If I declare this on the Internet, I’ll surely do it, I think to myself, knowing full well that the Internet can’t hold a candle to my own procrastination abilities.
We’ve all heard of Stephen King. The guy who writes horror stories, the guy who’s probably the most famous person to come out of the rural state called Maine. You’ve also probably heard, if you’re into writing yourself, that he recommends writing every day.
Back in college, I hated this advice. I couldn’t for the life of me set aside a specific time of day to just write. I couldn’t even do NaNoWriMo. This is impossible! I said. My writing often came in unpredictable spurts. Even if I wanted to do it every day at a specific time, I physically couldn’t. That’s the way my brain worked. And it still works that way.
However, a realization came over me the moment I exited the college world. I was finding myself writing for less and less time each week. I’d want to write during the most impossible times, and then not at all when I was free. I’d become stuck. I couldn’t write.
This killed me, because as a writer, you have to keep writing to maintain that identity. Imposter syndrome is a real problem when you don’t write at all for a week. Hey, I thought. I’m supposed to be a writer. And I’m not writing.
Then my therapist suggested the exact thing I was avoiding since I’d skimmed King’s book: writing every day.
Oh no, I thought. Oh no, that’s impossible. I’m not ready to go full NaNoWriMo every day for the rest of my life.
But, I’m trying it. I have to say that I haven’t quite made my goal of writing every day (sometimes life just gets in the way), but it has succeeded in making me write more.
The fact that I have had to make sure I have some accountability for this goal has also helped. I’m a notorious procrastinator, so if I’m not careful, I’ll find myself up at 11 pm realizing that I haven’t put one lick of effort into writing, thinking to myself that I can just pick it up tomorrow.
For me, the ultimate form of accountability is sending a finished part to someone. It’s like turning in an assignment (which I have been trained to do on time, always, with no exceptions, since kindergarten (thanks? school??)).
Hopefully, by the time I write an update to this blog, I’ll have made significant progress in a novel series I’ve been planning for a couple years at this point. I hope to come back to you with some grand success.
Till then, stay spicy, everyone.
Meagan Jones is a writer and artist from Southern Maine. She graduated in 2019 from the University of Maine at Farmington with a Creative Writing BFA and a Spanish minor. Check out her personal website at https://meaganljones.wordpress.com/ Follow her on Twitter @supernarra