We all procrastinate. Or nearly all of us and those who don’t are not normal, in my humble opinion.
Somehow the idea (or fact) of facing a blank page brings out the desire to do anything but that. Clean the fridge. The litter. Reorganize my LPs. It doesn’t matter. There always comes a time when in my writing when I feel compelled to do other things to avoid what I am writing. The problem with that is that writing is my career. If I avoid it, I don’t get paid. I lose my clients. My husband frowns at me.
Life is not good.
Procrastination is normal, especially for writers. Writing is hard. Defrosting the freezer is so much easier. Plus you can look at it and see your progress. You know it’s a good thing. You can show your family and bask in their…okay, in their “gee, that’s great, honey” statements that let you know they see through your delaying tactic and know you skipped out on work today. Hmmm. There is a better way.
After years doing this, I have finally realized procrastination makes the process worse. It is not worth the mental anguish or the guilt afterward. The good news is that while there are a million ways to procrastinate, there is only one way not to—sit your butt in the chair and write.
It’s that simple. And that hard.
The words won’t happen on their own. They are funny that way. They wait to be led to the page and ordered into sentences. You can’t dream them there and you definitely can’t talk them there. You have to guide each letter and you can’t do that from the basement or garage or from whatever else has pulled you away from your chair.
On those days when I want to do anything else, I pack up my laptop and head out. I find a quiet (or somewhat quiet) table in a cafe or coffeehouse or even a picnic table by the river and sit myself down. I turn off my internet access so I am left with nothing but my writing programs. Then I open my current project and begin. It helps to remove myself from distractions around the house and to walk away from my bookshelves that call to me like a siren.
And then I write. Those days are often my best writing days.