In Which I Allow Debut Author Stephanie Perkins To Take Over My Blog

Over the last few months in my blogging life I came across this one blogger, who also happens to be a debut author, who was hilarious, insightful, had a penchant for posting pictures of hot guys and dude...she has blue hair! Seriously, my kind of person.

Meet Stephanie Perkins!

Seeing as how she was awesome, and I'm generally a fan of having awesome things in my life, naturally, the first thing I did was ask her if my mom could call her mom and set up a playdate if she'd do a guest blog over here. And because she's awesome, Stephanie said yes!

So I'm going to go and sit over there (see me in the corner waving to you) and let Steph do the typing and tell you a little something about Procrastinating--oh baby!

The "P" Word
On the sixteenth of December, Frankie asked if I'd like to guest post here on her blog. I gave an enthusiastic "Yes!" . . . and then promptly sat on my butt for the next three months.

But December. I mean, there are some major holidays in there, right? Clearly I was busy.

And I spent the entire month of January out of the country. So that was a pretty good excuse, too. And when I came back in February, well, OBVIOUSLY I was behind on my regular work. So I had to get that done.

And then March . . . wait.

What have I been doing for the last three weeks?

Oh. Yeah. I'm working on a Big Scary Deadline, because I spent so long procrastinating on my novel last year, that I am seriously, embarrassingly, grotesquely behind on it this year.

Procrastination. Perhaps it rings a bell?

In creative work, it's easy to make excuses not to do the things we love. And sometimes — Holidays! France! — they're valid. But allow me to tell you what I did last summer and autumn, when I was supposed to be working on my latest novel:

I watched all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I blogged. I signed up for Twitter. I googled pictures of hot British men. I checked my email, checked it again, and checked it again. I did laundry, put laundry away, and found more laundry to wash. I frequented bookstores and libraries, and I read over two dozen books for research.

But I did not write.

Well, I wrote a little. I opened my document a few times every week, tinkered with this or that, and added a word here or there. I wrote. But I did not WORK.

Writing is working. To be a legitimate writer, you have to work. Every. Single. Day. You treat it like the job that it is, which means that you show up, and you put in the time and the effort. Even when it's not fun.

I started writing because it was FUN, and that's probably why you started writing, too. But the truth is, once you begin taking anything seriously — and you have to take it seriously to do it professionally — much of the process becomes the complete and total opposite of fun.

It becomes work.

Can you imagine procrastinating as a chef? As a bank manager? As a sales representative? You'd have a lot of angry customers on your hands, and you'd go out of business.

Every time you procrastinate as a writer, you're putting yourself out of business.

So how important is logging onto Twitter multiple times a day? How important is checking your email every half hour? How important is that television show, that novel, that film, that concert, that sporting event?

Heck, how important is that load of laundry? Do you have clean underwear? If you do, that load can wait.
If you want to be a published writer, you have to learn how to love writing not just as an escape, but as a job. Jobs have good bits, ugly bits, and a LOT of boring bits in between. I'm still learning this, and it's still a difficult pill to swallow. But I'll keep trying, because I also know that the things we love — the things that will bring us the most pleasure in our lives — are often the hardest things we do.

So here's your post, Frankie. Thank you for being so patient and kind with me. I've stopped procrastinating. I'm going back to work.

Hehe thanks for coming by Steph!!

So to check out more on Stephanie Perkins, visit her website HERE! And her blog HERE!

And ooooh pretty cover for her book Anna and the French Kiss (Dutton, December 2010)

Which you can conveniently buy HERE!

Thanks again, Steph! Maybe my mom can call your mom and we can do this again some time:-)