Deadline's Juicy Carrot & Procrastination's Easy Chair

And a fun etymology

TL;DR: No gyan or tips and tricks to handle writerly procrastination. Just personal anecdotes and fun (sometimes excruciating) part of a writing life.

Me juggling with deadlines because procrastination is my deal. (source)

Dear friends,

Deadlines, for me, are like a whip. No, like a whiplashing choke that starts a bike after you fail to get it moving with kicks and the autostart button that always betrays you in winter and monsoon (and is needless in summer).

For those who don’t drive a two-wheeler, you made a great decision because roads in an(y) Indian metropolitan city are not safe for driving two-wheelers anymore, with waterlogged roads dotted with well-nourished with potholes that act as valleys against the stark contrast of unmindful bumpers.

Anyway, Indian roads (and their politics) are not my forte to talk about. So, back to the deadlines of writing milestones.

Even if a theme interests me, intrigues me to the extent that my brain cogs whir and start spinning the yarn of ideas, or I have a story handy that needs one more round of editing after 17 rejections, a two-foot pothole named procrastination is just a meter away from dithering me.

Just last year, I had my psychological thriller manuscript (which I'm currently querying) ready for the final round of editing, but I was just not getting onto that murky, potholed, bumpy, slippery road. Rather, I decided to query and test the waters. And some opportunities came my way unexpectedly — like a full manuscript request from a fantastic agent.

As if the universe had conspired in favour of my delaying the final edits, another full request from a small publisher honked and parked itself into my inbox the same day. SAME DAY!!

2 Fulls on the same day.

The two emails trapped me in a tizzyland; I had 88,000 words to edit minus the three sample chapters. The Penelope¹ inside me started to jump by leaps and bounds to find reasons for not making haste.

Penelopize is the perfect word for the kind of procrastination writers do: undoing the already done (deletion) to redo it intentionally (rewriting).

Thankfully, I have some really good friends who always whack my brain back to where it should be against my worst judgments and bring me on track again. My accountability partner in my writing circle helped me with revisions, ran silent sprints for me, and discussed my doubts, even on Sundays. My self-defined milestone of 3 weeks spilled over, but I managed to send my manuscript to the agent and the publishing house within 25 days.

Lesson learned: I need a pressing deadline to cull the Penelope waltzing inside my brain. And most definitely the friends who care about my manuscript so much that they cull their peace.

Do I implement my learning?

Well… I’ve tried a few times to stay on my toes and work on submissions in advance. Look at the irony; low-hanging fruits manage to grow faster and fall right into my lap. But what matters more doesn't culminate on a day that can be called “well in advance”.

Last year, I tried to be on time for a retreat’s submission I’d been eyeing. Lo and behold! The last day came, and I’d filled the form by 10 PM. I still had 2 hours on hand to call it a win. But the writing demons were conspiring…

As I tried to submit, the Google form threw errors. The history of data was lost, forcing me to fill the form again from scratch. And mind you, that form was looong.

With frustration in my eyes and encouragement from my husband, I sent late-night messages to the retreat team, to no avail, but managed to submit before the clock struck 12. This year, I submitted well in advance. A complete 2 hours and 5 minutes before the signal turned to red.

Hellooo! It was a high-hanging alphanso.

Moral of the story?

If you want to avoid getting entangled in deadlines and the whirlwind of procrastination:

Get an accountability partner who whiplashes you from time to time,

Start early and don't depend on "oh, I have one full month",

Don’t keep things for the last day (or last week).

Source

Having shared all the gyan, I’m hoping to pack 2 days in advance for a wonderful writing workshop I’m attending this weekend in Rajasthan. I’m still due to iron my clothes, heck, decide what to carry, despite having contemplated these things for a week now.

I’ll iron and pack tomorrow, I promise! Maybe the day after. 😅

How do you handle procrastination and writing (with) deadlines?

Signing off,

Rashmi

1. Etymology: Penelopize