Poetica Magazine

I spent several days worrying about this piece, unsure of what to write. I must admit to being a chronic procrastinator-and occasional ostrich. That is, if I can ignore a problem, it does not exist. This is probably why ostriches are not known for their productivity.

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So there I was, flagrantly avoiding my responsibilities, absently watching movies; choosing a book, reading a couple of pages then exchanging it for another, and surfing the web simply to bide time, bored yet unfocused.

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Then it occurred to me that this is what I should be writing about. After all, what writer hasn’t had writer’s block? Who, writer or otherwise, hasn’t procrastinated about something?

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So what is procrastination, really?

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My edition of Webster’s defines it as a verb meaning, “To delay, defer, prolong or postpone an action”. But dig deeper. Is it possible that procrastination is really the result of fear?

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As creative people, we possess groundbreaking thoughts, plans, ideas. And there is a great historical precedent of non-creative people scoffing at the things they can’t see the potential in. So when we procrastinate, when we do just about anything but what we’re supposed to even though we know if we don’t do it now we will miss the opportunity; is it because we are afraid of that precedent?

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After all, what if people carelessly berate this thing you’ve worked so hard on, that you’re so proud of, which you had such high hopes for? What if they tell you that you have no talent, it was silly to think you could do this, you aren’t creative or even interesting?

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Yes, it stings. Yes, you hate the person who called you that. Yes, you want to run out of the room to someplace safe and you can’t figure out any way to avoid embarrassment…

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The fear of rejection, of the letter listing the names of the contest winners you eagerly scan for your name even when you know that if you had won, they would have emailed you or sent a letter with only your name on it.

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Of the endless issues of literary magazines in the mail which didn’t accept your work but want you to subscribe to them anyway; which you read to see what sort of work they did print so maybe you can write something more like it for them to publish next time; all the while resenting the hell out of the chosen writers for their success.

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But we don’t stop, because we can’t. We have ink, not blood, in our veins. “I almost can’t help myself”, says Elizabeth Wurtzel in More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction. “It is always such a struggle to sit down and focus…I will mop the floors with a sponge, on my hands and knees, if it means I can avoid writing. But I would surely have ended up writing about it…That’s the nightmare of my life: I hate writing, but I can’t help myself. It’s just what I do; it is what I love to do.”

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Sound familiar?

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I don’t possess a handy-dandy list of ways to stop you (or me) from procrastinating. Every artist has his own routine, his own schedule, his own insecurities to deal with, and no single system will work for everybody.

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But I do recommend the author SARK’s method of micromovements: Decide what the very first, smallest step is in completing your goal. In this case, it would be 1. Boot up computer. Good. Done. Keep going: 2.Open Word document.

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It may seem silly to think of “Take pen out of pencil cup” as a task, but crossing off even the littlest things on a list makes a person feel accomplished.

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Procrastinating at the eleventh hour is not a great idea. But procrastination doesn’t have to be The Enemy. It may just be a different state of mind, a hibernation, and just as necessary to the creative process.

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Thanks for reading JWorld Cafe, the Poetica Magazine Blog

Jessica Goody, Guest Blogger

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Jessica Goody’s work has appeared in New York newspapers, anthologies such as Timepieces, Moonlight Café’s Poetry By Moonlight, and The Sun Magazine. She was a Featured Poetess of SpiralMuse.com. Her work ranges from poetry and song lyrics to short stories and children’s books. A dedicated environmentalist, she is interested in publishing a volume of poetry and a mystery novella. - Linda Pressman, Blog Editor