I was just thinking in the shower (it’s no secret it’s my favourite place to think), and I realised there is one step more to my writing procrastination problem that I need to deal with: impatience.

My mother (among many others, no doubt) can well attest to the fact that I have something of an impatient personality. She often tells the story that when I was a child and I came to her and said I wanted to learn how to do something (for example, sew, cook, do something on the computer) she soon discovered that her life was much easier if she instructed me immediately. Then I’d happily amuse myself (hopefully for a while – if not, sorry Mum!). If she didn’t, I’d nag incessantly. Once I wanted to know something, I wanted to know it right then.

I just realised that this impatient streak hits my writing too. It explains absolutely perfectly why the second half of my draft novel (the first one, set in Japan) is nowhere near as good as the first half – in my opinion and according to feedback. I just wanted it to be finished, so in the last half I took less care and used the “near enough is good enough” philosophy a bit too often. That, combined with the fact that I was writing it to a deadline – the best way to overcome my procrastination – led to a flawed product.

My big hope is that just the process of having realised this will help solve the problem. As I said, this weekend I’m planning to get back to some rewriting of said “impatiently finished” novel, so we’ll see if I can do it patiently. If nothing else, I’m going to start the fixing-up process with the second half of the manuscript, the neglected-by-my-impatience half, so at least the attention each bit’s been given might balance out a bit.

Anyone out there recognise the combination of procrastination and impatience, or is it just me?