Okay … confession time.
I started writing the Bellingwood series as a diversion from writing papers in my Master’s Degree courses. When I needed to procrastinate, I wrote the story. Rather than clean or do any number of things around here, I soon discovered that my favorite work-avoidance was to write fiction.
Now, I’d done this over and over throughout the rest of my life, but I never finished anything. There are scores and scores of barely begun stories hiding in different places in my life. I look at them and say “maybe someday.”
By the time I finished the degree I had the first two books published and the third well underway. My procrastination projects had paid off. Pretty cool, eh?
March your little feet forward with me to today.
My job is to write these stories. I focus on them all the time. If I’m not writing, I’m thinking and researching, plotting and planning. I’m marketing, I’m chatting, I’m putting things into place. I’m building newsletters and looking for book covers (while praying that a title will show up before the book goes to press). Everything in my life is now focused on my writing career.
…which leads me to the problem of procrastination. Because I recognize how much of a role this plays in my life, I actually build that wasted time into my schedule. I’ve been burned before and since I’m not a stupid girl, it was important to learn that lesson.
I’ve decided that tonight is a procrastination night. I don’t think I could come up with a creative word to save my life. What should I do … what should I do?
The sad thing is that I absolutely have to do some cleaning around here. Even sadder … I think I’m looking forward to this. Cleaning is one of those things that I generally abhor. I avoid it with all that I have inside me. I can ignore a pile of junk like you can’t believe. If I don’t look at it – it doesn’t exist. If it doesn’t exist – I don’t have to worry about it.
I could sew or play my piano. I could lie down and read a bit or watch television shows. I could fret over the work projects that haven’t been completed yet.
But no … I’m about to clean.
What are you go-tos when you want to avoid working on something?
I suppose that instead of talking about it, I should probably get off my duff and do it. I can procrastinate procrastination!
