Want to Write Professionally? Be Accountable
By: Sarah Gardiner
Tags: Work, Goals, Self Improvement, Writing, Motivation

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

I’ve fallen into a hole. Hell, I’ve fallen into a lot of holes.

I’ve always been a master at procrastination, especially when it comes to writing.

I once spent a whole morning reading about shrunken heads. The productive hours I’ve lost while staring up at the night sky taunt me often. I can make a 3 mile drive last for an hour if there’s a good story playing in my head. And don’t get me started on the procrastination catnip that is YouTube conspiracy videos.

The thing about being a writer is that the job requires a wandering mind. It requires curiosity. You’ve got to be the sort of person who wakes up in the morning wondering what the hell was up with all those shrunken heads?

The problem begins when the hole you dive head first into is suddenly so deep you can hardly see the light, when the day you had scheduled to “finally be productive” has suddenly vanished without a single word on the page. But hey, you sure learned a lot about the art of taxidermy.

All of the things that help me write a good story end up being the roadblock to me actually writing the story.

And what good is a perfectly constructed story that never leaves my head?

So, what do we do?

We, the productively challenged writers stuck living in our heads, have got to make a few changes. We have to be accountable. I have to be accountable.

The difference between a writer and a professional is that one of them treats it like a job. It is a job, and it takes work.

Creative fields have a bad habit of labeling their job as their art without taking into consideration the work that must also go into each and every project. Michelangelo had a vision for David, but it wasn’t until he took the tools in his hand and got to carving that art was created. I’m sure Fitzgerald had hundreds of beautiful stories bouncing around in his head, but it wasn’t until he put pen to page that anyone else got to meet Gatsby or Daisy.

If we love our art, we must give it the chance to exist. We must actually make it. A beautiful story does no one any good if it is stuck in your head.

But what if you sit down to work and the words just won’t come? This happens (a lot), and the answer is infuriating: you just have to make them. At the end of the day, you are in control, not the words. Sometimes you have to sit down, grab the reins, and whip those letters into shape. You’re the boss. Prove it.

If this really is your profession rather than just your calling, you have to start treating it as such. Set work hours — and stick to them. Treat it as you would any other job. Set benchmarks, take mandatory breaks, check in on your progress.

You are both your own boss and your own employee. At the end of the day, you have to learn to treat yourself and your art with the same professionalism you would bring to any other project. Put yourself on a timer. Make a game out of it. Hell, tell a friend and have them hold you to your word.

Be accountable.

It isn’t easy. It is very very hard.

I should know, I just got back from a side trip down a “Google Street View tour of London” hole.