"Is procrastination a problem for you? Really? You think you have a problem? (…) Whatever procrastination problems you have, I probably have you beat. I’m the worst, and I’m getting worse every day. (…)

It’s a very strange thing, because we all think writing should be fun. That is, when I was temping through most of my twenties, wondering what it would be like to write for a living, hoping for such a life, I thought it might be pretty sweet. I thought if I ever got to write for a living, I would feel pretty lucky, and that I would be so appreciative that I would bound out of bed every day and, like a goddamned adult, I would write as much as I could every day, and get work done in a reasonable amount of time. Again, like an adult.

Instead, I need, on average, 8 hours sitting on my writing couch to get one hour of work done. It’s a pathetic ratio. I stall, avoid, put off and generally act like someone’s making me do some terrible job I never wanted to do. I blow pretty much every deadline I’m given. (…)

But then, when things are late, and I’m feeling like an idiot, and I feel like I’m letting down someone, I finally dig in and get started. And then I write, and I write in a fury, and I even, sometimes, enjoy writing. (…)

Then of course you’ll have to revise it ten or twenty times, but let’s not talk about that yet.

Write your goddamned book now."

Reblogged from

Dave Eggers (via writingadvice)