When I ran the Aliventures survey earlier this year, one reader mentioned their struggles with “Procrastination (always!); guilt over prioritizing writing.”
Maybe you feel that way too.. Some writers end up
feeling guilty when they don’t write … and guilty when they do write.
If you’ve been struggling with procrastination, guilt about writing, or both, today’s newsletter is for you.
Procrastination is very common
for writers. You might think that it’s strange to procrastinate on something we (at least in theory!) love doing … but writing takes a lot of thought and energy, and it’s completely understandable that it often feels a whole lot easier to just put the TV on instead.
But it gets even harder when guilt is in the mix.
Perhaps you feel that you should write, because it’s important to you, and you’ve set all kinds of writing goals … but the time you spend writing is time that you don’t spend on something else in your life.
Like me, you might have kids. I completely get the parental guilt that comes with carving out writing time
when you could instead by spending it with kids. (Yesterday, I spent a chunk of my planned writing hour helping my daughter bake cookies, as my husband and I had been away on a rare spa break, and I felt guilty about not having much of the weekend with her.)
Or perhaps it’s grandkids – who you know will only be little for so long – or another relative who needs your care.
There’s always housework to be done, too, and you might feel guilty sitting down to do something “fun” like writing while you’ve got a sink full of dirty dishes or a laundry hamper full of dirty clothes.
I don’t think there are any easy answers.
But here’s what I’ve learnt over the
years. You could (more than) fill your time with kids, relatives, household chores, and you’d still never get to a point where you were “finished” and could write guilt-free.
You need to carve out some time for writing. That might only be small chunks of time – for me this year, most of my fiction writing has been in 10-15 minute daily slots – but it’s really important you
have some time.
It’s okay to make writing a priority.
Your writing matters to you. Probably, you feel happier and more like yourself during times when you’re writing at least semi-regularly. That makes it easier for you to show up in the way you want to
in the rest of your life, too.
Writing may not be able to occupy a big space in your life right now. But perhaps you can find 10 minutes a day, or an hour at the weekend, for your writing.
If you’d like some help and support in making writing more of a priority in
your life, keep an eye out for next week’s email – I’ll be sharing news about the reopening of Writers’ Cafe.
Happy writing,
Ali
P.S. There'll be a new blog post on Thursday ... but if you're looking for some extra reading in the meantime, try these Aliventures posts to catch up
on.
