Five Am on a Sunday morning and here I am wide awake and wondering where all my bloggers have gone. Are there lives so empty that they have no confessions for us or so busy that they cannot find time for even a quickie? Are we all in the procrastination mood.
Is it time for me to send the snotty email demanding content?
Yes. The concise answer to that question. But I will not. I am the host not the boss. I will just try to guilt them into content creation.
If it worked, the above will have changed. What I see will not be what you see.
I have been busy all week listening to the drone of those more intelligent and better paid than me. Next week I will have to pass judgement on what I have heard.
That is for another post.
The nature of the quickie: write and self censure.
Now I need a new subject. One that I can talk about.
The Desolation Of Procrastination
Every writer will understand procrastination. Writing is an art form anyone can practice. Procrastination is the first skill the writer learns. Whether you are a planner or a pantser, the art of avoiding hitting the keyboard is always just a brew away.
It is time for my first brew. A lovely hot cup of tea (yes – coffee if that smelly bitterness is your preference) just – you say, to get the brain cells firing.
But really it is to stop typing.
Now you can put those fresh words on the paper-screen for a few minutes waiting for the liquid nectar to cool.
The next procrastination will be to drink it, “before it gets cold.”
Research
Always good for procrastination is research. There will be those writers out there that say research is not procrastination, it is essential for good writing. You are correct. My intention is not debasing research. (I need to research ‘debasing now – is it a proper word? Is there a better one?). Answer yes and yes.
The planner will have already completed their research before they start. This is a quickie which, until I started, I had no idea what it was about. I am a pantser by nature. Untrained in writing and loving learning on the job. Also I am a lazy unambitious worker with minimal education. In short I do not want to do research before I write, if I need to know something I find it out. I have no experience of research, and I would not know where to start.
None of that stops me being a writer. Though the jury is out on whether a structured approach to research would make me a better writer.
I say do what you need to do to get to the end.
Social Media
When I have finished my brew I have to log the drink on my phone. I like to keep track of my daily fluid intake. A health check I have followed for years. This involves me picking up my phone. Although my phone rarely chimes with a notification (If I hear one I tend to go to settings and mute it) there is always that little number to tell me I have missed something.
And so it begins. Social Media takes a grip of our attention and we can be lost. The companies have recently lost a law suit over their addictive qualities. Call me a sheep of the elite but you can put your phone down. Make the claim that I am a shill for the corporations when I inform you that indie writers need social media.
I am not on every social media site, just many of them. And my main distraction has to be Facebook reels. I start with Bottom, or Nina Conti, or the bearded cycling guy and laugh, and that starts the scroll. That endless hours killing scroll from the deep dark black hole.
Just Stop Procrastination
I know my handle is ‘Writer Nigel Hare’ (mostly without the gap) but I am a novelist or at least a storyteller. Writer is a better summary of what I do. I do not exclusively write novels, nor do I just tell stories. These blog posts, and the essays, the angry political commentary are fun to write but they are suppose to encourage those who read them to buy my books. (Hint, hint, big bloody HINT!)
This website is just one huge, costly (hint, hint, HINT) form of procrastination and I do love giving these things away. It also disguises the simple fact that my fiction writing is seriously blocked. So serious I would need to shrink a plumber to walk around my sewer mind on a seek and destroy mission!
We do have a member of the WWA that writes nothing but novels. They refuse to write anything else. Do I hassle them for the odd blog post. You bet I do. (Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, if you ever read this – yes I got bored with hint). Even these words in parenthesis are a form of procrastination.
How to Stop Procrastination
Why would you want to. This is a great way to take five minutes to think about what you are writing. A way of finding the words for the next paragraph. A great way to keep both fluids and fuel in your body. Talking of which, this writer needs another brew.
After my brew I realised that is it. I had reached the end. That last eight words completes this quickie. Time for me to do the admin, adding the tags, writing the serp preview and it is also time for you to stop procrastinating and get on with your writing. We indies can never stop!
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