I submitted something due tomorrow 20 minutes ago. I feel incredibly ahead of the game. I’m usually sweating it until one minute before the deadline. It only took four loads of laundry and multiple checks of social media to focus on and complete my submission. The problem, I suspect, is that we writers rarely have hard deadlines unless someone with whom we’ve signed a contract sets one.
Why are writers the worst procrastinators? That’s the question the writer of our first link tries to tackle.
- Why Writers Are the Worst Procrastinators: [answer here]. Though, I have to disagree because I was not that great in [the thing that is the suspected reason for my procrastination per the author.] I was always a solid [classification of something here]. Though, I do agree that imposter syndrome is a part of it.
- Here are 5 Writing Tips from best-selling crime writer Tana French. My favorite is #1: “It’s OK to screw up.” Oh, honey. I’ve got a lock on that one.
- Author Misa Sugiura offers 6 Tips for Writing Outside Your Own Culture. I love how she recommends writers consider themselves a tour guide leading tourists around an unfamiliar city. “It’s not your city. It’s not your bus. This is not to say that you don’t have the right—or even the obligation—to try… But just as you would prepare rigorously to lead a tour in a city you don’t know, you need to do the same to write outside your culture.”
- “And I’m troubled that I have to make this point; it’s horrifying to feel the need to defend a creative writer’s freedom to write about whatever they choose.” Laura Albert, who experienced her own “author outing” when she was revealed to be JT LeRoy, presents her unique perspective on the Elena Ferrante identity reveal controversy.
- “Last week a young writer emailed me to ask for advice. How could she get more attention for her book? Where should she send it? The subtext: She wants what (she imagines) I have. It was funny, given that, in truth, I had right at that moment been pouting about my own status (Not Good Enough).” This whole essay by Elisa Albert is great: The Snarling Girl, notes on–and against–ambition.
