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Welcome novelists (published and unpublished). I thought I’d begin with some painful honesty. I’m pretty sure I’m procrastinating. Ten thousand words away from the end of a novel is an excruciating time for me, and I hate to let my characters go. So instead of typing until I get to The End, I’m here setting up a new blog. My first subject is hiding in plain sight – procrastination, and how it shoots you in the foot.
Almost a decade of mentoring other writers has introduced me to many versions of procrastination:
Home duties: spring cleaning, re-ordering cupboards, replanting garden beds (when I start on the oven I’m at Def-con 2)
Pretend writing work: unnecessary correspondence/promotion, too much researching, hours on social networking, or otherwise crossing the boundary of how much time you normally allow yourself for ancillary writing tasks
Mr/Ms Helpful: Agreeing to help friends/school/family when you don’t need to
Life changes:Gym membership, new job that involves moving house, launching into internet dating, proposing to your long time partner, deciding it’s time to have kids
Basically anything out of your ordinary routine of work/life balance (assuming you have one). Activities mentioned above are a drop in the bucket. There are thousands of ways to procrastinate, and yet surprisingly, only two causes – fear of success or fear of failure.
Fear of failure is easy to identify, because most of us have it. Rare is the author who’s racing to send their manuscript off and have it possibly rejected. It’s only those of us handing in contracted books who feel any measure of certainty, and even then we might be up for revisions. But why, I hear you asking, would anyone fear success? Why indeed, but I can confidently assure you it’s widespread.
I remember a time before my first novel was published, watching the Mel Gibson movie Ransom and feeling sick. All my fantasies of being a “well respected, wealthy, International best-selling author” were suddenly in question. Did I want to be richer than Stephen King if it meant someone might kidnap one of my precious children? I don’t think so! And you might imagine this sort of thing is easily rationalised and dealt with on an intellectual level, but so often what the head knows and what the heart feels are two completely different things. So while I knew intellectually I could keep my children safe, my ever-fearful mother’s heart wasn’t convinced. Easily identified now, but that shot me in the foot for a good couple of years, so every time I’m tempted to procrastinate, I ask myself “What am I scared of?”, and I’m asking myself that right now.
While I’m here, I’m also asking you. If you’re not where you want to be, if you’re procrastinating or shooting yourself in the foot in other ways, ask yourself, “What am I scared of? What aspect of my dream author life doesn’t sit as comfortably as the adulation of readers, the fat bank balance and the satisfaction of creating stories?”
There’s something there. There’s always something there. Finding it, facing it and defusing it is how we learn and grow.
Good luck with your self discovery. Let me know how you fare.
Fantastic post, welcome to blogging. Really enjoying your sharing. thankyou
Great post. And yes, like many writers I do sometimes wobble between actually writing and avoiding writing about as much as I avoid going to the gym or eating green vegatables. When the muse is there the words flow – when they’re not, when they’ve deserted my mind and fingertips, I spend as much time as I can finding new ways to not write. And when it happens I usually find it helps to start at Chapter One and read the book through, regardless of whether I am at page ten or one hundred. Then I can fall in love with my characters all over again and suddenly I have this rush to give them their much deserved Happy Ending.
🙂
Hi Louise. Good to know that you have a new book coming out. I look forward to reading it. My book, The Mystery of Nida Valley was published in May. I know all of those excuses. I’m struggling to complete book two in my series and it’s not because I don’t already know the plot. I’m 32,000 words in and stalled. I keep telling myself I have too much to do marketing the first to get back to it, but deep down I know that isn’t true. I am procrastinating by fiddling about on facebook too long, spurts of spring cleaning and many other things. I think it is more about being unsure if the first is going to sell well enough to make the second worth publishing. I am getting great feedback from everyone who has read it. I’ve had wonderful reviews and kids begging me to finish it and publish it before December. I keep saying I will get back to it after I’ve planned the next writing workshop, after the next school visit or book signing, but soon I am going to have to mean it. We are away for a month in September so I will lose a whole month. I’m going to have to start tomorrow. I will start tomorrow.
Great post, Lou – fantastic in fact! So…what are you scared of right now? As for me…hmmm…I really wish I knew but I know on some level I must fear something, and when I figure it out I will let you know 🙂
Lou, you are spot on. If we can stop and identify our fears, it makes it easier for us to break through those fears and achieve the next step in our writing process. You are always so inspirational. Really fantastic that you’ve started this blog. Can’t wait to read more! Cher x
Great comments guys. I think my fear was probably that the world of social media is moving on without me and it’s not enough anymore to hide in a closet and write, so I’ve got this push-pull about how much time to spend on each thing. Of course, now that I’m creating a new blog, Facebook Fan page, Twitter account and LinkedIn I’ve had no time for writing :-). But I’m hoping to find my balance again soon!
I posted on Twitter that I spend so much time procrastinating, it’s a wonder I get anything done. And Helen Lacey directed me here. I’m in final revisions on my thrid book and I still need to finish that final chapter. I’ll get it done…I always do. But probably after midnight, while my family is asleep, with mere minutes to spare….
Some procrastination can be helpful then! So glad you found your way here, Wendy, and keep grabbing those snatches of writing time. It all adds up.