No excuses. Just do the work.

“Finish something. Anything. Stop researching, planning, and preparing to do the work and just do the work. It doesn’t matter how good or how bad it is. You don’t need to set the world on fire with your first try. You just need to prove to yourself that you have what it takes to produce something. There are no artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, or scientists who became great by half-finishing their work. Stop debating what you should make and just make something.”

This quote from James Clear woke me up. Just finish something.

My battle with avoidance, procrastination, putting others’ needs before mine, and fear that the writing won’t be good enough, has been a life-long struggle. While my mind wants me to write, my hands react to my computer as if it’s radioactive. I can’t touch it. What the hell?  

Once I’m on a deadline from some outside source—agent, publisher, creative director—I can plow through, but left to my own devices (and my Apple devices), I come up with a dozen reasons why something—anything—is a higher priority than finishing my draft.  I’ve had four books published since 2006, but I’ve been working on this memoir since 2008. I’ve taken classes, attended juried workshops, gone on writing retreats, and I always come back on fire, feeling creative and inspired to finish. Yet after I’m home for a bit, the fire spits and fizzles, and I’m back to doing laundry, cleaning off my desk, doom scrolling, playing Best Fiends on my phone. Anything but finishing. 

I’ve used every imaginable excuse. “I’m too busy with my young kids,” or “I’m too busy volunteering at the school,” or “I’m too busy researching and attending workshops to finish,” or “I’m so busy with my elderly parents.” My favorite is, “I’ve been so busy, I’m too exhausted to write.” 

How many hours have I spent researching residency opportunities, fellowships, how to find the right agent, how to write a perfect query letter? If I’d dedicated just half the time I squandered, I could have written two memoirs. 

But now, (for the hundredth time), I’m committed. Really. 

I. Am. Committed. This is the year I change direction; 2023 is the year I finish. I declare that I won’t let a day go by without writing or editing this manuscript, and the first draft will be finished by June. 

So, y’all do me a favor, please.  Check in with me via email and see how I’m doing, okay? Push, judge, harangue, question, but keep bugging me until this thing is done.  Better yet, give me hints that helped you push through when you faced roadblocks.

Thanks. I’ll remember y’all in the acknowledgments. 

— Jenna