Procrastination Works for Me

Okay, it may not work for the almighty word count (hey, I’m up to 23,196 on my NaNoWriMo so nanny-nanny-boo-boo all you suckers who thought you had to get that shit done in a month).

No, seriously, I suck big fat ostrich…eggs when it comes to getting my writing done in a timely fashion. I’ve tried forcing it, but it simply won’t work for me that way. In the case of my NaNo, and current, WIP (Shooting Stars Book 3), I stopped after a week to work on edits for “Double Takes” so I could get that out to beta readers. Oh, and I started my November writathon a few days late because I had to finish DTs.

No, I still haven’t gotten DTs to my publisher. Screw you for judging me.

But, in my own slllloooooowwwww defense, my waiting-until-the-feeling-is just-right approach (and no, again, I was never like that with guys) is working for me now.

I’ve been mulling over my next scene in Shooting Stars Book 3—yes it has a title, and no I won’t tell you what it is because it is so fucking good and I am a weeeeeee bit paranoid a faster writer will rip that shit out from under me. Fuck, a dead writer could probably do it.

Shhhhhhh.

Where was I? Yeah, so I was trying to triangulate this scene (I was just doing some stupid math homework with the biggest hobbit. Forgive my triangulation), and I couldn’t quite make it work (not at all unlike this crazy 5th grade math homework. WTF????) so I slept on it.

I’m such a planner, I can’t sit down and write until it feels right, you know? I’ve heard of writing through writer’s block and that sounds swell, Beav, but if I don’t know what the hell I’m writing, then…  What the hell am I writing? Damn straight I’ll be re-writing.

I digress. It’s the wine.

So, I had a vague outline for my scene based on the events of senior week for my character’s college, which I found online. I didn’t really like how it all fit together, and if I don’t like it in my head, I sure as shit don’t like writing it. Anyway, come to find out the next day after I slept on it (okay, twice. Maybe three times) that the itinerary I was looking at was for the wrong school with a similar name. Freakin’ Google. I Googled it again with the correct name to double-check, and the wrong one came up again. Same city. Similar name. I guess Google prefers BC to BU.

So does my husband.

Long story too freakin’ long, I scrapped the whole thing. Not that I couldn’t pull the artistic license card. I could. It’s fiction. But it wasn’t right and I knew it.

I guess my point is that I’m psychic. And I procrastinate.

Oh! And I slept on this new information and came up with a fantastic new scene in which I was able to write in my old buddy Gio from “Double Takes.”

See? Taking your sweet ass time can pay off on occasion.

Pipe down all you NaNo winners who are on your third book since November. I’ve got my ears covered and I’m singing “La Cucaracha” at the top of my voice.

-Kimber