Procrastination, Deadline Doom, and General Writer Panic
By Heather Webb | June 17, 2024 |
My blood pressure is rising, as I sit here pondering what has dominated my writing life lately and what, therefore, I should write my WU article about today. My blood pressure skyrockets as I wonder when and if I’m EVER going to get more words in on my WIP. And then I am struck with the answer: procrastination! For weeks, I’ve been sitting down (the ol’ butt-in-chair) and attempting to write, but instead, I look up recipes and write “to do” lists and take care of the dozens of writerly admin chores waiting for me in my inbox. I write a few sentences and delete them, gaze at my outline, and then I clean the kitchen and run errands. I do everything but put actual words on paper.
I have a deadline, you see, around the holidays at the end of the year, and I’m trying not to panic as I stare at my 28,000 word count that has remained the same for weeks and weeks. I know it’s possible to crank out a draft by December, but given the kind of writer I am and the amount of drafts I typically do, I should be on my third draft already, layering, layering, layering. Instead, I’m stewing over the plot, moving commas around, cutting pieces and filling in others, waiting to hear back from experts on a few historical details. Worst of all, I’m still trying to figure out how I want these details to drive the B story of the book. What is the B story?! I just don’t know how this will all come together. I don’t know if my heroine’s story is a worthy tale, or if I’m using the best structure, or if I pull this one off!
In the midst of all of these “I don’t knows,” I’m practicing some serious self-loathing and above all – procrastination. Ahh, procrastination. We are old friends, but I must admit, it has been quite a while since I have seen thee. I’m a “put in the work a little every day” kind of girl, at least since I graduated college many moons ago. But it seems that right now, the young, dithering, procrastinating Heather of yore is back.
WHY OH WHY IS THIS ONE FEELING SO HARD?
So you see, I’m actually glad I’m writing this post today because I could use a little self-examination to help get me going again. This is what I’ve come up with:
The Problem
- Divided Focus
- Open-ended or long-term deadlines that leave plenty of time for dallying
- Setting myself up for failure with my daily routines and most of all, my bad habits
- Fatigue
- Overwhelm
- Panic, negativity, and despair about the state of the world and the state of publishing (Well, aren’t those just so much fun?)
The Solution
When our procrastination is at an all-time high, we need to reframe our thinking, alter our typical routines, and make room for an evolving writing process to set ourselves up for success. Here’s how.
Time constraints & Accountability. When I am at my most distracted, I have discovered that setting a timer for thirty minutes – in particular with a writer friend that I can sprint with – works miracles. Suddenly I have accountability! Not just that, I have a literal ticking clock! The pressure is on and the words, somehow, always seem to come when there’s a proverbial gun to my head. (why does it have to be so dramatic, I ask myself!)
Small goals. The other day I had to talk my teen down from a tree because he was freaking out over a giant presentation he had to finish before the final exam. I taught him how to divide and conquer, to make a list of smaller tasks, assigning “due dates” for each within the necessary timeframe. How to focus on a single aspect at a time, until one-by-one, he could cross things off the list. It was a great reminder for me, in the midst of my procrastination, to make my own list of tasks with mini due dates, and to focus on the word count for the day, not the finished whole. So I broke out my calendar and did just that.
Setting up my environment for success. For most of us – and certainly for me – that probably means a quiet, uncluttered environment WITHOUT OUR CELL PHONES NEARBY, tempting us to watch cat videos and to check out the latest posts from our favorites online. This is harder for a mom or dad who is the go-to parent when there is a forgotten lunchbox or a crisis of some kind (and there is always a crisis with teens, let me tell you), but I’m discovering more and more that removing my phone from the area where I’m working is an absolute must for me. I’m now leaving my cell phone in another room, which is just annoying enough that I won’t go checking my notifications every five minutes.
Who doesn’t love a reward. For added motivation, I’m working on a series of small rewards that are fairly immediate and bite-sized. For example, if I hit half my word count goal in this two or three hour chunk, I can go to the local coffeeshop/Starbucks and get a fancy coffee. Or, if I finish my word count by XX time, I can watch one episode of Bridgerton – gasp! – in the middle of the day, or perhaps go to the landscaping store and pick out a new plant, or work on some other fun project of mine, etc.
Restructuring my writing time. When schedules get harry in my life, I’ve always been successful at writing at the crack of dawn before the world wakes up (4 or 5 a.m.!). I’ve become so wedded to this ideal, that I’ve somehow formed another belief in my head that is working against me: I’m terrible at writing later in the day. This is a real problem because the past year I’ve been going to early morning spin classes during that sacred morning writing time, and when I come home, I’ve found it difficult to settle into a new routine immediately…or at all. For the first time ever, I’m blowing up my old schedule and learning how to carve up my time in a different way. The plan is to work in short bursts at various times throughout the day, timer at the ready. I’m hoping it’ll allow me to keep the classes I love AND get my words in for the day. (I’ve just started this. I’ll let you know how it goes…)
Protecting my creative brain and getting in the groove. I’ve started a new habit of opening a craft book, book of poems, or reading a craft article on a favorite writer website (a-hem, Writer Unboxed) for ten minutes before I begin writing. I’m loving this! It’s a little warm-up to my day, and it’s helping me push the dozens of worrisome thoughts out of my head and focus on the craft.
When Procrastination is Your Friend
Finally, there’s another thing I’m discovering through this self-examination of my procrastination. Sometimes it isn’t really procrastination at all, but your brain taking care of you. Sometimes you just have:
Fatigue. When I look back at the year I’ve had so far– a book launch with an extended book tour on the road, a child in severe allergic distress that has sent us to the hospital multiple times with unanswered questions, a child battling serious school (and social media) bullying, a collaborative novel due in the midst of my book launch – I realize that perhaps procrastination isn’t the right word here. What I am is TIRED. I’m a tired mother. I’m a tired writer. I need time to breathe and replenish my mind-space and rest my writing muscles. Perhaps my procrastination is a sign that I need to practice a little more self-care.
Burn-out. We work in a difficult and demanding industry that feels like it should be a meritocracy, but it is NOT. The truth is, we can work hard and be very talented, but there’s still a degree of luck in any creative industry. And there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it. This leads to a serious amount of disillusionment and burn-out. Which leads me back to fatigue. Sometimes we’re just tired of it all and need to rest and nourish ourselves.
Seasons of Life, Seasons of Writing. Several of my writing friends began to procrastinate on a current work and after some time, have recently decided to put down their pens. At first, I found it alarming and sad that they should stop writing, but after talking at length with each of them about what this pause means, or doesn’t mean, I’ve come to understand this: There are seasons for everything in our lives. We, ourselves, are cyclical beings, as is nature. Why should our writing lives be any different? And what a beautiful concept this is. We are fruitful in some seasons and lie fallow, resting and gathering nutrients and light and strength, during others.
That’s okay.
The procrastination, or the pause, isn’t a bad thing. It’s not only good, it’s essential. And one day, when the season changes again, we’ll be ready to start our next writing adventure.
Have you ever found yourself making excuses about why you can’t write? How did you bring yourself back to the page?
Heather Webb is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of historical fiction. As a freelance editor and an adjunct in a MFA in Creative Writing program, Heather has helped many writers sign with agents and go on to sell at market. When not writing, she feeds her cookbook addiction, geeks out on history and pop culture, and looks for excuses to head to the other side of the world. To date, her books have been translated to seventeen languages.
All perfectly said. When the pitcher is empty we need to find what will fill it—and we so need to be easier on ourselves!
Thanks, Randy. We really, really do!
Often, if I’m procrastinating, it means I’ve made a turn that won’t serve me. I interview the MC to see what I might have missed.
It also often means I’m weary, and giving myself the space to do the work and not do much of anything else helps.
I also use Freedom on the computer to block all social media and turn my phone to work focus. My husband and kids can get through, but nothing else does.
If it’s really a hard stretch, I start by writing, “it doesn’t have to be beautiful, it just has to be written.” And I almost always am surprised by the work that follows.
Last, I tell my inner critic, named Edgar, to F off.
Thanks, Barbara, for the advice. I LOVE how you have named your inner critic. hahaha. That cracks me up and it’s brilliant. I’m absolutely going to do the same.
“Often, if I’m procrastinating, it means I’ve made a turn that won’t serve me.” Yes. Or I’ve got too many options for how the story or a relationship could go, and I can’t make a decision. Pick one, move on, and fix it later if it turns out to be wrong. The right answer is easier to find after the first draft; sometimes the seeds of it are there all along.
Yes, Heather, I have made excuses. But unlike you, and aside from a small book of short stories, I am still struggling to be published. That is how I get back to the page. Wish me luck.
Wishing you much, much luck, Elizabeth! <3 That yearning is a great way to get to what you want. You've got this!
Hello Heather, and thank you. Your post captures for me the many speed bumps and tank traps that get in your way as a successful writer with deadlines and teenagers in trees. Since I am half a team of longtime empty nesters, much of what you face doesn’t apply to me. I have no deadlines, almost never use my cell phone, don’t Zoom, or take spin or yoga classes. Depending on how you look at it, my wife has either wisely or fatalistically abandoned all hope of locating and developing in me the handy-man side that all wives assume must exist in all husbands.
In my “case,” none of all this privilege and spacious freedom matters. But words like dithering, and nit-picking over comma placement, those resonate. I know what I’m doing: creating my own tank traps. But for a different reason: I don’t want my big project to end. When it does, I can’t see anything bouncing up and down on the horizon, snapping its fingers and shouting “Over here!”
And this isn’t procrastination. Not really. Nor is it seeing the wisdom in lying fallow. I’m rested, and have all the nutrients I need. I just know that when I say “That’s it,” arrange for The Thing to be self-published, and a short time later open the box of author’s copies and take one out, one blunder after another will be waiting to pounce.
This also helps to explain why I keep writing comments on the purposeful, useful posts of others. Thanks again. So to speak.
Barry, I can’t imagine many blunders on your part! But I wish you another bouncy, interesting idea on the horizon that lights your fire very soon. Thanks for the comments. Great food for thought as always.
Heather, what an enabler you are! I am using the reading of this post and responding to procrastinate in the furthering of my latest project, which has been floundering for the past month (can’t seem to muster up enthusiasm, despite all my mental gyrations—from insult, to wheedling, to promise of reward, to the half-hour clock, to groove-getting (goodness, it’s like the Kubler-Ross 5 Stages)—but I have the Scrivener doc open, and have added some sprinkles to it today, so maybe, just maybe…
Thanks for the well-writing wishes.
Hahaha. Guilty as charged! NOW GET BACK TO WORK, TOM! ;)
I don’t know what to offer, but I betcha’ anything you finish it on time. And it’s terrific.
Thanks for that, Bob. I think I needed a vote of confidence today!
Yup. Heather, you’re preaching to the choir. I am a pro crastinator, and I learned my skills as a small child. The thing that jumps out at me is Barbara’s point that real super procrastination might be because I’ve made a turn that won’t serve me. In search of a way to get out of that spot, I realized that my story just isn’t going to work in the form I had chosen. I could write some sort of bad comic book or television story just to get to “the end,” but there’s no point in that. Nobody’s waiting for it. Onward to maybe a whole different genre.
Absolutely, Michael. The bad turn is a great point and it actually made me stop and think hard about a plot point I’m trying to sew into my manuscript at the moment. I hope you find the genre and format that calls to you!
I would say it’s more about me being lazy, than it is procrastination, and I would also have to say staying in my comfort zone. Lazy, in that if I wake up at a certain time, then I tell myself that it’s too late to write, and there will always be tomorrow, which always leads to the next days that never come. Staying in my comfort zone, it’s when I plan out schedule for the week, and I have in mind to put in some writing, but rather than picking up a pen I stick to the same routine. I have actually started getting better at planning, because I do want to connect with other writers, but I also want to feel like I accomplished something with my day.
Perhaps you need a new element to the story that lights you on fire! I know when I’m really excited about a project, I can’t stop. Either way, best of luck to you with your project!
Gah, I feel your pain, Heather. I seriously got more writing done when I had limited time to write than now…I still haven’t opened the wip for a contest because another wip is looking awfully shiny… and a thousand other distractions (planning a fun road trip to a family reunion…oh the places I’ll see!). Honestly, the world will not end if I don’t enter the contest… Good luck meeting your deadline!
I think I’m a little like that, Vijaya. I am far more productive when my plate is full and I have no idea what that is about! I hope you enter the contest – and best of luck!
This is a great post, Heather. I definitely struggle with procrastination. For me, it helps to set a daily word count goal, and I use dictation to tell myself the story (for the first draft). Happy writing!
Thanks, Heidi. I’ve never used a dictation tool, but I’m intrigued. At this point in my career, I’m up for trying anything! Thanks for stopping by today.
I am a procrastinator. It’s definitely tied to anxiety. Not sure how I made it through but I actually finished three projects and although I know edits and corrections will be incoming, I’m relieved and pleased that I made it through the most uncomfortable work stretch alive. It took two good friends, two sisters, a deadline extension and giving up reading and tv and social activities and taking a Tony Robbins online class to get it done. I also lost 16 lbs. Thing is, I’m not sure what ignited my brain. But accomplishment won.
What an enormous accomplishment! Congratulations on staying the course and getting it done! Anxiety can be a horrible inhibitor but good for you for winning anyway.
A memorable post, Heather. A keeper. And ironically relevant because I read it and am writing this now instead of my daily “first thing!” morning writing practice. :-)
Keeping this email lingering with the other I want to-get-back-to emails was perfect. I’m doing a bit of fussing about before handling other tasks here at my writing desk prior to delving into the scene I planned on working on today. Voila…perfect time to read this. I used to do your back in the grove warm up suggestion…why did I stop? And I so appreciated your brain taking care of your thoughts regarding procrastination. All-in-all a positive ten minutes…😉