How to stop procrastinating on your novel
Every novel writer struggles with procrastination at one time or another, but some of us seem to have a harder time with it. If you find yourself procrastinating to the point where you never actually get to work on your novel, it might be a sign of perfectionism.
But there’s a simple thing you can do right now to beat procrastination.
To understand how this tool works, we have to first discuss why writers procrastinate.
One of the main reasons perfectionists procrastinate on our writing is that we’re afraid to fail at it.
We’re afraid that if the writing isn’t good and if it doesn’t come easily, it’s a sign that we’re not cut out to write. So it’s easier to stall and avoid writing than to confront the risk of failure.
Sound like something you’ve experienced? The good news is that you can absolutely overcome this habit. And it is just a habit.
When you work on improving a habit, you incrementally change your mindset; when you change your mindset, it becomes easier to improve your habits.
Consider this: the more you procrastinate, the more you believe you are a procrastinator because you’ve created evidence to prove it. And the more you believe you are a procrastinator, the more you will procrastinate.
Procrastination can also show up in sneaky ways. In fact, perfectionists often procrastinate in ways that feel productive so we can assure ourselves that we had to do that other thing that was not writing. But these are just a cover to keep us from engaging in challenging and risky work.
If you want to stop procrastinating, you have to get real with yourself about what your brand of procrastination looks like. These are five things that you may be doing to procrastinate without realizing that’s the underlying motive.
1. Researching
Researching is essential, but there comes a time when you have to decide you've learned enough to begin to write. Unfortunately, perfectionism will keep you in the research phase for as long as possible because it convinces you that if you just know everything, you can't make a mistake. Even if you've begun to write, you might find yourself getting stuck again and again because you have to look up "just one more thing." If the urge to research is getting in the way of writing forward, it's procrastination. I love to put a TK (stands for "to come") in place of what you need to research and continue writing.
2. Procrastilearning
While similar to researching, procrastilearning is more focused on trying to find the perfect process. You do need to learn how to write a novel, but you will never find a "perfect process." If you're constantly looking for the right craft book, course, or method instead of actually doing the writing, you're procrastinating. You have to try different things and make mistakes to figure out what works for you.
3. Over-planning
Some perfectionists believe that if we can just plan thoroughly enough, we can avoid mistakes or failure. We might make a meticulous scene-by-scene outline or an expansive story grid that covers a whole wall in hopes that we can anticipate and solve every potential problem. Once we have it all figured out, we can start to write...except that point never comes. So we either never start writing, or we do, but we give up at the first sign that the outline doesn't hold up.
4. Line editing
The impulse to continuously tweak your prose until it's "perfect" before you can write forward is a form of procrastination, especially if you're on your first draft. Again, you're either doing it in hopes of avoiding mistakes or to delay doing hard work of writing (or both), but you'll never get to the end of your novel this way. Plus, if you've spent so much time polishing the pages of your first draft, you'll struggle to cut and rewrite when you get to the revision stage. As hard as it may be, you have to let the mistakes go.
5. Busy work/organizing
Ask yourself, "Do I really need a completely clean and organized space to focus, or am I doing this to feel productive while I put off my writing?" This is just like researching and procrastilearning—you might legitimately need to do a bit of organizing before you get started, but you need to be honest with yourself about your intentions. And if you know you're using cleaning or organizing as procrastination, set and commit to a limit on the amount you can do.
You have to break this cycle by creating a new set of habits and consciously working on your mindset. I’ve found the best way to do this is journaling, and here’s my favorite exercise to get myself out of procrastination.
Why am I afraid to start writing?
Use this question to prompt your journaling for at least five minutes before you plan to work on your novel. Try to get curious—not judgemental—about the fears behind your procrastination. Even if you don’t think that fear is motivating you to put off your writing, try exploring this question. And aim to go deeper than the surface level. Ask yourself why you’re afraid of the things that come up.
Getting all the thoughts swirling in your head down on paper can help you get perspective. Some fears, you may realize, are completely silly. Others might be serious, but they seem less threatening when you put a name to them. And there might be some that you can refute.
If you get into a routine of doing this, you will also start to notice patterns, which increases your self-awareness for the future. For example, you might identify a circumstance—like scrolling social media and reading about everyone else getting book deals—that ramps up your self-doubt and procrastination. When you recognize these triggers, you can avoid them before a writing session better set yourself up for success.
Finally, journaling is a great, low-risk way to grease your writing wheels. You get the words flowing before you start to do the difficult work on your novel. This often makes it feel easier to start.
And the more often you show up consistently to work on your writing when you plan to, the more easily you can create the self-belief that you are someone who doesn’t procrastinate.
It’s not a linear process. It will be easier at first and then get harder. And you will have setbacks. But stick with it. It’s a worthwhile process if you’re serious about moving past perfectionism and procrastination to finally write the novel you’ve always wanted to complete.
Procrastination is just one sign that perfectionism is keeping you from finishing the novel you’ve always longed to write. Want to know more about what’s keeping you stuck?