Why do writers procrastinate? Presumably we're all writers because we enjoy writing or derive some satisfaction from it (if not an income). Why is it, then, that most of us would rather bath the dog than settle down and get on with it?
My own delaying tactics include everything from sharpening the pencil, making coffee, remembering that the veggies for dinner need peeling and discovering that an essential piece of information requires an hour of research on the internet, to sorting out the contents of the black hole under the sink and seeing how long I can stand on one leg with my eyes closed (it's supposed to be a test of your health age as opposed to your chronological age). Yet when I run out of excuses and write something I feel so much better. Even if every line has been a struggle to sift the right words from the clutter in my head, there's a sense of achievement. I can pat myself on the back for having enough self-discipline to produce something.
The key to why writers procrastinate could be in that phrase 'settle down'. It's all too easy to have a grasshopper mind when much of life is so disjointed. Or maybe it's because we question our ability to produce anything of value. If so, the following advice from the editor of Glimmertrain (July 2006) is for you.
"Those who are committed to writing meaningful material, and are willing to work on the language that will deliver it most effectively, are writing something of value.... [If you] have wondered if you're wasting your time writing, please consider this. Absolutely no one has ever seen the world through your eyes except you, and when you die, most of your vision of the world will die with you, if you have not written it down."