Excusing Yourself from Writing

You had been having a great idea in your mind for writing a story. You know if you'll write it the way it seems promising to you in your head, it would turn out to be one of the best stories you would have read in this month, or maybe in this whole year. But for that, you have to start writing it and somewhere you had been unable to start even with the first sentence, delaying the story for whatever reason all this while. The story is in the form of a full-fledged idea but you keep on planning a good time or a good place for it which simply does not seem to happen. 

At times, even after being in just the right spot, you end up feeling tired because of the events of the whole day and postpone the writing for the next day. However, this next day never comes and your mind is ready to give all the possible excuses on being asked about your progress in writing. You feel irritated for weeks or, more unfortunately, for months, doubting your worth as a writer. 

Then you try to justify all this wasted time with the actions that were full of learning, but much easier. You try to believe that even if you are not writing, you are still evolving through brainstorming your mind with discussing good ideas with the intellectuals or by reading good books.

You, my friend, are only procrastinating. And it would be better for you to deal with it at the soonest before it metamorphoses into a kind of justification much difficult to confront in future.

In this blog post I am providing some tips to unprocrastinate and return back to your passion of writing. Not because you 'should' as a writer, but because, somewhere deep down in your heart, you really want to.

1. The 5-minute timer

Maybe 5 minutes is too short compared to the endless hours you used to devote to writing once upon a time. But let's start with the easiest time plan - just 5 minutes. You have to fix just 5 minutes in the whole day for writing. It would be better to choose a time when you feel energetic so that no kind of sleep will bully your body.

--- Boycott all the distractions. Switch off your phone, keep away from the internet, and make sure that your family or friends are not around to disturb you. Pick up any spot and pick your diary and pen or whichever medium you prefer to write on, and start writing. If you don't feel like writing in those 5 minutes, then don't do anything else. Just sit ideally. Resist doing any other action, no matter what it might be or how alternatively productive it would be. Let all the resistances pass through your mind. Observe them, but don't act on them. Let them be there. Acknowledge them, understand them, feel what those urges are doing to you, and wait until your mind becomes calm again. Then start writing. Write for 5 minutes and stop.

--- Write anything and don't judge it. Write whatever is coming out. It does not have to be good. It does not have to make sense. It should have only one form and that is - words. This will help you to remove the entire muddle and crammed up thoughts. It will release your stuffed ideas. Eventually, at the right time, you'll know which idea needs manifestation. The time will come. Have faith. Be easy on yourself and stop after 5 minutes. Your mind will start believing that it was not a tough task after all. Repeat this for a week and eventually extend your time. By the end of one week you'll be back to your original self as a writer and you'll start feeling much happier about your life and its worth.

2. Leaving a task incomplete is not so bad

If you have started writing a story, don't think it is a compulsion to complete it. If you don't want to complete it, leave it there itself and begin with a new one. Don't judge your writing style for the time being. You will be back again within a matter of few days. For some time, don't even read again what you have written. Just write and close your diary. Review your writings after a week. Observe your progress and you'll develop a new faith in yourself.

3. Share

After a week, start sharing the good parts of your writing with your family and friends, or even with the public through your blog or social sites. Get encouraged by the good reviews. You can use the bad reviews as a scope for improvement or you can simply ignore them if the judgment of the reviewer is not justified.

Share more tips with us if you have dealt with procrastination in your past. 

Author: Titiksha Singhal