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So I have this incessant need to make everything I write turn out perfectly. I come up with a new idea or I get an assignment and suddenly I am unable to write anything because nothing I think of is good enough. I sit for hours, sometimes days, with a blank document tauntingly minimized on my dock.It’s just part of my process.
I’m not one for extensive prewriting; I’ve found that I do most of my brainstorming and outlining in my head. See, all those hours of being unable to write are spent thinking. But I can’t just sit there and think, right? So I (wait for it) . . . procrastinate!
“But Ms. Ridley!” you protest. “Are you really trying to tell us that your warm-up routine is just procrastinating?”
Well, hypothetical student, to be perfectly honest? Yes. Take this post, for example. I’ve known about this post for several weeks now. I knew that I should get it written and get it to the lovely Ali well before the post date. And yet, every time I thought to myself, “Hey! You should write that post today!” I just couldn’t write it. I wanted it to be perfect. I wanted to sound clever and awesome and interesting. Instead I worked on my semi-annual Buffy re-watch and caught up on episodes of Glee. I read a few books. I learned how to carve my own rubber stamps. I even wrote lesson plans. So now, at 11:00 on the night before it’s due, I am writing my post.
It’s a decent post so far. It will get a little revision, sure, but it’s never going to be Holy-Cow-Your-Writing-Is-Amazing-and-Perfect like I wanted it to be.
THIS IS OKAY.
As you might know, nothing is perfect. Even Harry Potter itself has flaws. This is a natural part of existence, so it only makes sense that it is a natural part of writing. What I write will never, ever be as perfect as I want it to be. But I can’t just not write. I love writing. So instead of letting that need for perfection keep me from my craft, I just use it to my advantage. I think and think and think some more about what I’m going to write and how I’m going to write it. Meanwhile I bake bread from scratch and read old fanfiction and studiously avoid the writing I should be doing until the absolute last minute.
And then I write like crazy.
Those days and weeks spent thinking are invaluable. So yes, about seventy percent of my writing process is not writing. What can I say? It works for me. After I’ve had time to stretch and sift and work the kinks out of my ideas, I feel much more prepared to sit down and write them.
Plus, I get all that extra thinking time to swoon over Darren Criss.
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Allison Ridley is the biggest Harry Potter nerd you’ll ever meet (don’t even get her started on how the “t” in Voldemort is silent). She teaches English to high schoolers in Arizona and spends her free time baking, crafting, and reading as many YA books as possible. She is 23, currently single, and certainly not hinting at anything. (How YOU doin’?)Allison loves writing young adult fiction and usually ends up writing fantasy or sci-fi. Her most recent work in progress is a combination of Greek mythology and violent unicorns. Her earliest writing memory is from when she was four years old: she doesn’t remember the actual story, but she does remember it was printed on that accordion-style paper with the perforated holed edges.
Allison has a short story called “That Whole Being-Dead Thing” in the anthology VAMPIRES, Zombies and Ghosts, Oh My! (and Other Creatures of the Night STORIES), edited by Eve Paludan. The anthology can be found on Amazon and on Smashwords.
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You know, Terry Brooks calls all that sorta-procrastinating-but-really-mentall-writing-time "book dreaming", so I think it's totally legit.
What do you think of Allison's approach? Do you warm up in a similar fashion?
And YES there is #ninjachat this afternoon, right here, at 2:00 p.m. MST!
6 karate chops:
What a very funny and interesting post.
I think there are a lot of writers with this same method. The book is all up here *points to temple*
When it's ready - which is typically at the very last possible moment - it will work it's way out.
Personally, I wish this could work for me. But if I don't write, jot, note take, line up corn kernels or something, my fickle brain will toss aside all that mental contemplation lol!!!
This post made me feel the need to stop and tell you how awesome I thought it was! Sometimes (my hubby would tell you we are nuts) but a little procrasinate. Doesn't always work for me but hey if it works it works.
Love it! Next time I'm procrastinating, I'm going to call it "book dreaming"! :)
Seriously though, I think I do a lot of this too. I am trying to curb the procrastination, but that's probably because not all procrastination is good procrastination.
Oh, I think you're selling yourself short by thinking of it as procrastinating. :) I always think of this as my "percolating" time, where I turn things over and over in my head. Thoughts get sifted through, changed, thrown out, edited... and then when I finally have it all thought out and I sit down to write? Presto, magic! (Or, that's the hope, anyway.)
I do the same thing! I think up ideas about how I want my book to be and how I want it come off as in my head. Once I feel good about all of my daydreaming, I finally hit the papers. :)
Now that is a master procrastinator! I think I work in the exact opposite way.
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