This Can Wait. Right? Right?
well… not always
We all do it. All the time. Mostly for little things. Because the really big things are so massive they can’t be shoved aside with a casual tomorrow, I’ll handle it tomorrow … or in a week … or whenever. The pile of laundry that should be folded, the weeds that need pulling, the new coat of paint on the garage door. The flu shot—there’s time, it’s only September. The desk drawer chockfull of old bills. The cupboard with clothes that don’t fit anymore and should be taken to charity. We all have our quirks. Disciplined about some chores, and dragging our feet on others. Quite irrational. I don’t delay my dentist appointments but I haven’t signed for my mammogram yet and I’m due. Both are unpleasant, so what gives, why one and not the other?
Remember having the entire weekend and pushing that homework assignment to Sunday night? Or the report, the presentation, the speech … things that eventually get done, kicking and screaming, with a lot of anguish and hand wringing. There must be cases where the task is never completed in the delayer’s lifetime.
Procrastination.
Our most common inner demon.
We all know what the kicker is. The more time we’re given, the worse it is. Nobody is after us to empty that wardrobe, except maybe a nagging relative who needs the space for their own stuff, so, hey, what’s the rush? That essay for Ms. Whatshername English Lit class she wants at the end of the month, three weeks from now … yep, there’s plenty of time to bum around.
Now, put yourselves in the shoes of a writer like me who doesn’t have an editor or an agent breathing down her neck, calling at all hours, screaming for the next chapter—I imagine that’s what happens to bestseller authors with release dates set in concrete, the lucky ducks. Anyway, there’s nobody telling me to write anything, I’m free to lollygag, bob along, smell the breeze to my heart’s content. In other words, the ultimate temptation and procrastination’s favorite terrain.
A few friends who read my stories (there have been lots of stories over the past 7-8 years) say I’m “disciplined”. They believe I don’t have a problem putting my butt in the chair and get cracking—the opposite of lollygagging. They’re mistaken, I loaf often. Still, my work method has improved. I used to be a procrastination champ. It took me twenty years to finish the 4-book Savage Crown series, my science fiction dystopian saga. Months went by without any work at all being done. Long weekends were the worst. I became an expert in wasting them.
This is how you do it. Saturday is for thinking about getting back into the groove. Sunday is for re-reading the last chapters, a necessity, it’d been so long I couldn’t remember where I was. Monday morning/afternoon is for pondering what to do next. Monday evening: yes, let’s go. No wonder it took forever … and I love these stories!
I don’t believe in writing every single day, or sticking to a set word count, but going about it the way I did for Savage Crown is a recipe for disaster. It’s a miracle I finished the thing. And, oh, the guilt I carried for squandering all that precious time …
As soon as I put Crown behind me, I promised myself I would not get caught in the same stop-and-go sputtering game again. It makes me irritable, impatient, and utterly miserable.
I swore I would beat The Evil Procrastinator.
My method is simple: Deadlines!
The best are self-imposed. This Substack newsletter is a prime example. Nobody’s holding a sword over my head to deliver 700-800 words every two weeks. I’ve been doing it since December 2022. Sometimes I’m ahead of the clock with a piece written a week ahead of time, sometimes I struggle and scramble down to the wire: Thursday 10:30 a.m. Central Time. I have been tempted to recycle the odd guest post that few of you have read but it feels like cheating, and breaking your own voluntary rules is beyond pathetic.
Calls for submissions are a big help. A publication puts out a call for an issue or anthology on a theme that inspires me. They open and close on specific dates. It puts a burr under my saddle because I rarely have something sitting in my drawers that matches what the magazine is looking for. There is no obligation to submit, so the deadline is self-imposed. If the story doesn’t work, I just won’t send it out. But it’s admitting defeat and it annoys me.
Then there’s the writing I’ve agreed to do for a magazine that invited me to submit, or a blog that I’ve pitched for a guest post, mostly to support a book launch. These are opportunities to get my name out there and reach a new audience. I have one of them scheduled for October that I need to work on. Tomorrow, ha! The Procrastinator is rearing its ugly head.
I’m telling you, it’s a constant battle.
Best Thriller Books reviewed Love You Till Tuesday
The complete review is here: Best Thriller Books. The reviewer was kind enough to give me a banner, see below…
In other news, The Tyler Morning Herald gave me a nod: East Texas Author Releases New Book.
I also had an interview on the Weird, Wacky, & Wild South blog: Southern Writer Spotlight, have a read.
Writing fiction has suffered a bit lately, but I promise I will soon get back to it. Promise. Promise.
I go by that Stephen Fry quote: "The worst you can do in life is set yourself goals." Not a luxury most can afford but it works when you can have it.
How do you handle your deadline if something *big* happens in your life? There was a season in my life when I struggled to write anything because of Covid, along with several major life changes. I put writing on my to-do list but realistically, I was too exhausted to think. So I'm curious how you handle your deadlines when you get really sick or some other unexpected life change occurs. Do you keep things flexible? Lower your expectations? I always wonder how published authors handle these things.