Friday Fricassee

And so it's Friday.  Though, for at least five solid minutes after awakening this morning, I was convinced it was Thursday.

So talk to me about procrastination.

I'm not sure why it seems so prevalent among writers.  I think that, sometimes, we don't even realize we're procrastinating.

We call it "distraction."  And yes, there's that.  But it's all sort of under the same umbrella, right?  If we're distracted by something (often online), and we then choose to become involved with that "something" for a minute or a half an hour, we've consciously made the choice to do that instead of to write.

And that's procrastination.

It's not like we don't like writing.  It isn't that we don't want to write.  But somehow, Other Things clog our path, and the writing happens in between them.

Not always.  But often enough for it to be a pattern.

My husband doesn't understand how I get anything done, the way I jump off the page every fifteen minutes.  And yet I complete my first drafts in three months and I meet all my self-imposed deadlines.

Still.  I'm self-aware enough to know I'd be more productive without the distraction factor.  And I'm also painfully aware that, in my own case, it's the fear of Not Getting It Right that makes me hesitate and stutter and look the other way twenty times before starting.

Sometimes things feel So Big, don't they?  Plotting from scratch.  Starting that first draft.  Diving into a major revision.  Writing a (ghastly, unnecessary, physically painful) synopsis.

It's a lot easier to Tweet something first.  Or check my email.  Or eat a piece of chocolate.  ANYTHING but expose myself to the Big Something waiting for me.

Then there's today.  I finished all my preliminary preparation for these revisions, and today's the day for Real Words to happen.  And just thinking about it comes close to paralyzing me.

This is my seventh novel.  And the more I know about novel-writing and the stronger my writing becomes, the MORE PARALYZED I am.

Yeah.  It's the perfectionism thing, too.  Second cousin to procrastination.

So, what about you?  Are you one of the shining examples of non-procrastinating writer?  If so, how do you stay so focused?  If not, how do you daily overcome the Shiny Things to get your writing done?

Let's commiserate!