By Cristina Picozzi
Not only have I been having a hard time deciding on what to write for this post, but I was definitely procrastinating as well. It took me a bubble bath to realize what to write.
I’ve decided to write about why I write.
I write because of the satisfaction I get after writing something powerful, small and rhythmic for an audience or for myself.
I write because it’s something I like and something I’m good at. I feel accomplished when I write, even if it’s something only a teacher will see.
It’s that great feeling that I get that makes me want to keep writing and not put it off.
Being in college, I don’t find a lot of time to write for myself or for fun, especially because I’m getting deep into my major and I’m surrounded by writing twenty-four-seven.
I’m on the newspaper staff at Utica College and, of course, I don’t procrastinate the stories I have to write for publication, but I sometimes find myself putting off my own writing because I believe I don’t have the time.
However, the past few days I have been finding a few minutes here and there, and I don’t know about other people, but I get my best ideas in the shower.
I have been having awesome ideas for stories, poems and plays. I’ve had so many concepts evolving in my head that I knew I needed to write them down. So I’ve been writing things on Post-It notes.
My reason for doing this is so it’s out of my head and written down somewhere.
It’s my first step toward sitting down and writing anything at all; getting the first idea down on paper.
After that I go back when I have more than a few minutes and I jot some things down on the same Post-It or I hop onto my computer and start writing.
The whole idea of Post-It notes or note pads is to help get things down on paper, even if it’s a quote or a random thought you have about a character in a piece of writing.
There are things every writer should remember when writing little notes for later:
- Put them in a space where you won’t lose them. Keeping your notes together will make it easier when you go to look back on your ideas.
- No idea is too dumb to write down. Sometimes we over-think our own thoughts and ideas and start to worry they aren’t good enough. It’s your writing, only you say what is good enough or not.
- Even writing for a few minutes is a big deal because you took the time to sit down and get something down on paper instead of letting it sit in your head, or worse, letting yourself forget about it.
Just by getting things out of your head you can easily develop characters for stories, build a climax in a chapter and decide on dialogue for a scene.
Writing things down also gives ideas a more physical form, so it’s not just something in your head.
It also allows you to work at something. No one can just sit down and write a whole book in one sitting. By writing for 5 or 10 minutes a day and writing yourself little notes about ideas, you can slowly develop your writing and your story.
There’s no need to be in a rush to finish—of course deadlines and goals are important—but pacing yourself is too.
About the Author: Cristina Picozzi is a writer, an undergraduate at Utica College and one of the three Procrastinating Writers interns
