Procrastination: Putting Me On Notice
Okay. It’s deadline time. No more procrastination. Right.
One of the hard things about writing in a vacuum is not having a deadline anyone will enforce. Procrastination is way too easy when you are your own boss. If I were working in a corporation, for instance, there would be consequences for missing a deadline – a blot on my work record, for instance, or a stern talking to with the implicit threat of losing my job.
But I am working for the Monumental General Corporation of Me. So those meetings in the boss’s office go something like this.
Boss: “Ms. Grey, I see you have not met our production quota this month.”
Me, squirming guiltily: “I meant to, but the siren call of avoiding cleaning the tub by playing online solitaire was too much to resist.”
So here’s the deal.
I am announcing to the world that by the end of February, I will have my character studies done and my plot structure outlined. Writing will start on March 1.
First step will be making excessively decorated signs to put up near my desk detailing the order of my tasks. Then I should check all my pens to make sure they are working. I’ve already re-organized my desk, in a previous attempt to avoid the inevitable. But the supply cabinet in my office – now that is badly in need of a clean out.
Of course, I can’t ignore the basic duties of running a household. That would be just selfish. So I need to factor in cleaning out the refrigerator, washing windows, scrubbing the bathroom tile and digging out sticky dust balls from between the radiator fins.
That should leave a few hours on the evening of February 29th to do the actual writing prep. Wait. This is a leap year, right?
Well, shoot.
Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. If you liked this book review, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.
