So, my friend Jamie over at Arcane Geometry has a great post this week about writing and procrastination. When I have friends who blog, I faithfully read them, whether or not I agree or feel they apply to my life. Writing often feels lonely, but in my experience, it takes a village. {Side note: if you also blog, post a link in the comments. I’d love to follow you too.}
In general, when Jamie writes about writing, I tend to agree. Although, when we write fiction our genres are generally very different, I appreciate his feedback and truly enjoy reading his work. This particular piece about procrastination hit home. Often when I want to write, it’s so much easier to do something else.
The worst piece of writing advice I ever received relates to this. It sounds like a quote, but I’ve scoured the Internet looking for the original speaker to no avail. (Another fabulous procrastination technique.)
Before you sit down to write, make sure the dishes are done.
What this is trying to say, I think, is that you should make sure that any small projects that could be a distraction are taken care of, so that your writing time will be uninterrupted.
What I’ve taken it to mean, however, is that every undone chore or task ranks above writing on my priority list.
This cannot possibly be true! Because then no one would ever write anything. I’m pretty consistently behind on housework, and now that I’m a mom, I’m pretty sure this won’t be changing anytime soon.
I’ve been working to retrain my brain against this “helpful advice” for the past few months. Rearranging my priorities, essentially. Yes, there are some things that rank above writing on my daily list, but there are few things that rank above it on my weekly list. Writing every day may not be possible with an infant in the house, but I have no excuse for not writing something every week.
So whether your procrastination is internally or externally driven, remember there are ways around it. Ways to fight and reprioritize. And sometimes the way is simply to begin again today. To try again tomorrow.
I’d love to hear the worst advice you ever received, writing or otherwise. 🙂