5 tips for handling procrastination as a writer

I’d venture to say that all writers struggle with procrastination at one point or another. My own procrastination typically appears when I’m faced with a beginning — a new story, a new chapter. For me, getting started is always the hardest part. And because it’s hard, I sometimes avoid it and get stuck.

When I have trouble putting one word in front of the other, I try reminding myself of a quote from the writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.”

With this quote in mind, here are five tips to consider when you want to “begin it” but are stuck in procrastination mode.

1. Don’t wait for the perfection conditions

When my husband and I bought a townhouse together fourteen years ago, I was excited to have my first home office. I envisioned myself writing every day in that little office, surrounded by books and natural light. 

When we moved in, I spent more time than I needed to setting up the office. First, I unpacked my books and meticulously organized them based on genre and subject matter. Then I spent months scouring websites in search of the perfect desk. Once I got the desk, I had to find the perfect chair to match. I can’t write, I told myself, until I’ve finished setting up my office!

At a certain point, I realized that all the office prep was a form of procrastination. I didn’t need a pretty home office in order to write; I just needed to be somewhere with a laptop, phone, pen and paper. In the years since, I’ve found that some of my best writing comes to me when I’m not at my desk: when I’m talking to someone who sparks an idea that I write down on a Post-it, for instance, or when I’m on a walk and get a burst of inspiration that I type out on my phone.

In his book “On Writing,” Stephen King shared a related anecdote: “I wrote my first two published novels, ‘Carrie’ and ‘Salem’s Lot,’ in the laundry room of a doublewide trailer, pounding away on my wife’s portable Olivetti typewriter and balancing a child’s desk on my thighs.” 

The next time you’re trying to find the “perfect” writing conditions, remember King typing away in his laundry room.     

My “writing office” often travels with me — to my favorite coffee shops and bookstores. Here, I was working from First Light Books in Austin, Texas.                             

2. Seek intrinsic inspiration

There have been times when I’ve driven to the bookstore or the library, hoping to overcome procrastination. Surely being surrounded by all these books will help motivate me, the writer in me thinks. I’ll flip through pages of books, hoping to land on a passage that will kickstart my creativity. 

But the truth is, when I’m procrastinating, reading others’ work can make me feel even worse about the fact that I can’t seem to put anything on the page. 

Often, the best inspiration comes from my own writing — not because the writing is out-of-this-world-good but because it’s proof that I’ve managed to overcome my procrastination. When I’m writing and have something to show for it, I feel more inspired to continue writing. I can then more actively seek out inspiration from other writers and learn from it, rather than feeling defeated by it. 

Instead of going out of your way to seek inspiration; let it come to you through the writing process. As science-fiction writer Octavia Butler once said: “Forget about inspiration because it’s more likely to be a reason not to write, as in, ‘I can’t write today because I’m not inspired.’ … The most valuable characteristic any would-be writer can possibly have is persistence. Just keep at it, keep learning your craft and keep trying.” (Can you tell I like quotes?)

3. Minimize distractions

In my office, there’s a New Yorker cartoon of a man sitting at his desk with his laptop opened in front of him and a bookshelf behind him. Turning to the woman by his side, he says: “I don’t understand it — no matter how much I drink coffee, play on my phone, refresh my email, look up things online, go to the kitchen for snacks, message my friends, scroll through Twitter, and play with the cats, I still can’t get any writing done.” 

It’s a relatable cartoon, and it speaks to an undeniable reality: it’s hard to write when you have endless distractions competing for your attention. These distractions can often become their own form of procrastination. 

Instead of letting them upend my writing time, I establish breaks —10- to 20-minute increments where I walk the long way to the bathroom, buy a coffee, get outside or check my email. I set a timer (to lessen the chance that breaks will turn into distractions), and then I return to my writing once time’s up. 

4. Practice writing in your head

The best writers write with their hands and their mind. In other words, a writer’s productivity cannot be measured by word count alone; it must also take into account all the thoughts that helped those words take shape. 

There were many times in the past when I berated myself for spending “too much” time thinking about a story or chapter (or, in some cases, a single sentence or word). Stop procrastinating! I would tell myself. 

But over time, I realized that I write better when I’ve had time to think about what I want to say. I tend to do my best thinking when I’m moving — away from my computer screen and out in the world. I take my phone with me and type out ideas as they come to me. 

The Cape Cod beach where I did a lot of “rehearsing” a few months ago while visiting family in Massachusetts.

I’m always curious to learn where and when writers do their best thinking. One writer once told me that she does her best work in the bathtub; surrounded by water, her thoughts start flowing and her best ideas rise to the surface. The late mystery writer Agatha Christie found inspiration at the kitchen sink. “The best time to plan a book,” she once said, “is while you’re doing the dishes.” 

Some refer to this practice as “rehearsal” or “writing in your head.” In that sense, it’s progress, not procrastination. Writer Kim Cross, author of the book “In Light of All Darkness,” calls it “productination.”

“I can write while weeding, while chopping carrots or while snowblowing the driveway (which, by the way, feels as satisfying as reading smooth prose). But since moving to the Pacific Northwest, my favorite way to write is by splitting wood and building a fire,” Cross wrote in a Nieman Storyboard piece. “Which brings me to a salient point about the benefits of splitting wood: Productination. Or maybe I’ll call it procrastivity. There’s an art to taking writing breaks that feels like procrastination, but actually is productive. In the act of putting off the task that’s big and important, you can accomplish scores of little tasks that take less time and mental energy, but generate momentum. That momentum keeps your mind humming for the Big Task even when you’re taking a break from it.” 

5. Try “zero drafting.”

Once, while having lunch with my mentor Roy Peter Clark, he got out a napkin and started writing. He was engaging in what he calls “zero drafting” — the act of jotting down ideas, phrases or sentences before the first draft. With zero drafting, the stakes are low. Your handwriting can be messy, your thoughts half-baked. 

Because of these low stakes, zero drafting is a great way to combat procrastination — especially for perfectionists like me who have trouble getting started because we expect too much of ourselves. Zero drafting helps you write earlier than you think you can.

The inspiration for this newsletter’s title came to me while I was reading Annie Dillard’s “The Writing Life” (pictured here) and zero-drafting in the margins.

Many creatives have turned to zero drafting over the years:

• Stephen King wrote the idea for the book “Misery” on a cocktail napkin, while flying.

• Musician Richard Berry penned the lyrics for “Louie, Louie” on a square of toilet paper.   

• Poet Wallace Stevens kept scraps of paper in his pockets and wrote on them while walking.

• Biophysicist Paul Lauterbur, while eating at a diner, drafted a blueprint for the first MRI on a napkin.

In a podcast interview, I once heard the author Qian Julie Wang talk about how she wrote her book “Beautiful Country” on her phone, while taking public transportation to work each day. 

“I started writing the book on my notes app. Somehow that format liberated me,” Wang said. “It didn’t feel quite like I’m sitting at my keyboard writing with a capital W. I’m just typing notes like a grocery list of memories that I want to hang onto or that I want to pass down to my great grandchildren one day when I’m gone. That format gave me the freedom to be truly honest.”

When we give ourselves permission to write from wherever we are, and with whatever tools we have, we can look our writing in the eye instead of fleeing from it. 

I’m curious to hear from you: When does procrastination creep up for you, and how do you handle it? Please leave a comment!