When 'Thinking' Becomes 'Writing'

I am a procrastinator, there's no two ways about it. If something needs doing, I'll find other jobs to do first. I flit from one thing to the next, and whilst, on a good day, I can get 3-5000 words on the page, there is no way those words are going to be written in a single sitting. I am up and down like a yoyo. 500 words here, 300 here. About the only thing that can get me to sit down and focus on writing, is knowing that I'm meant to be leaving the house in 20 minutes. Inevitably, I am late for everything.

One of the things I most enjoy during my procrastination, is reading what other 'proper' (i.e. published) authors do, how they do it, what their tips are - what can I learn about this craft from others who have honed it so well already. And a couple of times now, I have heard that it is OK to not be chained to the desk until you've finished. That it's OK for life and distractions to get in the way. One such author, Andrew Cowan, described how it took him 6 years of 'on-off' writing to complete his novel, 'Pig' and how procrastination has simply become a part of his working method - he cannot settle down to work until he knows every other job imaginable is complete (thanks to OpenLearn as the source of this interview).

Naturally, this appealed to me massively! Hurrah! I can use this as an excuse for my lack of productivity! But. There's a problem.

I have set myself a deadline. I know! I know, it was a bad idea, because traditionally, I would leave everything until the week before said deadline and then try to cram everything I need to get done into a caffeine-fuelled, sleepless 7-day marathon.

That just isn't going to cut it with this project though. I love my story, and it deserves my best effort. And, once I've stopped fidgeting, I'm enjoying the process of writing it, and discovering the details of my character's lives. So, there has to be a different way - and maybe, possibly, in my 'research' (playing on Twitter) yesterday, I think I may have found the solution.

In an article for Books By Women, Amanda Linsmeier describes how she writes without writing. She, like Cowen, has times when other things just have to take priority - as do we all - but instead of letting that stop her, or slow her progress, Amanda has started using that time to create drafts, to flesh out characters and to plan her plots, mentally. This way, she says, when she has time to sit and write, she has several chapters in her head, ready to spill forth on to the page.

I like this idea a lot. I fear that perhaps I won't be able to remember the ideas I come up with, but perhaps a quite prompt in my note book would help me to avoid that issue. Perhaps I can use the time when I am making dinner or cleaning hair up off the bathroom floor, or wiping down kitchen worktops, walking to one of my volunteer positions, those are the times I can let my characters have free reign in my mind, to show me who they are, what they do, what they love, and what makes them tick. This time can become the 'dress rehearsal' so that when I am home, and everything else is as it should be, I will be ready to write.