Writing and Procrastination
Sharing my personal experience with pushing things off.
Procrastination, the bane of many a writer. Whether it be from writer’s block, creative burnout, daily life burnout, or a pesky sense of perfectionism, there are so many obstacles that can get in the way of just sitting down and putting more words on the page. Truth be told, I’m procrastinating a bit on my current project right now.
What’s the best way to combat this though? As a rookie writer myself, I want to be careful with passing off my own experiences as tried and true advice. I’m very much still figuring out a lot of the pitfalls that scores of other writers run into, procrastination being one. My goal is to simply share my own experiences, what’s worked and what hasn’t worked for me.
Here are some of my methods for fending off procrastination with progress.
During the Outline Phase
Personally, this is where I have the most motivation. Outlining is generally more about ideas and less about hunkering down to do the heavy lifting. However, there is still a big leap between having a rough idea for a story and getting a solid outline.
Like many writers, I start with a rough idea and think about a few exciting yet vaguely connected plot points. However, thinking of how to fill in the gaps can be like a puzzle, and sometimes it’s hard to find the right pieces right away. In cases like this, I find writing everything out on an index card for brainstorming helps a lot.
The best thing about index cards? You can take them anywhere! I’ll work on them during my commute to work, while laying in bed, or while watching YouTube. With a bit of determination, I can usually come up with some kind of solution, and the longer it takes to figure out, the more satisfying it feels.
During the Rough Draft
The rough draft. For some writers this is the biggest hurdle. Personally, this is my favorite stage of the process. I love filling an outline out with actual storytelling.
However, there is one major nemesis for any first draft, perfectionism. To make any progress at this point, I have to turn off my inner critic. As Neil Gaimon once said, “A first draft is telling yourself the story.” Some people call this Draft 0, I like to call it a skeletal draft where redundant prose, filter words, unnecessary adverbs, meandering descriptions, weak verbs and adjectives, and on the nose dialogue are all welcome.
At this stage, I’m most likely to procrastinate when I reach a part that doesn’t flow quite well or I hadn’t quite fleshed out enough in my outline. To combat this, I try to power through and will leave myself a note to revisit this section later with bullet points about what needs to be changed. If I’m truly unable to push onward, I’ll go back to my outline for some more brainstorming.
While Editing
Editing is by far the lengthiest process, and at times, the most demoralizing. Unlike the rough draft, you can’t use the word count as a clear marker of progress. It goes up and down. For editing, there are two stages: big picture changes and finetuning.
When making developmental edits, I’ll usually start with some of the smaller and simpler changes, and put off the overhauls and rewrites needed in other sections. At this point, I often curse my past self for slacking off during the outline or drafting process. If the needed updates are big enough, I’ll even make a new “mini outline” to keep myself on track about what I want the scene to be in its finished form.
Once I have the story beats in place, I will read the story again and again and again. When editing Wings of Ember, I made edits with every single readthrough. Either a line didn’t sound right, I found a typo, or I used the same word three times on a page. At this point, I’m least likely to procrastinate. It’s that last stretch to the finish line, and seeing the story start to resemble a finished manuscript is incredibly motivating.
Post Editing
This is where I’ve been the past year. For some time, I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to go about publishing and was overwhelmed by videos I saw online about the hurdles of traditional publishing, the upfront costs of self-publishing, the staggering odds of success, and potential marketing pitfalls. Up to this point, it was all about telling a good story. Now, it’s like entering uncharted waters, and for a while I felt lost at sea.
As with the other phases of writing, it’s all about breaking it down into smaller steps. What does the final book need? Does it need a map? Then create a rough sketch of your map, and find an artist within your budget to finalize it. Similarly find an artist to do the cover or any illustrations and someone who knows how to do formatting.
The expression “It takes a village” is also true for a lot of creative works, especially novels, and figuring out who you need to get certain things done is imperative.
Final Thoughts
Every step of the way, procrastination is waiting to strike. For most people, writing is a slow process, even during the most ideal situations. However, recognizing patterns and finding the points that cause you to procrastinate can help you stay on track.
In Summary, my strategy with procrastination with each stage:
Break down the outlining process with notecards to focus on one idea at a time to avoid getting overwhelmed.
Commit to making steady process during the first draft and “turn off the inner critic” - Go back to outlining only if something really isn’t flowing
While editing, I aim for easy fixes first to get the motivation to tackle larger overhauls
By the time I am proofreading, I am usually so excited to be closer to a more polished state that the motivation comes easier. It’s almost there!
Post-writing is a bit tricky. Having a clear roadmap is definitely key, and it’s a good idea to research the best approach throughout the whole approach.
I hope my own struggle with procrastination throughout my writing journey is helpful to any other writers out there!