It’s quite incredible, really, just how many different ways there are for a budding writer to procrastinate. Well, especially when that budding writer is someone like me.

You may remember I got quite enthusiastic about revisiting my first novel draft after I re-read Stephen King’s On Writing. I’ve got a brand new draft printed off in a ring binder (a pretty ring binder of course, because this particular procrastinating writer loves cool stationery). I’ve got a list of everything I want to look for when I re-read it, including mechanical kind of stuff like too many adverbs, and deeper stuff like enhancing the theme and symbolism.

So, this attractive ring binder has now been sitting on the floor next to my bed for over a week. I’m enthusiastic and tempted to pick it up often, but I’ve been stopping myself with one bit of King’s advice: I should re-read it all in one sitting.

And it took me until today to realise that this is just my subconscious procrastinator at work.

Of course, in an ideal world re-reading a novel draft in one sitting makes a lot of sense. You’ll clearly remember the details of the story so you’ll pick up any contradictions or changes along the way that don’t fit. You’ll have a mental picture of the characters nicely fresh in your mind so you can check that their motivations work throughout the story, and that they’re developing as they should. And so on.

But it is probably only writers like King who have the hours available to re-read an entire novel (even a short-ish one like mine) in one sitting. I can’t imagine when the time would come that I have six or seven hours to sit down and slowly and lovingly read this novel, making copious notes along the way and really sinking myself inside it.

Now that I’ve finally figured out the error of my ways, I’ll pick that ring binder up tonight and start reading and notetaking before I go to bed. I promise.