Writers know how to get things done. Writers know how to meet deadlines. Writers know how to research. Writers know how to…procrastinate. Today the Chicks share our favorite tactics for putting off finishing— or starting — that next book. Deep cleaning: Guests will be dropping by. Eventually. Deep research: You might need a shovel for this. Reading a book comp: your agent might ask. Right?

Lisa Q. Mathews

Funny, but I found this in one of my social media feeds (what was I doing there? you guessed it!) just yesterday:

Lately I have been to every single one of these places, especially on the bottom half of the map. My other fave thing is to watch yet another episode of Blue Bloods, for the 50-trillionth time. It lessens all the stress of procrastination. I swear.

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Ellen Byron

I’m procrastinating right now by writing this instead of proofing a draft! I found there’s a difference between plain old procrastination and what I like to call productive procrastination. The latter is doing things like making Canva graphics or blog posts instead of writing. The former is any email from people.com.

But you will never find me procrastinating by cleaning. I’m the reverse when it comes to this heinous task. When it comes to cleaning, I procrastinate by writing!

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Vickie Fee

It doesn’t take much to throw me off task. Sleeping late. Getting caught up in a TV show or podcast. A missed phone call. Deciding I need a nap because I didn’t sleep in. But when I’m desperate to avoid writing, and feel I need to come up with a legitimate excuse, I will sometimes go with cleaning. Normal people will buy that. (Not anyone who knows me well). Research is dependable. There’s always something I DON’T know. I don’t know so many things. I can usually write around those, if I really need to get on with things, for instance if a deadline is looming. For one book I learned waaaay more than I ever needed to know about smuggling drugs on semi trucks. It did help me get going with writing… in a day or two. If I do actually clean out a drawer, or such, I’m so proud of myself, I generally give myself a treat, like a cookie. Fortunately, or unfortunately, there’s a candy and ice cream shop on my block. So it’s awfully convenient to reward myself.

 

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Cynthia Kuhn

Me, procrastinate? Why I never! Just kidding (or JKJK as my kids used to say when they were very little and very cute and always making jokes followed by JKJK). And now I’m procrastinating writing this post by traveling down memory lane. Anyway, I heard once at a workshop that procrastination can be a part of the process for many writers, as a response to fear of the blank page.  If we don’t start, we won’t fail!  (Unless I never start, in which case I totally failed. Which seems like quite the loophole.) But anything other than the thing you should be doing can serve this purpose. And it’s hard not to procrastinate. Just reading this post, we’re all procrastinating the rest of our day! *throws confetti*

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Leslie Karst

So many ways to procrastinate! Checking my email; making coffee; checking Facebook; making breakfast; walking the dog; doing the breakfast dishes; making lunch; doing the lunch dishes; dusting (and I HATE dusting, but hey, it’s a way to avoid writing); making a snack; doing some exercises to take away some of the guilt from all that eating; thinking about what to make for dinner…

Oy. It’s a wonder I ever get any books finished.

 

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Kathleen Valenti

How do I procrastinate? Let me count the ways. If I were to categorize my procrastination techniques, which is a glorious way to waste–er, spend–time, most would fall under the umbrella of Getting Ready. “But first, coffee” becomes “But first before coffee, I should probably empty the dishwasher, clean the kitchen, look up fun coffee recipes, then run to the store REAL QUICK to grab more coffee.” Then other Very Important Preparations begin: Research, preceded by Pre-Research, which often involves trolling the internet for Inspiration. And let’s not forget Reading, which is a combo platter of Research, Inspiration, and Getting in the Writing Zone. I do think mentally capitalizing these tasks help. They just feel more important and worthy of time. Kind of like, well, Procrastination.

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Becky Clark

I talk in my EIGHT WEEKS TO A COMPLETE NOVEL about procrastination. It doesn’t give me a huge problem, because honestly, the mental anguish that comes from procrastinating is worse than actually doing the chore, but it does rear up on occasion. When it does, I tell myself I only have to do whatever it is for five minutes and if I still don’t wanna, then I can quit. But by the time I’ve dipped my toe into the project, it’s fine and I’ve jumped whatever hurdle was in my way.

When I do procrastinate, though, my favorite thing is to goof off doing a jigsaw puzzle and listening to music. I’m a big fan of Becky Time!

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Jennifer Chow

Inspired by watching Waitress on the plane coming back from my recent vacay, here’s my recipe for
Procrastination Pie:

Prepare crust of poor time management.

For filling: Stir in slices of vacation fruit, cute pet videos and hilarious memes, and frequent email checking. Combine thoroughly.

Roll out dough of coming-soon deadline and add filling.

Make lattice pie crust of uh-oh.

Bake for half hour at temperature of despair.

Remove from oven and serve with dollop of whipped, frantic energy.

Readers, are you the just do it type. Or do you let other projects, real or imagined, throw you off your stride. Share your fave procrastination tips in the comments.