Confession Time: I Need to Break This *Really* Bad Habit

Here is how I plan to make this happen

So, it’s true. I have a bad habit. And it is kind of embarrassing because I give writing advice and yet… I’m committing a pretty heinous author crime.

The truth? I wait until the very last minute to write my books.

I am what you call a chronic procrastinator. Under my pen name, I will wait until the day before I need to submit my book to Amazon to even start writing. Yep. I am that bad.

I self-edit my books so I literally leave myself one day to write and edit my book. I know… it is terrible. You would think it would affect my ability to sell a book well, but thankfully, I have not seen my short books suffer.

What does suffer is my anxiety about pumping out a short book in one day.

I know I am not the only writer who procrastinates.

It is kind of a creative trademark, right? We are known for being procrastinators and getting writer’s block. Sometimes, those two go hand-in-hand.

But I do not want to be that writer anymore.

So far, I have been able to get by like this, but I am not naive enough to believe this will always work for me. Eventually, I will miss my deadline. Eventually, my art is going to suffer.

So, I am determined to make a change. This is how I plan to do it.

I am going to commit to writing a small amount every day.

This makes sense, right? Logically, I know that creating a little bit every day is the better plan. Logically, I know that it is probably better for my creativity not to cram all the words at the last minute. But, it is still easier said than done.

So, how am I going to do this? Well, I am going to set the number very low to start. Maybe like 100 words of my work in progress every day. That way, I can actually hit the number.

I am going to try and trick myself into believing my deadline is earlier.

This one may be a little hard to accomplish, but wouldn’t it be great if I could believe my deadline was earlier?

Then, even if I do procrastinate, I am not actually in jeopardy of putting out a bad book or an unedited book, because I am days ahead of my schedule. That gives me extra days to really fine-tune my work.

I am going to acknowledge the fact that it is hard to break a bad habit.

Let’s be truthful here: it is not easy to change your habits. When you are in a cycle of behavior, you are not so inclined to step out of it. Especially if I am having success by working this way.

So, I will probably fail at this once or twice or way more.

And that is okay. I will keep working to improve this habit a little at a time. And hopefully, I can get this sloppy writing behavior to a better place.

So, what about you? Are you a procrastinator? Give me your advice in the comments.

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Jenny Bravo writes books and helps other writers through trial-and-error. She’s on Instagram (@jennybravobooks) and TikTok (@jennybravobooks). You can hang out at her website, www.jennybravobooks.com.

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