One more day to go...

Just a day to go for NaNoWriMo…

What an exciting place to be! The TATA LitLive Fest is on with dozens of interesting authors, books and programmes. Now that I have decided on my story and worked out a rough outline, shouldn’t all my thoughts be on writing it down? Is this literary fest an opportunity for procrastination?

 

The last 50 or so days I had written every day. I told myself that it is just like brushing my teeth. There are no holidays for that and so it is going to be with writing. The intelligent procrastinator within me argued that brushing doesn’t take more than 10 minutes a day, even if I include gargling and flossing and multiply it by two. So, I told myself it is okay even if I write for just 10 minutes a day but there was one rule – the writing should be on the latest fiction piece I’m working on and I need to write at least 100 words. No blog articles, no journaling, no poetry, no new story, no idea outlines, etc. Only stuff relating to the current piece permitted.

“You have to finish things – that’s what you learn from, you learn by finishing things.” Neil Gaimann.

I am trying to do just that for the last month. Sometimes, I wind up in 10 minutes but sometimes I get into the flow. However, that putting the ‘butt-in-the-chair’ part every day is the hardest of all. It is only now I’m getting used to that! At last, in time for NaNoWriMo! Since I have started this regularly, I have started recognising my usual chores as invented ‘resistance’ (procrastinators). I have grown wary of my headaches, drowsiness, cleaning sprees, cooking sprees, partying mode and lots more. So, I’m wondering and hoping that this yearning to attend the litfest is not another procrastination stunt! What do you think?