by David Kubicek
Thank God for computers, the internet, and social media. Technology has made procrastination for writers so much easier.
I started writing on a Remington portable typewriter during my senior year in high school, so I’m well aware of the hardships of working with such primitive equipment.
Procrastinating was so much more difficult then. Sure, you could sit and stare at the typewriter with the blank white paper fed through its roller flashing at you like a neon sign. But that got boring after a while, and there was always the danger of your significant other coming to check on your progress and finding you sitting at the typewriter with that blank sheet fed through the roller and a skimpy stack of completed pages on your desk .
Eventually, you’d have to get up and actually do something. Of course, your significant other might still catch you doing other things and scold you for not working, so you’d have to explain:
“I was typing away, and I remembered that I hadn’t cleaned the gutters, so I thought I’d get that out of the way so I could concentrate.”
or
“I was working in my office and glanced out the window, only for a moment, and saw that the lawn was looking shaggy. It was so distracting that I just had to mow it.”
or
“I came out for some coffee and noticed the kitchen faucet dripping, so I just had to change the washer. Save us money on our water bill, you know.”
Or when your significant other caught you sneaking into the house with an armload of books:
“I was at the library doing research.” [Of course, you would leave out the part about roaming up and down the stacks pulling out any random book that looked interesting.]
Procrastination in the good old days was exhausting. You actually had to physically get up and do something.
Today, it’s much easier to not write. You can:
–watch videos on YouTube of people doing stupid challenges
–argue about politics on Facebook
–post pictures of your lunch on Instagram or Snapchat
–read about your favorite celebrity scandals in online tabloids
–search for a wig for your pet Lab [this is actually a thing; you can get a cute doggy wig with a ponytail for under $10]
–download books to your Kindle
–and much, much more. . .
And you can do all of this at your desk. You never have to get up and actually do something. It’s much more relaxing–although the trade-off is pasty white skin from not going outside and muscles that start to atrophy for lack of activity.
You can position your desk to face the door of your office, so when your significant other comes in to check on your progress, she or he can’t see what’s on your screen, and you can say: “I’m hard at work, dear”, while you secretly “X” out of the porn website.
For more information about David Kubicek’s books click here.