Here’s a great handbook for writers whose very title takes on board procrastination and everything else we do to prevent us being successful…
Success and how to avoid it by Matt Coward
The roots of Procrastination lie in fear.
Overcome the fear and you can enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Succumb to your fear and you can bathe in the glory of failure.
“I would rather regret something I have done than regret never doing it.”
Aaaaamen!!
TC after you finish your sandwich, check out this great book on the subject:
The War Of Art: Break Through the Blocks and win our inner creative battle by Steven Pressfield.
He’s an accomplished novelist and screenwriter (the legend of Bagger Vance)
It’s all about battling your inner demons and breaking through writer’s block and procrastination.
Excellent and a quick read…unless you procrastinate getting to the next chapter.
Thanks, Gary. I’d heard about that book and meant to read it. Thanks for the reminder and the recommendation. I won’t put it off any longer.
Word goals have never worked for me–expect in editing 
Mostly, my goal is simply to carve out a specific amount of time every day–morning or night–and put my fingers to the keyboard. Many days I go over the time if work is going well; I never go under the time. I’ve found that if the writing isn’t coming easily and I can’t break through that day, then there is always improvements to plot, pacing or characterization waiting or tracking down that one bit of research that’s eluded me so far. Many times it’s not pretty and my language (or at least thoughts if the kids are in the house 
) is ugly, but the session usually ends up being productive. As long as I put my backside in the chair. Which, we all know, sure is tougher than it sounds.
Yeah I have all the symptoms of such an affliction!
-I dream up glorious outcomes to my scriptwriting…namely getting it made and seeing a great film before my very eyes…only to put the cart before the horse, get freaked out that it wont happen, and go drink a beer instead!
-I tend to think of the whole screen writing idea ( a full 90-120 pages!!! - which will seem like nothing to you novelists I guess…) as being too daunting a task!
-My concepts and filmic ideas are sooooo profound, original, and important! Thus I falsely poof myself up so as to make the potential for success or failure that much bigger!!! and scary!
-I imagine the scene of sitting in front of a computer typing on little square pads with the points of each little finger, and watching litlle bits and bites form ever so slowly on the pixalated screen, as being such a tedious and boring task…and it kinda is aint it…?
-I say…my day has been tiring and frustrating at work, I couldnt possibly do more work that could potentially be tiring and frustrating…could I?
and on and on the symptoms continue…
all of your ideas are great and all clearly understand the Procrastination affliction!
hmmm it seems the word Pro-crast-i-nation, implies the active role in something…so is procrastination then the active role we play, and focus we put on not doing a particular thing?
well at least for me not procrastinating today was coming here to this website, signing up and posting something…at least it keeps me contemplating the craft of putting ideas into form…
thanks all for being you!
Cheers
Ja-son
There are limitless reasons to procrastinate, and endless ways as well
Sometimes I procrastinate because I’m at a part that is going to need a good sit down and some careful thought and reflection and probably 2 cups of green tea at least and I just think i don’t have the time to tackle it properly and it’s no use spending just a few minutes on it…but…the odd thing is if i ever do sit down and just settle for a few minutes I do get on with it no matter how long I might have. Even if I only spend 20 minutes something will become clearer in the structure or the premise or the flow of words.
perhaps the meaning of the word is really more related to a vulgar whore who eats baked beans directly from the can?
pro cras tin ate
Pink!!
What are ydoin These jokers are a just a bunch of pseudes who dont really want to do any work, but like to kick around crap excuses for why they cant(or wont), do any. But!! God love em!! they`re not really mature enough for your brand of hard core filth!!
Be gentle with em Pink Jeeezzz!
With my moderator’s cap on, I have split this topic into the Latte forum so that those who wish to discuss procrastination can continue to do so on-topic here. Myself, I’ve got loads to say about procrastination, but I’ll tell you later. (Yes, yes, I know, you’ll need a doctor to sew those sides up.)
Best,
Keith
Pink`s gonna be awfully upset about this
Since I`m still here 
tell me what you see as the difference between procrastination and writers block?
Procrastination is the avoidance of doing what has to be done. Whereas writersblock, is a mental and physical inability to do what you [i]want[/i] to do. At least, I think thats the case. But what is the cause?
Procrastination is the result of a lack, of that,wanting to do, or otherwise you`d start to do it.
I think Wock`s got it right, when he talks about fear, in relationship to procrastination. A temporary loss of faith in your abilities to do the job, with it attendant risk and fear of failure. Unless, that is, you have no meaningful sense of commitment to the task in the first place. In which case Procrastinatia is the more desirable place to be, obviously.
Writers` Block, is a far more meatier problem to wrestle with. How say you all?
Vic
“There is no such thing as writer’s block for writers whose standards are low enough.” – William Stafford
I’ve found willingness to write a crummy first draft to be amazingly effective against writer’s block.
Procrastination is what you do until you finally (again) realize that there’s no way to skip the crummy first draft, and get to it.
Katherine
I think my first draft IS pretty crummy, but it’s actually liberating. Because as I continue it, I start to see how the the bits I’ve already written will be better when I write them again.
Having one’s parents over from australia is a pretty good procrastination excuse. As is being too tired to write, after getting up to a sick child 4 times in one night.
Katherine, Pink,
I`ve switch the idiot off by the way.
Because Ive heard similar advice to yours on a number of occasions throughout the forums, I have offered it myself to others. But, how do you cope with the fact that you cant start typing the crummy first draft!
In A Horror Story From Beyond the Grave, Ive posited the proposition that: because, subconsciously, I believed that the whole idea of me ever being a writer, was nothing more than a sham ( a dilettantes self indulgence, if you like), I was unable to produce a very simple, 150 word synopsis of an article, I had already written, primarily, because once completed, I would be forced to face and accept the realities of the situation. This is my theory promulgated through, A Horror Story…
This inability lasted for months, whilst at the same time notching up over 450 post in the forums. There has to be something weird going on inside the brain, to cause that to happen. Thats what I mean when I say writers block is a meaty question to wrestle with. At time it seems to require something more than a kick start process of just generating a poor approximation of the finished article. I actually sat down every day for months, determined to flirt off this little synopsis, without one keystroke being made, to that end.
How weird is that? Block and procrastination, as far as I can figure belong to two different species.
That`s my two cents worth
Take care
vic
Maybe not. But you can certainly type something. Even if it’s just “what the @#$% do i think i’m doing i can’t do this” over and over again. Eventually that gets boring, and useful words start to come out.
That’s why the Internet is such a trap, because chatting with witty intelligent strangers never gets boring enough to force you to do something else. I highly recommend pen and paper in such cases.
Best resources for fighting procrastination, writer’s block, and related maladies:
- Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way – morning pages, artist’s dates, to provide listening practice and fresh inputs, respectively.
- Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird – sh*tty first drafts and the value of a one-inch picture frame
- Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones – keep the hand moving
- Forward Motion Writers’ Community – fmwriters.com/community/dc/dcboard.php – best writers’ site on the Internet, with lots of advice, inspiration, and daily exercises (although note above comment on the Internet trap).
Good luck!
Katherine
“How weird is that? Block and procrastination, as far as I can figure belong to two different species.”
I agree that they may be different species, but I always thought that writers block was something that happened when you were actually writing - you are writing, but you can’t work out how to resolve your characters actions, or you can’t find where the next leg of the journey is going. Words are coming out, but they don’t make sense, and they fail to live up to the precedent chapters.
I think it’s easy to equate writers block and procrastination, but if you aren’t sitting down to write at all because you find intercourse with witty strangers on a forum more interesting, then you’re procrastinating. Turn off the browser for an agreed time and type waffle. You have to start to write first. I don’t think you can have writers block unless you are trying to write.
Katherine, Pink,
Thanks for your responses. They`re much appreciated.
Probably, Writers` Block is a multi headed monster, with varying degrees of severity and many different causes, or triggers, at its root, as well as many disparate manifestations.
There is something I feel I should make absolutely clear: the, pseudo, windup at the top of the page, notwithstanding, in no way am I inferring that people suffering WB, do so as a consequence of dilettantism on their part. Its proffered by me as a probable cause of my own inadequacies and short comings, and nobodyelses.
I came across this website earlier on, it may interest some of you:
archetypewriting.com/muse/muse_block.htm
Take care
vic
I think i have to agree. Now that you mentioned it, it makes sense. Cause only in trying to achieve perfection do we get easily dissappointed and discouraged and stall for time until we end up doing less and less. I guess this gives us a different approach.
You know, I’ve never had any luck with that. Usually that’s a spiral straight down into feeling like I have never and will never write anything worth anything.
And yet, so many people promote it as THE solution to breaking through writers block. Go figure.
My solution so far is to brainstorm. Where can the characters go from here. What are the possible consequences. What action will bring the plot forward. What action will cause them the most trouble with its consequences. I usually manage to find a path for them amid the dozens of ideas I look at, and that is my path through the writers block. Preferably it is a path that involves both advancing the plot and getting the characters in the most trouble possible via an action that they thought was reasonable at the time.
Fortunately NaNoWriMo has helped me realize that my story doesn’t have to be perfect, only that interesting things must happen, and the most interesting things usually involve the biggest problems for the protagonist!