7 tips to help overcome procrastination

Do you ever schedule a few precious hours for writing and then end up completely stuck?

You’re not alone.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to do a lot of writing because I was not in fulltime employment. When I look back on that time, I recognise I didn’t make the most of the opportunity, by making excuses that I couldn’t focus or spending time procrastinating.

Nowadays my biggest roadblock is time, because I’m juggling work with redrafting a 65,000 word novel, writing short stories and in the early stages of a new novel, plus squeezing in applications for residencies and study for my professional career. So now there’s no room in my life for procrastination and I want to share some tips with you so you don't make the same mistakes as I did.

Why do writers struggle with procrastination and writers’ block?

Writers are creatives and perfectionists. We have this drive to create something or tell a story that we believe in, and we want to get it out there and be published. To do that it needs to be done well. And so we get tied up in knots trying to do it.

There's no simple one-size-fits-all solution to procrastination and writer's block. What works for you now, might not work in 6 months. What works for someone else, may not work for you. But here are 7 ways that work for me. Give them a try.

1. First words

The first words on the page don’t have to be perfect, and they may never make it into the final story but they are the first step and are a necessary part of the process. So just start.

2. Writing prompts

Have some writing prompts on hand. I’ve got a book that I flick through for an exercise or two to get me started, and there are also plenty of online writing prompts eg https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/

3. Have more than one project on the go

If you have several projects on the go at any one time, eg the first draft of a novel, redrafting a short story, a blog post and research for your next story, if you get stuck with one you can switch to another and still be ‘productive’.

4. Writing buddy

Find yourself a writing buddy that you're accountable to. Outline your goals and be in regular contact about your progress. In addition, it’s a great way to feel less isolated as a writer.

5. Daily word count

Set yourself a daily or weekly word count – eg 500 or 1000 words a day. Or take part in an official project such as NaNoWriMo

6. Pomodoro technique

I heard about this technique from successful author Natasha Lester who uses it. And if she uses it, it must work!

It's very simple: set a timer (on your phone) for 25 mins, write (or edit or research) hard until the timer goes off and then take a 5 minute break (and no longer.) Repeat.

7. Deadlines

Set yourself a mid to long-term deadline and work towards it. It can be an artificial deadline that you set yourself or getting something finished like a short story to enter into a competition. I find this a great motivation for writing short stories. I’m going to go into more detail about competitions in my next post so keep an eye out.

Go write!

Till next time,

Rosemary

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