Tip: More on Outlining, Planning, and Procrastination

I've heard from some of you that you write like I do - no planning, no outlines. Good for you. Once again, if you are one of those writers who likes an outline and a plan when you work, good for you, too. There is no one right way to approach this. You are writing, one way or another, and that is the important thing.

However, once more, I want to warn you about the dangers of "planning as procrastination." There is something in the nature of writing that makes the unconscious - and I include my own pesky unconscious here - do loops around itself to think of anything, anything, to keep us from actually sitting down and practicing our craft. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because it's high stakes; most of us have ambitions for our writing, and some fear that whatever we're about to put down on paper won't measure up. Maybe it's because it's emotionally draining. (A famous sports journalist once said, "Writing? There's nothing to it. Just pull up a chair and open a vein.")

There are as many ways for the unconscious to trick us into not writing as there are writers. Some people must have their writing space just so; any deviation, any little nicety that they think they need is absent, and that's it, they tell themselves they can't work. Some people must be "in the mood." (Any work at all in journalism will soon cure you of that.) Some people "can't " write while there are still dishes and laundry to be done. My own unconscious's method is to hit me with a wave of fatigue the minute I turn on my laptop to work. Doesn't matter what time of day it is, how much sleep I've had, or how much energy I had thirty seconds before. Suddenly, just as I'm about to type my first word, nothing seems quite so appealing as a nap. We all do this; I have writer friends who call me saying, "Hi, I'm procrastinating on getting started on my next chapter so I thought I'd chat." We chat for a few minutes but then they have to go start writing.

And yes, sometimes, we tell ourselves that unless we know exactly how our story is going to end, we can't start it. That unless we know exactly how the hero is going to meet the heroine over the exploding gas tank, we can't put down a word. This ignores the fact that very, very often what the story should be, and what should happen in it, reveal themselves as we write. Somehow beginning the work frees up our minds to be open to ideas.

It strikes me that we are being very hard on ourselves if we don't allow ourselves to begin writing without a locked-down outline or plan - kind of like demanding that the story already be written before we're allowed to begin writing it.

So here's the point. Only you know if your planning for your story (or novel, or poem, or whatever) is in fact making you procrastinate or not. Really think about it. If it is, or the procrastination gremlins have an unbreakable grip on you in any other way, lighten up. Relax. Plan all you want, but also make yourself write five minutes a day. Just that. That's all. Even if all you get down is one sentence. (Hey, at the end of year, that's a short story.) You can usually slip this much past the procrastination demons - it's not enough to make you tense up. It's manageable. When you're ready - whether it's days, weeks, or months - move up to ten minutes a day. It will make a difference. Things will start to shift. I swear.