The Why Of Procrastination

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The Why Of Procrastination

Wings of the Butterfly is done, and ready to be formatted, so I’ve launched into Book 3: Cry of the Hawk. And it has been a rather slow launch.

I am a serial procrastinator. I read a fantastic article a few months ago, which I’ll link to at the bottom of this post, that does a great job explaining the nature of procrastination and ways to combat it.

But despite having a lot of open time for not only writing, but all the other stuff that comes with self-publishing, I keep putting it off.

I love watching short videos. It’s my procrastination vice. The internet is the procrastinator’s best friend, because it is so easy to get sucked into watching one stupid video after another, and there will always be another. Links for “more articles like this one” or “videos like the one you just watched” are ubiquitous. Will power, not so much.

The thing I don’t understand is, why do I not want to do something I love. I can understand procrastinating to avoid school work, or chores. But writing is my passion. It’s the thing I want to quit my day job to do. That quote about “if you love your job, you’ll never work a day in your life.” For me, that’s writing. It’s what I want to do, so why does my inner child balk at it. Why does she feel the need to bury herself in Youtube videos?

I know the basic answer. I do have a part time job, and time I don’t spend working I spend searching for a full time job, because there are bills that need to be paid. Time is short, and I have a lot of demands on mine. My husband, my family and friends, a house to maintain, chores to get done. Time spent writing is time that could be spent “relaxing” in my inner child’s opinion.

And there’s the crux of the issue, what I mean when I say writing. My inner child, my muse, whatever she is, loves writing as much as I do. She also has the attention span of a two year old. She doesn’t want to slog through an entire book, work out plot points, and make sense of character motivations. She wants to write story until she gets bored, about twenty pages in, then jump to the next story, whether the previous one was finished or not. She hates revision, and re-writing and formatting. She gets bored easily. If I wrote the way she wanted to write, she would enjoy herself, but I would never get anything done.

So, writing, the thing I love, becomes work. Good work, and certainly when I’m writing a scene I really love, the flow kicks in, and my muse might as well be on a roller coaster, she’s having so much fun. That’s not a rare thing. It happens about fifty percent of the time during a first draft, and a lot more during re-writing. But, my muse likes to dismiss it because it requires effort, and she would rather pursue her effortless joy.

I sympathize with her. After all, she is me. That doesn’t mean I won’t put her in a mental headlock, because I have things that need to get done.

Sound off in the comments. Are you a procrastinator? What do you avoid doing to keep your inner child happy?

And check that article on procrastination here Wait But Why

Cheers all