I'm a world champion procrastinator. I always have been, and secretly, I felt somewhat proud of the fact. I come from a long line of heavy weight put-er-offers and I believed that I was simply carrying on with my genetic duty.
But in the last few decades I've learned all about finishing things. I've become relatively addicted to getting things done. I enjoy it immensely. And I think I just back-slid about five years.
I'm a recovering procrastinator and I haven't had a....ooops. Time for a meeting.
I've been working on a particular novel now for three months. Originally I set a time to be finished, a deadline if you will, and then I proceeded to write....nothing.
I wrote nothing for one month. Then I reassessed my goal, and pushed the date back another thirty days and...wrote nothing for another month.
That's not entirely true. I wrote some short stories, a smattering of episodes for my online serial, a few little posts here and there, but no novel. Not even a chapter in fact, and it's starting to bother me.
For whatever reason, every time I sit down to hammer out a few thousand pages on this particular project, the world around me gets very, very interesting. Household chores scream for attention, the television offers up programs that are far more exciting than the usual line-up, friends call with last minute parties, the town holds a festival. You name it, the universe has plopped it in front of me. Temptation.
I'm not worried. I mean, I really want to write the thing now. I'm excited about it. I just have to sort out a way to forcibly staple my jeans to a chair long enough to get the task done. I've considered super glue, lead, and that thread they use to sew you up when you bonk your head on something really really hard.
Not really excited about that one.
Still, I've added some incentives. For one, public proclamation aka this blog post. If I don't write it now, I'll look awful in front of all you....well the few of you... hello???
Well I'll look bad in case there's actually someone looking.
I think I might have to add some chocolate and wine for impact.
Wish me luck.
~Frances
award-winning animal stories