Quite often, usually at the beginning of the year or just before NaNo, I get a flood of emails from authors who want to work with me because they aren’t where they want to be in their manuscripts.
“I just need to get my act together!” they say.
“I meant to have the book written/be further along, but then I let myself get distracted.”
Or: “I am determined to get back on track.”
But the one that I absolutely hate to get is…
“I’m not going to be lazy any more!”
You’re not lazy.
Some of you are going to have a knee-jerk reaction to this. You’re going to be convinced that I’m wrong. After all, you’ve had plenty of time to write, correct? But you haven’t written. So of course that means you’re lazy!
But… does it?
In my experience, if there is a truly “lazy” person… well, they don’t care if they’re “lazy.” As in, it doesn’t bother them at all. They’ll keep making excuses, and pushing things off. They’re not going to have that nagging guilt. They’re not going to make even token efforts.
Funnily enough, it’s not even because they’re lazy.
It’s because at heart, they don’t want to do it at all.
So what’s the real problem here?
I tend to sort the problem of not writing into 4 categories. I’ve talked about them before, and they’re gone into granular detail in the reference book WRITE EVERY DAY (which is a bit of a misnomer, and I really need to change the title one of these days, probably.)
Anyway, the things stopping you from writing are:
1. Time management
2. Energy management
3. Systems issues
4. Fear
So if you feel like you’ve got the time and energy, and you know what you want to write (generally speaking, anyway), that leaves us with the hardest to wrestle. That last monster.
You’re afraid.
Fear’s tricky.
As they say in the movie The Usual Suspects, “the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.” In a lot of ways, fear’s the same way.
It will divert you into other things that are “absolutely crucial” before you sit down to write.
Like, say, doing social media (“it’s important as a writer to build a platform!”)
Or it will whisper that you really need to clean your kitchen floor with a toothbrush.
Or it will get you involved in the most bizarre drama, stuff that isn’t even your problem.
It will do everything but let you write — and then, most insidiously, it will convince you that it is your fault.
This is why you think you’re lazy.
Conversely, if you feel at all badly about not writing… this is why you’re wrong.
How to conquer fear.
One of my favorite coaches, Naomi from ittybiz.com, has a great quote about this. I’m paraphrasing, but essentially, it’s: you can’t eliminate fear… but you can starve it.
You’ll always have fear, one way or another. It’s part of the industry, it’s part of the practice. You’re baring your soul for other people’s consumption. That’s going to have a certain amount of trepidation! So no, you can’t cut it out.
But fear feeds on inaction. Every time you avoid writing, it grows, strengthens, multiplies.
So you starve it… by taking action. Even small steps. Hell, especially small steps.
Having a support network to help you take those small steps? Even better.
Hang in there.
You don’t have to go from “zero to hero” in a twenty-four hour period. It took a long time, more than likely, for you to develop the fear you’ve got. It will take some time to dissolve it.
In the meantime, hang in there, and think about what small steps you can take to get back on track and start starving that fear!