Procrastination

It's just a natural part of growing up

Someone important is waiting on something from me that I was supposed to give to him by last Friday. It’s something I am excited, and perhaps a bit terrified, to do, and once done, could result in a nice thing happening. The document has been open in a tab on my laptop for a couple of weeks. It’s open right now. I can look at it if I want to. I can look at it. Any minute now, I will.

First, I should probably email Peter back about doing a joint event for his new novel Granite Harbor. I blurbed it, it’s very good, and it comes out in two short weeks, the very same day as The Penguin Book of Pirates. We should definitely have a lengthy exchange about events, and publishing, and book covers, and modern methods of book publicity. This is work. For sure.

That reminds me. I should probably post to my various social channels that The Penguin Book of Pirates is coming out in only two weeks. That’s exciting! Maybe I should tell people I recorded part of the audiobook? Yes. That sounds like something very important, that should happen right now.

(This fundraiser for the Salem Lit Fest will take place in a room with real pirate treasure!)

I mean, if I’m going to go to the trouble to share on my social channels about it being only two weeks from pub day for The Penguin Book of Pirates, then I should really put out a Substack. Right? I mean, obviously. I could talk about procrastinating. That’s not what I’m doing, clearly, because this is work, what I’m doing right now. Everyone in publishing and book marketing and publicity agrees that it is vital for an author to have a newsletter, and you can’t have a newsletter if you don’t put out a newsletter. That’s just science. But I’m told that some writers, at times, struggle with procrastination.

I have a theory, about procrastination. That it is a close relative of perfectionism. That’s my theory. That the undone thing, the thing yet to be done, has not yet been ruined. That it exists as whole potential. Potential is perfect. There is only possibility. Yes, this will be exactly the document that I need it to be, this document that is open on my laptop right now.

Similarly, my next novel - which exists so far as a hazy accretion of characters and ideas knitted around an inciting incident, at a moment in time that has been decided upon, but which would benefit from some deeper research - is, at this moment, perfect. It is, so far, the greatest novel I have ever written. Maybe not the greatest novel *anyone* has ever written, but certainly, it is, at this moment, a watershed of my own creative potential. I have, so far, made no mistakes.

Except for the part where not beginning to work is a mistake.

So what’s next?

I knew you were going to ask that. I mean, obviously, next I’m going to finish this document that someone is waiting for. Although, I’m traveling to Norwich in June, and I’ve never been there. I should probably read up a bit on Norwich, just so I’m prepared.

But before that happens, I’ll be joining Charter House Books and the Newport Historical Society to release The Penguin Book of Pirates on April 30. Right after that I will zip over to RJ Julia to talk to Rachel Ruckert about her new pirate novel on May 2 at 6:30 pm. Then I’ll be in Salem at Real Pirates Salem for a party and reading on May 4 at 6 pm to raise moolah for the wonderful Salem Lit Fest, now entering its 15th year. Then I’ll be with Greer Macallister at Belmont Books on May 6 at 7 pm, followed by the Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books on May 11, and the Gaithersburg Book Festival on May 18.

Phew. Then Norwich! Then, Nantucket for the Book Festival there.

Now that this Substack is done, there is really nothing standing in my way. I’m ready to finish this document! And it will be great! Though, you know, I should probably….