Crossover post: My Top Tips for Nipping Procrastination in the Bud
EXTREMELY specific things to try
If there’s one thing that SheWrites.com, an online community for women writers, loves as much as I do, it’s helping folks fulfill their dream of finishing and selling a book. So I teamed up with them to bring you a regular dose of expert advice.
Every other month, I’ll choose a topic and share some of my top tips for honing your craft or making it in the publishing world—half here and half over on their site. Read on, and then head to SheWrites.com for the other half of the post!
(Pssst: Check out the earlier installments here:
Crafting prose that sings: on SheWrites and my Substack
Creating characters that feel real: on SheWrites and my Substack)
So many people tell me, “I would love to write a novel someday!” or “I wish I could write a novel!” I’m always reminding them that the only way to write a novel is to...write a novel. Annoying, right? Inconvenient, at least.
Here’s the harsh truth: I almost never feel like sitting down and writing, even though I love what I do. Yet somehow, I’ve written five books. For me, it’s all about mind games. Here are my go-to tricks for stopping self-sabotage and putting pen to page.
Ready, set…sprint!
I’m a big fan of the Pomodoro Method, where you set a timer for 20 or 25 minutes and do nothing but write until you hear the beep—you don’t check your phone, you don’t unload the dishwasher, you don’t look at Instagram, you just write. Even if what you write is god-awful, or even if it means opening up a second document and screaming into it (“I DON’T WANT TO BE WRITING TODAY I DON’T KNOW HOW TO END THIS SCENE I HATE THIS DON’T MAKE ME”)—that still counts as writing! And once you get going, real words start to flow.
When the timer goes off, you set another timer for a 5- or 10-minute break, and after it, you dive into the next productive period. I can accomplish more in two or three Pomodoro “writing sprints” than an entire afternoon of dicking around on my computer. I have to physically tuck my phone out of sight to stay focused, so I use the charmingly basic tomato-timer.com to keep track.
Reframe “wasted” prose.
Another common reason to procrastinate? The story idea/scene you’re working on/section/whatever isn’t “right,” so writing it will be a waste of your time. I know this feeling, and it feels a bit like nausea, and it’s normal…sometimes the words I’m writing will not make the final cut, and I hate knowing that as I type them. But! Often the only way to figure out the right way is to draft the wrong way first.
And here’s what I’ve learned about writing prose you know you’ll have to cut: Every single paragraph you write makes you a stronger writer. Like playing tennis or making an omelet or speaking a foreign language, anything (anything!) you set out to do will improve with practice. Professional musicians and dancers and actors don’t rue all the time they spent in rehearsal, calling it all a big waste of time, right?
Give in to the procrastination.
All that said! Sometimes the best way to stop procrastinating…is to put it off a bit longer. Strategically!
Every author has a different trick for refilling their creative well; the trick is to find yours. Some people see a movie in the middle of the day or turn on reality TV for a big, delicious observation of human interaction. (It’s called research, people.) Others go for a run or play a game with their kids.
Me? I'm lucky to live near Green-Wood Cemetery, a national historic landmark that's more like a beautiful park than a graveyard. (Yes, it inspired Brinsmere Cemetery in THE SPARE ROOM!) I find wandering around it inspiring for two reasons: 1, it's gorgeous nature and that's always creativity-sparking, isn't it?
But also, 2, being in a peaceful place surrounded by physical markers of death reminds me my time here is so limited and if I want to leave a lasting impression, I need to keep writing my little books. (Does that sound macabre? Once a thriller author, always a thriller author!)
I was having a lot of fun writing from the POV of a secondary character, and then I figured out that the novel stops when it's in her POV. Old me, who had to get everything right before moving on, would have freaked, but now I realize I was using those sections to figure out logistics and motifs and that I can go back and incorporate elements in the revision. It's actually making me more eager to get through the first draft.
Oh, how I wish I lived near a beautiful cemetery... Wait, that sounded creepy. But despite being nice places to take a walk, cemeteries are great for finding character names!