I don’t usually talk much about the writing process here at Donuts and Desires, but this blog entry is yet another exercise in procrastination. That’s why today’s topic is… procrastinating…
The truth of all truths is that whatever the task, it will expand to fill the time you have to perform it. I always work more efficiently when I have absolutely no time to get a piece finished. I’m working to a deadline at the moment, the pressure is mounting, and still I can’t stop myself from procrastinating.
Things I’ve done today because I didn’t want to work:
1. Cleaned the toilet (out damn’d rust stains!)
2. Washed my bedspread (it was pretty sexed-up – a story for another day)
3. Phoned my Sweet (who told me to get back to work)
4. Phoned my friend Monty (not home)
5. Phoned my mom (busy – I need more friends!)
6. Made a spinach and mozzarella quiche from scratch
7. Ate it (delicious, by the way)
8. Started writing this blog entry
It’s not that I’m blocked. I know exactly where this story’s going and exactly how to get there, but that’s half the problem. See, I have the attention span of a three-year-old at a discotheque. That means as soon as I’ve figured out what’s going on with a piece, I get bored with it. I want to move onto something else.
If it weren’t for deadlines, I would never finish anything over 5,000 words. 5,000 seems to be the tipping point for me. Under that word count, I can write it, rewrite it, reread it thirty times, and never get bored. Stories longer than that, or –Ganesh forbid!- novellas, grate on my nerves until I put them to bed in my WIP folder. Never to be seen again…
Better get back to work before I start rambling (or is it too late for that?)…