The Fine Art of Procrastination: or How To Get The Damn Thing Started

So go on, let’s hear your excuse. Is your day too full of other commitments? Kids on your case? Dog ate your laptop? Too tired/ broke/ drunk/ confused/ depressed/ incontinent and/or overworked? Or (my personal favorite), There Just Aren’t Enough Hours in the Day. Right?

I’ve heard them all. That’s because I’ve made them all.

Let’s face it. Creative writing is hard. It’s harder than filing your tax return, harder than mending that annoying drawer in the kitchen whose bottom always falls halfway out when you open it and drops a carving knife through your left toe. If just the thought of typing CHAPTER ONE and staring at en empty screen brings you out in a cold sweat, take comfort. You are not alone.

So here’s the good news. Thousands of published writers feel the exact same way you do. They’ll use every conceivable excuse to put off writing a new book, and a few inconceivable ones. Writing a new book is like getting up five hours early in the morning when you’ve got a big important plane flight to get to. It’s so cold and dark out there, and so tempting just to hit the snooze switch a couple more times, savor those precious last few minutes of coziness, of Not-Writing.

Not-Writing is easy. Not-Writing also means that the great book that’s been brewing inside you all your life is never going to get Out There, to the unwashed and traditionally ungrateful masses. Not-Writing means you’ll never have to face your fears and do it anyway. Not writing means never having to say you’re sorry, because you never offended anybody in the first place.

It also means never knowing if your book could’ve hit #1 in Oprah’s Book Club and made you millions of dollars in royalties. Aren’t you even just the tiniest bit curious about that?

I’m hoping this blog will be your own personal wake-up call. I’m writing this primarily for my mother, who has been threatening to write a book for years (in much the same way that Mount Vesuvius has been threatening to erupt for years and end life as we know it), but feel free to tag along for the ride and see where it takes you.

THE LEAST YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Writing is hard.
Not-Writing is easy.

But there are ways you can go between the two stages without opening up a vein. Curious? More coming up soon…