The Art of Perfecting… While Procrastinating

I entered the exciting world of getting beta readers for Grasslands in December 2021. It’s been such an amazing experience, especially considering the feedback has been overall positive! The readers love my writing style, the story concept, the characters. The one piece of constructive feedback I’d received that seemed universal is a lack of conflict in a majority of chapters. Which is, frankly, extremely important. Conflict drives a story forward. Grasslands was interesting enough that it kept them going, but much of it dragged. I was happy to have this pointed out, even while knowing this probably meant a chapter by chapter rewrite. Perhaps a new character or two. All while keeping my word count down. Tall order.

Naturally, I froze. Every time I thought about getting started, I’d find an excuse due to personal life struggles taking place. I just didn’t have the brain power. I also decided to start building a collection of writing aids. Specifically, The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide To Character Expression (2nd Edition) by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. It’s been highly recommended in nearly every writers forum I participate in. It’s also part of a huge collection of writer’s aids, and I hope to one day own them all.

Today, I finally got the urge to start work on Grasslands. However, my new book hasn’t arrived yet! I don’t want to get started without it, I might have to go back all over again once it arrives. Now the million dollar question.

Is waiting to start the rewrites for the book a legitimate reason to wait? Or have I found yet another reason to procrastinate?

Either way, I think I’ll wait. I want some of the confidence this new tool is bound to instill in me, elevating my writing to the next level.

I’ll be sure to let you all know when I’ve actually hit the keys, because Grasslands is calling, and Piper is getting very impatient!

“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.” —Anne Frank