I have never heard someone describe my writing process so accurately 😅. I think I finished every essay from junior year of high school through college at 4-5 AM. I never edited, and shamefully got away with that strategy. I couldn’t make myself do it at night, which was usually a combination of wanting it to be good, not caring about the subject matter, and being exhausted. So I’d wake up early instead and somehow the extra pressure would force me to get it done. It got sketchy a few times when the library printer was acting up… I cannot recommend this process, but it was made even more stressful by how bad I felt about it! The “Why can’t I just be responsible and start assignments on time?” internal criticism didn’t make anything more enjoyable.
This is also a very helpful delineation between things that just need to happen, vs. times where the pre-work, simmer, full speed crank out works well.
Haha fellow procrastinators rebranded as incubators unite! One thing I will talk about next time is actually just embracing this process so the same thing happens but without stress. Not easy, but possible!
I hadn't considered the difference between procrastination and incubation before! I think that adult life has so many delightful "incubation periods" (interactions) built in that most writing projects take me a few weeks longer than I'd like to complete -- but I usually get many more ideas, think through a tricky part, and kill darlings that never had the chance to become darlings, as a result. Thank you for writing this!
The idea that a bit more time allows for the killing off of darlings that don’t have time to become darlings… this is good. There are a lot of ideas scribbled in notebooks etc that are never going to see the light of day and that’s probably for the best in many cases!
So glad you found this helpful, Madeline! Thanks for taking time to comment.
I love reading this. I’m married to a man like this, and he has a weekly deadline. Peers and mentors gave him a hard time about it, but I’m thankful he was/is confident in it and didn’t feel burdened to change the habit. I love witnessing the incubation! It’s so much fun for me! And he has never appeared as unprepared.
I have never heard someone describe my writing process so accurately 😅. I think I finished every essay from junior year of high school through college at 4-5 AM. I never edited, and shamefully got away with that strategy. I couldn’t make myself do it at night, which was usually a combination of wanting it to be good, not caring about the subject matter, and being exhausted. So I’d wake up early instead and somehow the extra pressure would force me to get it done. It got sketchy a few times when the library printer was acting up… I cannot recommend this process, but it was made even more stressful by how bad I felt about it! The “Why can’t I just be responsible and start assignments on time?” internal criticism didn’t make anything more enjoyable.
This is also a very helpful delineation between things that just need to happen, vs. times where the pre-work, simmer, full speed crank out works well.
Haha fellow procrastinators rebranded as incubators unite! One thing I will talk about next time is actually just embracing this process so the same thing happens but without stress. Not easy, but possible!
I hadn't considered the difference between procrastination and incubation before! I think that adult life has so many delightful "incubation periods" (interactions) built in that most writing projects take me a few weeks longer than I'd like to complete -- but I usually get many more ideas, think through a tricky part, and kill darlings that never had the chance to become darlings, as a result. Thank you for writing this!
The idea that a bit more time allows for the killing off of darlings that don’t have time to become darlings… this is good. There are a lot of ideas scribbled in notebooks etc that are never going to see the light of day and that’s probably for the best in many cases!
So glad you found this helpful, Madeline! Thanks for taking time to comment.
I love reading this. I’m married to a man like this, and he has a weekly deadline. Peers and mentors gave him a hard time about it, but I’m thankful he was/is confident in it and didn’t feel burdened to change the habit. I love witnessing the incubation! It’s so much fun for me! And he has never appeared as unprepared.
Oh that’s wonderful- to take joy in someone else’s incubation process. It’s often a surprise even for the incubator :)
Wow Kerri!!
I'm just getting to read this now, and it is divinely inspired,
plus the timing is perfect!
One of my projects has been to clean the garage and organize it.
It's been going on for over 5 years now I'm slowly getting there but I never made the correlation between being a perfectionist also. What an insight!
Thank you and have a Great Day with Our Lord!
You are appreciated! ❤️
Thank you, Paul! I'm so glad you found this helpful. I have a lot of 5 year projects, myself :) God bless you!