A funny thing just happened to me.
I was procrastinating about getting a bit of work done – or I could fudge that and say I was taking a bit of a break after getting a stack of work done this morning (that’s true – I wrote my first 2,500 words for NaNoWriMo and also did a heap of blogging).
In any case, one click led to another and I was suddenly taking a 20-question quiz on procrastination. At the end they told me my score was 30/100 and that meant my test result is low – I don’t procrastinate very often. Well, you can imagine I was kind of surprised by this, because I think I’m the Queen of Procrastination.
But it turns out it all depends on what counts as procrastination. Paying bills late, for example, is an example they use of procrastinating. I’m a stickler for paying bills on time (my father was a bank manager; although ironically I suspect he doesn’t pay his bills on time. I’m sure my mother does, though). Calling people back within an appropriate time means I’m not a procrastinator. The most ironic question was one about a situation in which I urgently needed to do some work, but my desk was messy – would I clean it first or just sit down and work? Because I’m even better at being messy than I am at procrastinating, I chose sitting down and doing the work.
One bit that made me think perhaps my procrastination problem is not as bad as I thought was the realisation that when it comes to work issues, I don’t procrastinate badly enough for anyone else to notice. Very few of my editors would think that I get my work in late. Certainly in my teaching job I don’t do anything that approaches procrastination. And quite on the contrary, some colleagues and friends who know the combination of teaching and writing I do have commented that I’m actually super-organised.
Hmm. So where does this leave my excuses for not writing? I’m starting to think that the majority of my procrastination problem really is centred on fiction writing, which is tragic when it’s one of the things I love the most in life. That’s why events like NaNoWriMo are perfect for me, because they add that external pressure that I need, the deadlines that all other parts of my life seem to have that help me overcome the procrastination urge. That’s something for me to think about.
And in the meantime, I know there are a few fellow procrastinators who read this blog, so if you need an excuse to waste a few minutes, do the quiz and tell me your scores. Maybe you’ll be as surprised as I was.
I seldom procrastinate on my teaching as well or else I’d have 127 students all angry at me and that’s enough motivation. I’ve also started recently submitting my work to a lifestyle magazine and they’ve give me some extra assignments and I rarely procrastinate on that either because we now have a deadline (see more of what I’ve been up to here.)
But why are we on the same wavelength with fiction? I don’t get it. It’ what we love to do yet we keep putting it off. I’ve been stuck on the same short story for a month now and I keep procrastinating on it to catch up on marking or do some blogging.
We writers need deadlines.
And I also agree on not reading other author’s works unless they have the same style as yours. You’d like your voice to echo theirs. I remember I was reading Nick Hornby’s work when I was writing a literary piece and his ‘voice’ just keeps interrupting and distorting the flow I created.
Kate, you’re a genius. I didn’t even realise that I was trying to say that reading similar styles is helpful while you’re writing, but it’s true.
But back to the procrastination, it’s sad but true, isn’t it. Without a good deadline we’re just busy doing other stuff. Or not – I think NaNoWriMo is a great set of deadlines but I’m still way behind (hoping to rectify that today). Hmm, perhaps I should stop reading blog comments and get writing!