’re tired or tempted to put a project off, take a break and write about something that excites you. Focusing on passion instead of pressure helps your brain reset and makes it easier to return to your main project with fresh energy.

Procrastination is something we all experience, but it doesn’t have to keep us from creating. By understanding the causes and using simple strategies, you can break the habit of procrastination and start writing today.

The Secret to Effective Proofreading

Mia Benarrivato

You are finally done with your first draft, but now it is time to proofread. Proofreading is more than just looking for parts of your writing to fix, but more so making sure that each part of your writing works together purposefully to share your ideas. Even small edits can drastically change the quality of your piece.

Start by taking a step back from your work. Rather than glazing over your text, passively, change to reading your work aloud. Essentially, this will help you slow down and change errors that may otherwise get forgotten in the process. In this stage, try not to search for any errors. Simply focus on your grammar and punctuation as well as how it reads. Ask yourself if your writing is conveying what you want it to and sounds cohesive.

Next, print out your current draft. It may still feel like there are a lot of errors, but rather than focusing on that, turn your focus on the possibility of reworking it. In this stage, use scissors to cut out sentences that work together, and even individual ones that still need a place. By doing this, you can try out different formats without risking losing any of your work. Do not feel pressured to keep every single line. Instead, intentionally choose what brings focus to your point, and what takes it in another direction. Rather than viewing this as a puzzle with only one correct way, view it as a creative opportunity to style your work in a variety of ways.

Lastly, continue to visit your piece over some time. Rather than trying to fit all your proofreading process in a day, allot enough time to spread it out over a few days. You may prefer to swap your work with a friend and get a fresh set of eyes on your writing. Or perhaps being able to come back to it allows you to be able to have your own new set of eyes and catch different perspectives that you did not see prior.

Proofreading is more than just correcting your work because there is no such thing as “correct” work. Switch your lens to bringing your focus centered on bringing home the direction of your writing. It is easy to get caught up in the editing process, but just know that it is a process and although it may take time it is worth it.

Formatting for Success

Gabrielle Aleman

By Gabrielle Aleman

Have you ever written something amazing, only for it to be ignored? It might not be your
writing—it might be your formatting. Proper formatting can elevate your work in different ways-
organization, readability, presentation, and more. You could have the best story ever written for a
magazine, but if it isn’t properly formatted it might as well have been written by the average high
schooler.

A common misconception about formatting is that it’s “simple” or “easy”, when in fact
there is a multitude of ways to format text and a multitude of ways to mess them up. When
editors are receiving countless submissions, the easiest way to become favorable is by submitting
a well-formatted document. By meeting industry standards, it shows professionalism and
attention to detail, prevents your work from being dismissed, and creates less work for the editor.
This discussion will focus on several key formatting elements to guide writers through the
submission-ready process.

Standard Formatting Guidelines

Most editors and publishers follow standard industry guidelines when reviewing submissions. Author Brian Klems discusses some of the guidelines followed when editing work. He pinpoints those rules from “Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript” by Chuck Sambuchino.
Here are some essential formatting elements to keep in mind:

Font style, size, and color

Try to stay with readable and professional font style. The font should stay one size throughout the work (unless necessary for headings) and should only be black. It’s best to keep the font uniform and simple to avoid any distractions, making it difficult to read. According to Klems, it’s most appropriate to use “a standard font, 12-point type. Times New Roman, Arial, or Courier is fine”.

Spacing and margins

To make passages easier to read it’s essential to avoid a condensed word and line spacing and instead use a more relaxed spacing. Double-spacing is most preferred, as this best allows a more
comfortable read and creates annotations within phrases. To add, Klems states the correct way to separate paragraphs is to “Indent five spaces”. The one-inch margin is also typical as it looks most professional and gives even more space for editors to jot down notes.

Body structure

Klem’s analysis of Chuck Sambuchino’s “Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript” mainly discusses the structure and how to organize paragraphs and chapters for submissions. Assuming the work being submitted is physical and not digitized, it’s emphasized that new chapters should begin on their own page, and the chapter number and title should be capitalized. The title should be 4-6 lines ahead of the beginning of the new chapter, which should start further down the page, typically one-third of the way down. This is to ensure organization and clarify the chapter’s beginning and place in the story.

Final Product

To keep the work looking as official and professional as possible, you should follow guidelines to format the page as well as the body. Keeping headers and page numbers on each page will add to the look and professionalism of the document. Page numbers should begin on page 2, and headers should have the title in all caps and the name of the author.

Time to Submit

Following the submission guidelines of whichever publisher you’re submitting work to and ensuring formatting is correct is going to improve the chances of your work being chosen for editing and publishing. Author and editor Brian Klems provides great information on keeping a clean, organized, well formatted submission – especially since he speaks from experience.

Work Cited : What Are the Guidelines for Formatting a Manuscript? – Writer’s Digest

Too Much, Too Little?

klange7

By Kaitlyn Lange

Imagine you’re 6 years old, and this world is yours.  Pieces of chalk litter the sidewalk, and your friend’s laugh echoes across the neighborhood.  Everything is perfect. You’re chasing your dog down the street when your foot suddenly catches, and you end up sprawled out in the gravel.  You’re in pain, so you begin to cry. Emotions flow freely and nothing has made you question the connection between your feelings and reactions; if you feel something, you feel it with no remorse.  Now, you’re in middle school submitting your first ever 5 paragraph essay.  Your topic is picked by the teacher, and there’s a strict set of guidelines that follow. Your class pumps out 15 essays written by 15 different individuals that all sound a bit too similar.  Cramming for the word count, you pick and choose what adjectives make the cut.  Suddenly, your paper lacks your “style” and simply follows the teacher’s criteria, as it will for the next 6 years of your life. 

As adults with more creative freedom, this is our chance to take back our writing.  However, this is also when it becomes scary.  When is too much, too much? And when is too little, too little? 

In a 2006 TED talk, Sir Ken Robinson said, “We don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather we get educated out of it”, and Peter Smagorinsky, from the University of Georgia, submitted to Writers Who Care, “…emotions are foundational to writing, and I’d add, to living life. You’d never know it, however, from the ways in which schools view writing as a form of “cold cognition”: purely analytic reasoning, unadulterated by underlying feelings, which are believed in the context of school to be illogical and inappropriate. The analysis of the most moving of literature must itself be dry as a bone, with students often forbidden from using “I” to express their interpretations, as if their papers are written by an “objective” observer….who doesn’t care at all.”

Following the thoughts of these two men, write what you feel needs to be said, and make it yours.  Submit that poem you have been worried about others seeing, and include your frivolous adjectives.  If it feels like too much, step back and review it, and if it feels like too little, then add to it.  Just write for yourself, and if it does not make the cut, at least you can be content knowing you stayed true to yourself instead of spitting out a piece that one universal system has tried to convince you feels like you. 

Finding the Lesson

Jonathan Lallement

Jonathan Lallement

A lesson is something learned, it is what we take away from an experience, sometimes you have to live it, sometimes you have to see it and sometimes you can just read it. 

The beauty of reading is you gain experience in a way that describes even the smallest detail whereas modern day technology such as Television, movies and, audio versions don’t explain every detail the way words can. Reading shows a lesson in this way, when you read a story that has been turned into a show or a movie you often feel that it has lost a lot of substance and you are getting the summary that’s on the back of the book. The substance of a story in comparison to a Hollywood version can sometimes feel draining but the knowledge held between pages is much more “appetizing” than held between film. This knowledge adds to an experience that you do not have to live or even see, just imagine. The imagination of someone is so powerful that reading can create more of a level of sympathy, empathy and, understanding of the concepts of a story. We as readers get to go inside someone’s brain and see events; fictional or otherwise, as our own. 

This isn’t only for fiction stories though, when you read the news you get to see every detail of a story and every piece of bias shown. In an article writers often use certain words to show their bias and that creates a unity of sympathy between the reader and writer that should be embraced and not discarded. Nonfiction, which should not be biased, shows us events how they happened and why they happened which is like time traveling. Nonfiction and the lesson you learn should be linked with the quote  “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”–George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905. Stories always have a lesson to learn and with fiction it is about building a concept of the world happening between the lines and taking what happens to the characters and applying it to a life that is felt and not read because even in a Sci-Fi novel we have emotional and logical connections that we can learn and apply. In a news article we can build a connection with the Journalist writing and be sympathetic of what is happening right now but we need the understanding of the past in nonfiction to correctly understand what is going on. These are broad lessons of reading but with these lessons a reader can search for the knowledge to carry onward into their life.

Want to become a better writer? Cry…or laugh

Sherly Bonilla

By: Sherly Bonilla

Often times, we hear and read about the importance of having good structure in writing, or to be objective, or to have good grammar. While it is true that all these aspects are fundamentally important, another important aspect of writing can often times be overlook: vulnerability. A word that often times is deemed as intimidating, vulnerability does not and should not entirely be construed negatively or associated with sadness, or helplessness, etc. In fact, this aspect of writing is so important that it will become one the most powerful tools to ensure that you write your best work. Read below and find out why is it so important to be vulnerable in order to improve your writing. As well as how to be vulnerable without feeling unsafe or exposed!


The importance of vulnerability:
• Ability to convey emotions: your work will be better appreciated when the readers are left feeling happy, sad, or angry or whatever emotion you intended to create through your writing.
• Honesty is a virtue: and that is what being vulnerable in your writing essentially means, to be honest with your intent, emotions, and purpose of your writing, whatever those may be.
• Relatable: being honest in your writing means that your readers will be capable of not only understanding your purpose, but also will be able to relate to your work.
• Connection: when your readers can relate to what they are reading, a connection between the readers and author is being made, and a good writer is able to connect with the readers.

How to write with vulnerability:
• Let experiences inspire your writing: the best way to create imagery and convey emotion in the readers mind is to relate a vivid memory that could happen to anyone.
• Be honest with yourself: if you have certain emotions that are inspiring you to write, allow them to, whether it is feeling nostalgic or proud, do not try to hide or mask them in your writing for the fear of being too attached.
• Be mindful: there will be certain things you will not feel comfortable writing about, and that is completely fine, you can still be vulnerable without having to completely share everything. Creating similar stories or scenarios that will still deliver the same purpose can work just as well. In the end, there is no right or wrong answer in terms of writing, and no one is perfect, so becoming a better writer is a matter of constantly finding new ways to improve.