A trip into the mind of a fiction writer

I found this while scrolling through my documents folder looking for inspiration - it was my entry post for a magazine which was unsuccessful at being published. Bearing in mind what it is about, I found it highly ironic and figured it was worth a share... Enjoy - I'd love to hear your thoughts...

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Down the Rabbit Hole

Procrastination.  The action of delaying or postponing something as defined by the online Oxford dictionary.  It's known as the thief of time, and no matter how hard we may argue it, we’re all guilty of it in some shape or form.  No admission needed.

As writers, we write.  There is no limit on how much you have to write, how well you write it, or even what you do with what you have written.  If you write, it makes you a writer.  You spend your days wandering around in a half-conscious state because the other half of you is constantly thinking about whether or not you needed that last line of dialogue, or if the main character should have long wavy hair or a short pixie cut.  You have more ideas than you know what to do with and so many words that would sound great in that sentence you were struggling with in the early hours of this morning.  However, the moment you sit down with your soul purpose being to write; whether it is the poem for inside a birthday card, the article that is due in at the weekend, or the next chapter of your unfinished book, you can guarantee that all the ideas that were swimming around in your head just moments ago have gone.  They left the building along with all your motivation and you just sit staring at the blank page or the screen of your computer. 

So, what do you do?  You tap your pen against the page, type a few words on your computer before deleting them again with a deep sigh and a shake of your head.  Slowly, but surely, your mind begins to wander down the proverbial rabbit hole and you end up smack bang in the middle of Wonderland.  Facebook.  The world's answer to a cure for boredom.  It's one of the first ports of call.  Maybe you'll find some inspiration there… The next thing you know an hour has passed and the only thing that you have accomplished is laughing so hard at the video your uncle posted that your sides hurt, nearly signing up to sponsor an animal because they looked so cute in the photographs and to top it all off, you missed lunch!  You flick back to the blank page in your notebook, or to the empty word document on your computer and stare at it for a few more minutes before heading off in search of food to stop your stomach from protesting so loudly. 

After you have wasted some more time in the kitchen making your lunch and clearing up, you sit yourself back down in front of the nice white sheet of paper again.  It looks so empty.  Perhaps a doodle in the top corner of the page will make it look like you have achieved something in this writing session.  You even get a line down; a full sentence before your mind goes for another wander.  This time you find yourself on another social media site.  Name your poison.  Twitter?  Tumblr?  Deviant Art? Flickr?  That dating website you just joined?  Or my favourite; Instagram?  Now personally, I would check Instagram before Facebook, but that's just preference.  However, which ever you end up on, it's another hour of your life gone before you know it.  I can spend forever scrolling both writing and reading accounts on Instagram, claiming that I am looking for inspiration.  I read all the quotes, laugh to myself as I'm liking them and commenting on them, all the while still procrastinating from the actual task in hand; that next chapter.  

The worst part is that it isn't just the internet that proves to distract us, though this day and age it comes pretty high up the list.  We even find our self doing the house hold chores instead of the writing that we promised ourselves we would do today.  The time we set aside to write always seems to end up monopolised by something else.  It doesn’t matter how many times we tell ourselves that the washing needed sorting, or the bookshelf needed dusting and rearranging for the second time this week, we set that time aside, so the cleaning could have waited.  My downfall every time is a book.  I like to tell myself that I am following the wise words of Stephen King, as he has been quoted saying that 'If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.'  I think I own more books in my room than the local library does, and I can read a novel in less than twenty-four hours.  I love to read as much as I love to write.  The only problem is that it is much easier to sit back, relax and read that next book in my favourite series, than it is to war with my brain and actually get the words I want down on paper.  I can lose an entire day to a book, while the sheet of white paper stays just as white as it was the day I bought it!  There's no justice.

The thief of time.  We all have our own ways of procrastinating, we all have that list at the back of our minds that needs doing.  The difference between the writers you know of, and the writers you don’t; is the time they dedicate to writing.  You can have all the ideas in the world, but Hogwarts would never have come to life if J K Rowling hadn't sat down and written about it.  Edward and Bella would never have been more than a dream if Stephenie Meyer hadn't put that dream down on paper.  And Mr Christian Grey would not have been born had E L James not read Twilight.  Just imagine if one of your favourite authors had procrastinated rather than written your favourite story.  Now imagine where you could be in a few years time if you worked as hard as they did. 

Wonderland may be a fantastical place, but reality is the world we live in.  As writers we must write to be heard.  Make sure that the world hears what you have to say.