If you tend to procrastinate, you know how frustrating it can be.
According to an article in The Atlantic by Megan McArdle, “Lots of people procrastinate, of course, but for writers it is a peculiarly common occupational hazard.”
Author Jacob Funnell agrees:
“Most of us are guilty of procrastinating sometimes – especially when we have something important to write.”
There are many reasons why writers procrastinate. You can read more about those and ways to tackle them in our former post, “The Secret to Procrastination and How to Outsmart It.”
In this post, I have something a little different for you—some quick and dirty ways to actually give in to your tendency to procrastination, but do so in a way that helps increase your writing productivity.
Sometimes we have to trick ourselves to get going on this writing thing. If you can fool yourself into believing you’re just going to do something fun or even a little silly, you’re more likely to be able to leap over that hurdle that usually stops you from actually committing words to paper.
Procrastinate Well Tip 1. Brainstorm ideas for the scene.
Whereas writing can be tough, brainstorming is usually fun.
Most of us like to brainstorm ideas. I’ve sat with writers and listened to them play the game of “what if?” for hours.
“What if he falls in love with the older woman instead of the younger one?” And then someone else will pitch in with, “Yeah, and what if he then finds out he’s going to be deployed overseas in a couple weeks?” And then, “Because aliens have attacked a city in Europe!” (From the sci-fi writer, obviously.)
It can go on and on and the writers never tire of it. If you’re someone who enjoys brainstorming and regularly indulges your imagination to think about new ideas for stories, why not use that skill on the next scene in your story?
If you’ve been putting off writing it or maybe if you’ve been afraid to start your new book or your next blog post, sit down and simply brainstorm ideas.
Get at least five down before you stop. Then if one of those ideas appeals to you, try writing just a few sentences.
2. Outline the scene (or just create a list).
Whereas writing the scene can feel challenging, outlining it may be just easy enough to help you overcome your procrastination.
Particularly if you’re an outliner to begin with, this may be the best approach for you. If you’re a pantser and you don’t normally outline, then consider just making a list about what may happen in this next scene you need to write.
Lists, in particular, are really easy to write. You can use this technique to fool yourself by saying you’ll take just 5-10 minutes to write a list. Sounds super simple, right?
So maybe you would write down something like this (sticking with our previous example):
- Main character goes to the older woman’s house
- Woman is home and answers the door
- Main character feels attraction for her
- Woman invites him in
- Main character wants to tell her how he feels
- Main character is afraid of how she’ll react
You get the idea. If you’re not really sure what might happen in this scene, go a different direction. Just list details about where you are so far in your story.
For example:
- Main character has just realized his feelings for the older woman
- Younger woman likes main character
- Younger woman has spent more time with main character
- Older woman has some secret she hasn’t yet revealed
- Main character is in the military
- Main character wants to get out, but has two more years he has to serve
Another nice thing about this technique is that it can lead you to actually figuring out what happens in your next scene, without having to work nearly so hard for it!
Procrastinate Well Tip 3. Talk to your main character.
Having a conversation with someone you know is not difficult, right?
And writers know their characters, at least somewhat. So if you’re procrastinating on the writing itself, try sitting down and having a conversation with your main character.
You can do this in a couple ways. The most common way is to free write. Type what you say, then type what your character says. Don’t stop or worry about spelling or grammar. Just sink into your imagination and write freely.
Give yourself a few minutes to get into this and you may notice that the conversation takes on a life of its own.
You can also talk out the conversation. Use your speech-to-text software to record it if you like, or a voice-recording app.
If you have trouble getting started, use the time to conduct your own interview of your character. Ask questions and see how he or she answers. Once you get the conversation going, don’t be afraid to ask what happens in the next scene. You may just get your answer.
4. Write the worst first paragraph you can imagine.
One of the main reasons writers procrastinate is that they fear the writing will not be “good enough.”
That fear keeps us away from the page and busy doing other things that don’t matter as much, like cleaning the dishes or perusing the Facebook feed.
You can tackle this fear head-on by deciding to write the worst paragraph you can imagine. Just let all the bad stuff fly! Why not? You’re not really writing anyway. You’re just playing.
Start your paragraph and write dumb stuff. Idiotic stuff. The most stupid stuff you can imagine. Have your characters doing outlandish things. Pretend you’re a student and your assignment is to write the craziest story possible.
This can be really fun, and better yet, it can open up a back door to your creativity.
You may never use anything that you come up with in this exercise, but once you’ve finished, if you’re still in the writing mood, transition to your real story and write another paragraph. You may be surprised at how creative it turns out to be!
5. Write sentences on the board.
Remember when you were a kid in school and you had to write a number of sentences on the board? Or maybe in your notebook?
“I will not pull Jenny’s hair. I will not pull Jenny’s hair.” Maybe 50-100 times?
You may have been fortunate enough to miss out on this exercise, but either way, now it’s time to return to it. Since fear is one of the main reasons writers procrastinate, you can help yourself overcome this fear by writing sentences like you used to have to write in school.
Only this time, every sentence must start with the words, “I don’t care if…” Then you can fill out the rest depending on what comes to mind.
Let me give you some examples:
- I don’t care if my writing sucks.
- I don’t care if my book isn’t published.
- I don’t care if nobody likes my book.
- I don’t care if my book never wins a contest.
- I don’t care if my book doesn’t sell.
- I don’t care if my book gets bad reviews.
- I don’t care if people think my book is “good” or “bad.”
- I don’t care what my friends think of my writing.
Benefits of Writing Sentences
This exercise is great for many reasons. Number one, it gets you writing (always a plus!).
But it also helps you voice your fears, which in many cases, is the key to shrinking them down to size.
On top of that, it helps you to find out what you’re really afraid of. Once you know that, you can face it and decide what to do about it.
Finally, the exercise helps you get into a frame of mind where all that other stuff doesn’t matter so much. You’re writing because you enjoy it, and because you want to.
Sometimes the brain can interfere with all these other worries. Writing sentences helps get those other worries out of the way so you can come to your writing ready to have some fun.
“I don’t care what anybody thinks, I’m going to write!”
Try it! If you feel better once you’ve written a few sentences, then try getting back to your story.
And by the way, I’d highly suggest you write these sentences by hand. Research shows that handwriting gets the message into your brain much more powerfully than typing does, and you want these messages to sink in. Good luck!
How do you procrastinate productively?
Sources
Funnell, J. (2017, May 24). 11 ways to stop procrastinating and get writing. Retrieved from http://www.writing-skills.com/11-ways-stop-procrastinating-get-writing
McArdle, M. (2018, April 11). Why Writers Are the Worst Procrastinators. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/02/why-writers-are-the-worst-procrastinators/283773/