Just Say "No" to Nonexistence

So many blank pages lie before me…well, technically, not really, since I write on my laptop. But so many potentially blank pages, leading up to a Deadline. I'm on chapter 2 of a 20+ chapter book (the second Fifties Chix book, called "Back to Basics.").

I loooooooooove the first chapter. It's exciting, it's right on and it already has a little twist that makes me smile. But dang, I CANNOT get to chapter 2. Here's why: my studio needs cleaning, I need a snack, my hair needs futzing with, I'm thirsty, I should play with/walk the dog, I need to mail out thank you cards, my closet is a mess, it's Monday, where's that lip gloss I got in my Christmas stocking?-I should find it, what's Whit doing?-we should hang out, and these socks don't feel warm enough…really, you could insert just about anything other than "write chapter 2″ here and it needs doing. I know what this is called, of course. It's called "procrastination." Such a great word! So official! Sounds powerful, doesn't it? I love this demotivator: "Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now."

I rebel and think, hey! It's not laziness! Laziness is so unappealing. Wanna know what it is is? It's the fantasy. Right now chapter 2 doesn't exist. It is a perfect piece of literature. It has no typos, it makes perfect sense, it's brilliantly inspired and genius-ly conceived. In fact, it's the best thing I've never written! (The rest of the unwritten book ain't bad either, if you're wondering).

As soon as I write chapter 2 (and don't think it's lost on me that I am blogging instead of writing chapter 2. I bet you're reading this to procrastinate something yourself, aren't you?? Don't judge me), it will be a draft that needs a lot more work, and I'll have to write chapter 3! Yikes! The injustice!

But a friend shared a life-changing truth with me when I was interning at an art gallery and supposed to be painting watercolors to hang on the walls to sell. I told her all about the paintings I was planning on painting and she said without a pause, "You can't sell it if it doesn't exist." Ouch, did she have to be so harsh?

She was right of course. Not only can you not "sell" something that doesn't exist, it doesn't satisfy, pay the bills, keep you warm, feed you or serve any purpose other than make you feel temporarily smug in the day dreaming of it.

Soooo with that, I'm just saying no to the nonexistence [the mere fantasy] of chapter 2 and I'm off to write it!!

(Right after I change my socks…)