Friday Speak Out!: The Procrastinator's Guide to Starting Your Writing Career, Guest Post by Kimberly Zook

 by Kimberly Zook

It’s crunch time. My essay is due, but that Twinkie, I can already taste its sweet indulgence. My eye catches the September issue of the Oprah magazine. Maybe I’ll get to my writing in a few minutes.

If you happen to be a procrastinator and a writer like me, then you understand the joy of finally polishing off a piece of writing. After a series of indulgences, I came up with this guide for us:

The Procrastinator's Guide to Starting Your Writing Career

1. Set deadlines. And have consequences in place for not making the deadline. No you may not eat that piece of chocolate until it’s done.

2. Utilize many writing sources. Blog, Tweet, Facebook, journal, napkin doodle, text, Vlog, etc. You'll always accomplish some form of writing each day if you have various outlets.

3. Don't wait until morning. Keep a pad of paper and pen next to your bed. If genius strikes you when the lights are off, jot it down in the dark. You'll never do it in the morning.

4. Don't join every single writing class. You’re spending money to write, but in all honesty, you’re attending the class just to delay the inevitable: putting pen to paper.

5. Do go to office supply stores. Soak up the inspirational juices aisle after aisle. Buy a notepad and a pen, sit in your car in the parking lot, throw your keys in in the back seat and write.

6. Maintain a writing project in every room of your house. If you live in a one-room apartment keep a work-in-progress on each piece of furniture. Keep an ample supply of pens with each project.
Journeying off to find a pen only leads to distractions and therefore procrastination.

7. Ban all books from your home. Or store them next to the toilet. Same goes for all cookies, wine, magazines, and photographs of past lovers. These are all addictive and time-wasters.

8. Seek out a table in the midst of non-procrastinator writers. It's crunch time at the cafe. Everyone's writing. Who can fill up more pages first? You or them?

9. Don't be a cheerleader. If your overly-productive writer 'frenemy' calls, don't answer the phone. Procrastinator-writers who cheerlead for others are the only writers to grow old without carpel tunnel syndrome.

10. Put away the credit card. First, the Internet should already be turned off. Second, never memorize your credit card number. Third, any procrastinator-writer who sits down to write, but decides it's okay to first browse Amazon for more "how to write" books is only going to write one thing that day: the password to her Amazon account.

So here I sit, in my car outside an office supply store, writing in a new notebook, with a writer frenemy voicemail waiting for me, without a single book in sight, and no Internet access on my phone. It may just be a list, but at least I've written something!


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Kimberly Zook is a Navy wife, SAHM of two (soon to be three) girls, and an explorer at heart. Her publications draw from her experiences of living in foreign countries as well as the most exciting adventure of her life: motherhood. She writes daily on her blog, Zook Book Nook, and her website, Kimberly Zook, includes a link to her story, "Elements," which placed 3rd in WOW! Women on Writing's 2009 Winter Writing Contest.

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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!

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