Procrastination, Not Writer’s Block

Hello, all! ^^ How has October been treating us so far? Thailand’s been lovely, though I miss autumn quite a bit. The golden leaves falling and the cool chill in the air are always my favorite bits of autumn! Ah yes, and the warm tea. Which I have been drinking gallons of non-stop because, yay (sarcastic yay), I’m sick. -_- I am on the mend, so don’t worry! (And I got the cutest mug ever!!! And the warm tea has made my coughing more bearable. Oh yes, and a lot of lozenges…. :/) (UPDATE from editing Isabelle: I’m fine now. This post was written when I was sick. I am no longer sick)

I recently put down my WIP, Island Keepers, and it has been… hard. It always is, to leave behind a world you’ve created. Of course, it’s ever so much harder once your story is finished for real (which Island Keepers most certainly isn’t!!!), but these past few weeks, I have been absolutely frozen in fear.

Fear of the blank page. Fear that what I write won’t be good enough. Fear that this just won’t work out. Fear that I will never be able to write another project, aside from Enchantria.

And so, I spent the majority of the past two months curled up at my desk, staring at the blank screen and just watching the blinking cursor and feeling sooooo guilty for not working on my book. But each time, I did try to work on Island Keepers, absolutely nothing. It was a complete wall. A complete blankness.

Which is absolutely terrifying.

Even after putting Island Keepers down, I’ve been having these same fears with any other piece of writing I attempt to write. And so I kept thinking to myself, I have….. the dreaded writer’s block. (shudders) Yes, yes, tis a most horrid word!!! But that is what I kept thinking to myself. Until I finally grew so desperate I began to google how to not be so terrified of writing.

And it was then that I came across an article by a writer. And in that article, it said something that hit me. “Stop procrastinating.”

Stop procrastinating.

Only those two words. And it was then that something hit me. Procrastination, not writer’s block.

Because all these days (weeks!), I’d just been curled up by my desk, staring at the horrid blinking cursor, at the blank page, and just telling myself, “I can’t do this.” Then immediately avoiding writing. I would go off for a walk. Draw. Paint. Do some digital art. Listen to music. Play the tin whistle. Learn Boulevard of Broken Dreams on the ukulele!!

And I just kept telling myself that I have writer’s block. But it was when I saw those words that I realized that maybe… just maybe what I’d been telling myself wasn’t true. Not one bit.

I’d spent so long avoiding writing, telling myself it was because I had writer’s block, that in all truthfulness, I didn’t have writer’s block. I was just procrastinating. Trying to avoid my story out of the sheer terror that it wouldn’t turn out well.

And I think that is what I really did need to realize. Because, to write, you simply can’t just wait around for the fear to vanish. You can’t wait for your story to sort itself out. Yes, taking a break and setting aside a project can be wonderful. But there’s a difference between that and just not writing because you’re scared of it or your words aren’t perfect. Because, really, nobody’s words are perfect! They aren’t meant to be! This is just a draft, likely not the finished book. Nobody has to read this but you.

And so sometimes, you really just need to sit down, with your mug of tea or whatever drink you have, and start writing. Write despite the fear. Stop avoiding writing. Tell that fear and that little inner critic to shut up, because really, what good has that inner critic ever done you? (And perhaps tell it that as well. I find that helps)

Completely forget all the pressure for a while. Just write for you. Write the most self-indulgent, unpublishable draft ever. Just stop avoiding writing. And oftentimes, you shall find that you will sink right back into writing and become immersed in the story world. And if not, that’s alright. It can take a while to get back into writing after not doing it for a while. But all that matters is if you do it. Keep building your story and keep writing, one sentence at a time.

And that is really all it takes to build a complete book. Word by word, sentence by sentence, chapter by chapter.

So if you have been struggling with writer’s block for a while, or just the general fear that your story won’t be good enough, then my advice is to just do it. Start writing. See where the story takes you. And if that’s not enough, just picture Izzy glaring at you over your shoulder. :)) Yes, I do indeed have a meme (does this count as a meme??) of it:

^^

This isn’t terrifying at all, yes? 😀

Let me know down in the comments how your writing has been going and if this post helped! I love hearing from y’all!

Till next time and may you all have a wonderful week filled with writing and reading,

-Isabelle