Aren't We There Yet?

HEINLEIN'S RULES FOR WRITING (from his 1947 essay "On the Writing of Speculative Fiction."
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1. You must write.
2. You must finish what you write.
3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
4. You must put the work on the market.
5. You must keep the work on the market until it is sold.

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I learned these rules by hanging out on the Writer’s Digest forum.  I believe they are the wisest of advice for writers, and I have always done very well following them, up until now.  For some reason, I am having trouble finishing the first draft of my novel.  I am within five-thousand words of typing those magic words “the end.”  Five-thousand words!  It’s not writer’s block.  I totally know what needs to happen.  I just don’t seem to have the desire to write it down.  I am procrastinating, and I don’t know why.

A week or so ago I downloaded the War of Art by Shawn Coyne and Stephen Pressfield onto my Nook.  It’s short, very easy to read, and very wise, as well.  I think I found my answer to my procrastination issue within the electronic pages, in a chapter labeled “Resistance is Most Powerful at the Finish Line.”  If you want to know what Resistance is, I recommend you get the book and read it, but my understanding of Resistance is that it is the thing that holds us back from achieving that which we are called to be.  Mr. Pressfield states “The danger is greatest when the finish line is in sight.  At this point, Resistance knows we’re about to beat it.  It hits the panic button.  It marshals one last assault and slams us with everything it’s got.”

Resistance for me says “You can write it tomorrow.  You don’t have to be in any hurry.   Stop being so neurotic about finishing, it probably isn’t good enough anyway.  It’s a first novel, for God’s sake.”  And I slowly lose my momentum, like a car that gets a flat tire and flops to a stop on the side of the road.

I know I have to finish this novel.  I am not a writer if I don’t.  I am just someone who wrote most of a novel.  And there is no remedy, except to “Just Do It.”  Nike really got it right.  No therapy, no conversation, no reading, no inspiration is going to get me going.  I have to just do it.  Grit my teeth, get my butt in my new office chair, log on and do it.

The thing is, I know that once I do, it is all so easy. I can relax, and let my imagination take me by the hand and lead me down the creative pathway to the finish line.  What perplexes me is that I make it so hard on myself to get to that point.  How silly to fight against such a positive experience.  The fight is what makes me think Steven Pressfield is right.  Resistance is only as big as we make it out to be.  Every day we have to take up the fight to be more and to achieve more than the last day.  No excuses, no procrastination, no fear allowed.  Just do it.

Review of Steven Pressfield's The War of Art by Guest Blogger, Kaelin P. Hornsby

It is my great pleasure to introduce the first guest blogger on Motivation for Creation, Kaelin P. Hornsby.  Kaelin is a freelance writer and aspiring sci-fi novelist, who hails from the Pacific Northwest.  After conquering traditional college, she devised her own continuing-ed program, including the occasional academic writing conference such as the Writing the Rockies Conference, where I had the great fortune to meet her.  She’s currently working on a time-travel novella, Antiquity, which you can find at her blog: www.kapehorn.com.  Welcome, Kaelin!

A friend recommended Steven Pressfield’s  The War of Art to me and, despite the depth and breadth of my ‘to read’ pile, I managed to get to it before summer was out.  Much to the book’s credit, its 165 page length had something to do with it getting ushered to the top of the list.  Pressfield, known chiefly for his military/historical fiction and for his non-fiction novel-turned-film, The Legend of Bagger Vance, produced this 2002 work with an eye toward inspiring anyone struggling with creative endeavors.  Where others might offer advice in the guise of catchy notions like making lists, organizing the desk, or maximizing production with the help of a day planner, Pressfield instead examines why on Earth we’d be having problems in the first place.

Resistance, he espouses, is the real problem.  The book’s three sections, indeed, make this clear – Resistance, Combating Resistance, and Beyond Resistance.  He casts resistance in the role of a literal villain which asserts itself as distraction, laziness, fear, doubt or anything else that stands between the creator and what he or she wishes to create.  The book demands that the reader confront: “why am I not making my dream a priority?” and goes on to explore potential whys and how to deal with them.  Among the usual suspects (guilt, uncertainty, lack of confidence), Pressfield offers the best perspective I have ever encountered on the oft-mocked notion of “fear of success.”  Sure, it sounds insane, why would anyone fear success?  Pressfield offers the insightful deduction that, as creatures with a long history of tribal-based survival, we’re often reluctant to do something that would set us apart from our community. 

Venturing into the spritual/mystical aspect of creativity, Pressfield stresses the importance of acknowledging the inspiration behind artistic effort.  Whether a writer/painter/musician believes in a god or the power of the universe or in having a personal muse, Pressfield feels it is vital to recognize that influence, and to respect it.  Certainly, there are plenty of authors who describe writing not as a process of ‘making up’ a story, but of discovering it – and it is this idea that Pressfield builds upon.  It frees the artist, to some degree, to believe that showing up and doing the work is the real key, and in trusting the rest to inspiration.

While it may or may not solve every artist’s problem with procrastination, it is one of the most thought-provoking works I have found on creativity.  If reading it hasn’t stopped me from getting distracted while writing, it has made me more aware of my distraction, more conscious of just how much time I’m wasting.  And knowing, as they say, is half the battle.

Back on Track from Procrastination

Keeping with the theme of obstacle illusions, I thought today might be a good one to talk about procrastination.  This week I returned to my day job full time, got both children (mostly) into their respective schools, and did very little writing.  I could have gotten up earlier to write in the mornings.  I could have written, even if just for ten minutes, at night before bed. 

Did I?  No. 

Why?  Procrastination, plain and simple.

I am the type of person who needs to know what direction I am going and when I need to get there.   I partially outline my stories before starting, and I set goals to keep me on track with my writing.  These two personality traits created two forces that worked against me this week. 

The first is that I have hit the point in my novel that is unknown territory.   I know how I want to end the book, but I am not sure how to get there.  Additionally, I have 60,000 words in a variety of computer files, and I am starting to feel the effects of fatigue.  The writing is not flowing so quickly, and instead of the thrill of discovery, I have the feeling of slogging through mud.   The idea of sitting at the computer and picking my way through my subconscious was not terribly appealing.

The second is the continuous tug of war that I experience between reasonable expectation and failure to meet the goals I set.  I missed my goal for finishing my first draft by June, then the end of June, and then the end of July, leading to a huge derailment of the writing train.  I became disappointed in myself, and was not going to let myself off the hook easily for missing my mark not just once, but three times!   The emotional self-flagellation did not increase writing output, but had the opposite effect.  I didn’t want to hear the voice berating me that I could be done by now if I would have…

Benjamin Franklin stated “You may delay, but time will not, and lost time is never found again.”  The reality is that beating myself up for not meeting a goal does not do me (or anyone else in a similar situation) any good.  Regardless of the reasons why we procrastinate, us procrastinators need to get back on track, and continue on our paths.  We need to accept where we are at present,  make a plan to pull ourselves up out of the mud, get pointed in the right direction, and gain support to keep us there.

Easy enough, right?  I have decided to get up at five o’clock to write before I go to work for the next week.  That’s my plan.  My support is my husband, of course, but also the fact I have shared my plan with you all.  If anybody out there needs to make a plan and wants to fess up and share it here, please feel free.  We can have a support group, right here on Motivation for Creation! 

Photo courtesy of: <p><a href="http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=112">Image: Matt Banks / FreeDigitalPhotos.net</a></p>