A Pro Procrastinator (6 Reasons Why You're Putting Off Starting Writing Your Next Novel)

It took a while for me to write this. I had the title ages ago… and… well, you know, other things got in the way.

Enough cheese. Procrastination is a serious affliction for us writers.

My twelfth novel is all planned. Just need to write it. And think of a title for it. You might think that the fact that I’ve managed 11 novels up to this point perhaps suggests that procrastination isn’t a serious problem for me.

But hold on, I’m in my 50s, and trust me, there have been long gaps between the publishing dates of my books, with some of those delays caused by the Big P.

The idea for my new book has been ready to take into the next stage of development since April. Yet I haven't got round to looking at my notes. I know they exist, and yet I've been putting off double-clicking the icon on my desktop that'll take me to them.

I know for a fact I'm not the only writer to suffer from this procrastination, but what can be the cause of it? Here's a few theories behind what might be causing it:

1) LAZINESS.

Obvious cause, but most writers aren't lazy. Most of us are writing books in the spare time we get between working jobs that pay and looking after kids that cost. So no, it's not laziness.

2) THE BOOK SEEMS SO GREAT IN MY MIND. WHAT IF IT DOESN'T LIVE UP TO EXPECTATIONS WHEN I WRITE IT?

All the excitement of the possibilities that you feel during the planning of a book have to be realised when you start writing the thing. And sometimes they're not. Sometimes that twist that seemed so groundbreaking during your planning phase just doesn't work when you start turning notes and thoughts into prose. It's this fear of your book turning out to be more average that you pictured it being that can stop you taking the plunge in the first place.

3) THERE'S OTHER STUFF YOU'D RATHER BE WRITING RIGHT NOW.

Maybe your last novel was a bit of a hassle to write and you're waiting for the scars to heal. Writing short stories or something under an alias for a totally different market seems more appealing right now. You need to pen something you'll enjoy, and you know a novel is six months of your life signed away.

4) WRITER'S BLOCK

It's the big fear that loiters in the back of all writers' minds. Have my ideas dried up? Have I exhausted all the energy needed to commit to a novel? The only way around it is to start writing something, however bad.

5) WAITING FOR INSPIRATION

This is usually a bad idea. Often, inspiration comes while you're writing. It shouldn't be used as the spark to get you writing. Best to get your head down and stuck in, however unappealing the prospect may be.

6) DEMORALISED BY THE SALES OF YOUR PREVIOUS BOOK

All this self-publishing has brought the idea of making a living out of writing tantalisingly close to everyone with a computer and an internet connection. Just write, package, do a bit of marketing and watch the sales roll in, they say. But if that's not happening, it takes a lot of willpower to start another project from scratch. What's going to make this new book perform better than the old one that's shifting at best a copy a month? How are you going to make anything new you write stand out when your old stuff is hidden among the thousands who are uploading to Amazon and Smashwords every day? 

Offering procrastination help isn’t the purpose of this post. I'm no expert. But hopefully you can see that one good way of overcoming procrastination is to just write. Don’t expect brilliance straight off the bat (or more likely out of the pen or the keyboard keys you’re tapping). But writing something is better than writing nothing. And if you don’t feel like writing anything, write about that. Write about not feeling the writing vibe. It could lead somewhere interesting, and will certainly stop procrastination.