WRITER’S PROCRASTINATION AND WHAT TO DO
PROCRASTINATION
Have you ever wanted to write? Maybe a fantasy novel? Memoir? Or perhaps a storybook for children? And all you seemed to be able to do is procrastinate instead of write?
If your ideas have never landed on a page, or maybe you have a half-finished manuscript hiding in a drawer somewhere, don’t despair. You are not alone.
I couldn’t tell you how many people have shared with me that they want to write. They are carrying stories in their heart, but never seem to get around to putting them on paper. One reason is the human tendency for procrastination.
It takes momentum to break through the roadblocks we put up to becoming a writer.
“Too busy.” “Don’t know how.” “I’ll never be Stephen King. “Nobody will read it.”
The list goes on as we leave our pens untouched and make paper airplanes instead.
Millions of people like you and me know the importance of telling our stories before dementia makes a salad of our words.
Or a bus wipes them out entirely.
We procrastinate anyway.
After all, there is always tomorrow.
Isn’t there?
RESISTANCE
There are other reasons we haven’t written the book inside us, but we can mostly file them under resistance—our resistance to putting pen to paper.
In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield says that the greater the resistance, the more critical it is to persevere, as resistance is trying to tell us something.
He explains that if we want to know our true calling in life, we need to listen to those areas we resist the most.
Taking his advice, I can tell you right now I am not called to be a taste tester for Better Homes chocolate cake recipes or to volunteer at the local animal shelter.
No resistance there at all. Chocolate and puppies have my heart without restraint.
On the other hand, finishing one of several books that languish within my computer files niggles at me every day.
I resist with my whole being: ‘Who will read it?’ and ‘This is drek.’
I don’t think I am alone.
I talk to many folks in my age bracket, and I listen to many regrets.
“If I had it to do over again, I would [write a book, learn to paint, teach a course]”
We can’t live life over again. But if you are reading this, I can guarantee you are not dead yet.
What are you waiting for? There is still a lot of life to live.
A good friend of mine is 86 and still dreams of sharing her writing with the world.
Another is 74 and just started teaching an online yoga course.
GETTING STUCK WHEN WRITING
Sometimes writing has felt like getting on a big ride at the fair. (See “The Thrill of Being a Writer”). Other times, not so much.
Many programs about writing a memoir would have you make a timeline first, create a mindmap of pivot points in your life, or begin creating some form of a genealogical table.
By this time you have spent a lot of money for these courses, set aside oodles of time, constructed whiteboards with sticky notes flying everywhere, and hauled out boxes of photographs that need first to be sorted, categorized, labeled, and in some cases repaired.
You begin all of this, and nine months later, you look at what you have and realize you have been going in circles.
Is it any wonder that you haven’t gone any further than to decide that you are not a writer and this project takes way too much time?
If your desire is to collect stories of other family members instead of writing your memoir, there may be another factor that keeps you from doing it.
You look at grandpa, who is 92 years old. You realize that you won’t live long enough to hear, let alone record, all the stories that make up his life.
And if you add your own stories and those of your siblings and dig out the baby books of your children, it is immediately understood why this isn’t done monthly, like recording your income and expenses for the accountant.
You have just entered a ‘House of Mirrors,’ and you are not laughing.
WHERE TO BEGIN WRITING
Let’s get off the rides that go nowhere and begin again.
The Buddhists use the practice of “Beginner’s Mind.”
By watching a toddler learn something, we get an idea of a beginner’s mind.
“Just do it!” to quote a popular advertisement.
There isn’t anything we have known how to do
before we set out to do it—not even walking.
READING HOW-TO BOOKS
Do you ever get caught up reading how-to books?
I often listen to a voice in my head that says, “Here, read these directions, and you will know how to knit, drive a car, make a loaf of bread…’
So far, this has never worked.
These books may give me understanding, inspiration, and hints, but the only way I learned to drive a car was to get behind the wheel and step on the gas.
I learned to make bread by making a big sticky glump of flour, water, and yeast. And doing it over and over.
JUST DO IT!
Think of all the beginnings in your lifetime.
Focus on those you began without knowing anything first – walking or riding a bike, for example.
You just did it!
Getting on, falling, and getting on again is the key to how to ride a bike…or a horse.
Years ago, I lived in an old farmhouse with a water pump that wouldn’t work until it was primed.
You would pour a little water in the top of the pump, lift the handle up and down a few times, and voila, fresh well water would come streaming out.
Prime your pump with a little reading, then throw words on a page, push them around and knead them until they begin to stick together.
It is that simple.
Writing is a combination of these two approaches.
I put away the ‘how to write books,’ and now I sit down – and write.
Mostly I wobble like a beginner on two wheels, and a lot of what I write is indigestible.
In the beginning, you will produce a big sticky glob of words without shape or meaning. You push and pull against it until it begins to feel different.
It holds together and stretches in just the right way.
All the cutting, editing, and revising processes are akin to putting it in a hot oven.
Soon there is a fragrance of the words, sentences, and paragraphs transformed into a complete story, poem, or book.
May these words nourish the writer within you like a slice of warm bread fresh from the oven.
Now go pick up your pen!
[Photo Credits from Unsplash: Chocolate and puppy by KarstenWinegeart; Books by Ashim D Silva; Rollercoaster by Priscilla-du-Preez; Hand Pump by Herbert Goetsch]
More Articles Like This One
Did You Ever Want to BE a WRiter?
