Monday, February 05, 2007

Procrastination and Other Things That Keep Me From Writing

I love writing. I really do. Creating stories and characters, crafting paragraphs and sentences. Those are things I find a lot of pleasure in.

The funny thing is, when push comes to shove and I need to sit down and write, I can always think of twenty other things that need doing RIGHT NOW.

For example - windows. Ask my husband about the last time I actually cleaned the outside of our windows and he'll probably laugh. For good reason. I don't know if I've ever cleaned the outside of the windows. Today, when the temperature is cold enough to freeze the Windex on the glass, I pulled in those wonderful windows and shined them up (which was hard to do with the window cleaner actually frozen). I also did (in no particular order) - a load of laundry (stuffed animals no less....gotta get rid of those dust mites), the wall near my steps (gotta get rid of those fingerprints), fifteen minutes of color comparison (during which time I contemplated paint for our rec room), seven minutes staring in the fridge thinking about cleaning it out (which I did not do).

Yes, friends, I am the queen of procrastination.

The problem is, when you get to the place I'm in and have editors waiting for those words you sweat and ponder over, it doesn't pay to procrastinate. And I mean that literally. The sooner you finish and move onto something else, the more lucrative your writing career will be.

So, if you're in the habit of procrastinating, now is as good a time as any to break it. Set your goals. Stick to them.

And don't clean your windows when it's 20 degrees outside.

2 comments:

Sabrina L. Fox said...

Cleaning your windows...you must be seriously procrastinating. ;)

I don't struggle with procrastinating as much as I do with my attention span. It is so easy for me to get distracted. I hear of these people who listen to music when they write. That would drive me nuts. I have to be able to concentrate.

Good luck and when you're done, you wanna come do my windows?

Shirlee McCoy said...

I'm finished the windows. Now, I'm painting. LOL