by Eric Weiss
Are you going anywhere for spring break?
Maybe you’re planning to explore a world filled with adventure and dragons. Or maybe you’re planning to travel through time to a cyberpunk version of New York, or hop on a space flight to relax on a beach on a distant planet.
For a writer, spring break isn't just a vacation. It represents a full week with no distractions. No work. No homework. Just five to ten days to write and make progress on a story idea that’s been swimming around in your imagination.
Or at least, that’s the vision a writer often has for their time off.
If you’ve been on break before, you’ll know that the vision doesn’t always line up with reality. A week is a lot less time than you think it is, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly it slips by if you’re not paying attention. We’ve all had that week of procrastination where we wake up on Thursday and realize we haven’t put down a single word on paper.
So how do you force yourself to do the actual work? Here are four tips for overcoming procrastination that will help you make the most of your writing time while you’re on vacation!
1. Don't overthink it.
For many of us, writing comes with a lot of pressure. The idea you have for your story is awesome - but it might not work if you can’t get it right. You want to make sure you give the idea the time and the attention it deserves. Anything less than that, and there’s no point in starting because the result won’t live up to your standards.
That line of thinking can be a trap for a writer. If you’re worried the conditions need to be perfect - if you think you need the perfect pen, the perfect desk, and the perfect cup of tea to do your process justice - then you’ll never end up writing anything at all. The conditions will never be perfect (and the results will never be perfect either).
It’s a lot easier to beat writers block when you free yourself from that pressure - and it’s easier to release that pressure when you realize that much of it is self-imposed.
You don’t need to subject yourself to that kind of stress or those kinds of negative emotions. There are no hard and fast rules about what writing should feel like, or what your word count or writing goal should be. There’s just the act of writing. As long as you’re doing that, you’re making amazing progress!
2. Don't fight the distractions.
Once the pressure is gone, there’s nothing standing in your way. You just have to stop procrastinating and commit to the writing process.
Of course, that’s easier said than done, especially when you’re taking a short break. Work and school are hard. Sometimes you need to binge Heated Rivalry or spend an hour scrolling social media to recharge your mental battery. Everyone deserves a chance to relax, and we’re not going to tell you not to take that time for yourself.
However, the time has to come from somewhere if writing is a priority. Distraction can easily become a procrastination habit if you're not careful. Unfortunately, it's virtually impossible to tune out all distractions, and advice telling you to ignore them isn't all that practical in this day and age.
So how do procrastinators stop procrastinating (or at least procrastinate in moderation)?
Sometimes the trick is to lean into the distractions and work with them rather than against them. You're enjoying a holiday. You want to watch TV. You want to accomplish a simple writing task. There's no reason you can't do both at the same time.
Try pulling out a notebook, a laptop, or even a phone so you can multi-task while you're sitting in front of the TV. Maybe you only brainstorm an outline, or jot down a few ideas, or only get 15 minutes of quality writing. It's still an important first step that can make a writing habit part of your daily routine. You're no longer fighting against your recreational impulses, and you're not procrastinating (not fully, anyway). The words also don't have to be perfect the first time through. Once the ideas are down on paper, you can always revisit them later when you're ready to give them more focused attention.
Any time is productive time if the alternative is no time. So give yourself a bit of time to be distracted, embrace procrastination, and explore your writing process at your own pace.
3. Prompts are a fun way to get started.
Sitting down to write is difficult if you don’t know where to start. That’s where a tool like The Story Engine Deck can help.
Our deck of writing prompts gives you an instant story seed with a character, a motivation, and a potential conflict, and there are lots of opportunities to add pieces (or assemble them in new ways) to make more dynamic stories. That can help you start each writing session on the right foot.
That remains true even if you already know what you want to write. If you spend 5 minutes warming up with a prompt, you can carry that momentum into your current writing project. You may even come up with a new character, or some other stroke of inspiration that unlocks a part of your story that's been giving you a hard time!
And if you don't know what you want to write?
That's where The Story Engine Deck really shines. The deck is designed to help you come up with new ideas, and each prompt could be the inspiration for a much bigger story!
4. Make notes so you can pick up where you left off.
Our last tip follows from tip #2.
A week isn't as long as you'd think it is (and certainly not as long as you'd like). If you’re writing a book (or even a short story), there’s a very good chance you won’t finish during your week off. That means you’ll have to make time to do it later. The problem is that it's very easy to forget what your characters were up to if too much time passes between sessions.
On that front, it helps to have reference points to jog your memory when you return to the project.
Make notes about where you want the story to go next, or about specific details (like characters or settings) that you want to explore in greater depth. You can write them in the margins or on post-it notes if you're using paper, or as bold text or comments if you're typing on a computer. The notes can be as detailed or as vague as you’d like, but they should be easy to find and help you remember what you were doing the next time you sit down to write.
No matter how you do it, taking notes will set you up for success because they'll make it much easier to pick up where you left off. That way, you can spend less time reviewing your old work and more time building on what you've already accomplished!
Enjoy your time away!
We hope you're able to make the most of your break, both recreationally and at the writing desk. You'll never have time to do everything you want, but progress and procrastination are not mutually exclusive if you use your time efficiently. You can still get a lot of writing done while making space for yourself.
If anything, your writing gets better when you're relaxed (and sometimes you'll find inspiration if you allow your mind to wander). There's no pressure. No one else telling you what to do. Give yourself the room to explore, and see where your imagination takes you when you add new pieces to your writing process!