Today’s guest post is by Zena Dell Lowe.
Zena Dell Lowe is an award-winning screenwriter and founder of The Storyteller’s Mission, a podcast and online platform dedicated to helping writers craft powerful stories with depth, meaning, and moral clarity. Her work has earned multiple national screenwriting awards, including two Grand Prize honors for her feature screenplay Trial by Fire.
Website: thestorytellersmission.com
Substack: zenadell.substack.com
I used to say the best writing advice was simply “sit down and write.” But the truth is, even when I make myself sit down, I’m capable of getting absolutely nothing done. For years I beat myself up over this, certain I just lacked discipline. But I was writing constantly—just not on the stuff I should have been working on.
I’ve come to realize that when I procrastinate, it’s almost never about discipline. It’s because I’m overwhelmed by the scope of the project in front of me. If something feels too big, too long, or too important, it becomes daunting enough to cause paralysis. So, I started tricking my brain into working around its own resistance.
- Leave the Document Open.
This sounds ridiculously simple. But at the end of the day, if I leave a document open on my computer, it becomes the first thing I see the next day. I’ll sit down to work and voila, there’s my document, which I’ll inevitably start to tweak. Before you know it, I’m “in it.”
- Give Yourself Less Time.
Writers often think they need long stretches of uninterrupted time in order to create, but sometimes that just creates more opportunities for dread, avoidance, and overthinking. So, when I start a new project, instead of giving myself huge chunks of time, I limit myself to one hour or sometimes even less. Sounds counterintuitive, but for me, it creates urgency. I don’t have enough time allotted to waste any of it. And it seems possible to write for one hour, whereas four hours seem impossible.
- Stop Thinking of the Project as “Long Form.”
I can bang out a short project lickety-split. Less pressure. More fun. There’s not so much riding on the outcome. So now I trick myself into thinking of each scene in a long-form project as a short story unto itself. This reduces the psychological resistance and improves the overall writing since each scene has its own emotional arc and includes a clear beginning, middle, and end.
- Put the Computer Away and Write It Out Longhand.
When I write on my computer, I feel like I’m tapping into my logical, analytical, left-sided brain, where I end up editing the same paragraph a thousand times. But when I write longhand, it feels like I’m connected directly to the right-brained creative muse. I don’t edit because I’m just vomiting up words on the page. For me, the handwritten version often ends up surprisingly close to a finished draft, needing far fewer adjustments than I’d expected.
- Create Actual Accountability.
Every writer is motivated by deadlines, which is why getting that publishing deal or having an editor/agent is so helpful. But what if no one is waiting to read the work? For me, self-imposed deadlines have never worked. I can just change them!
But if I know someone else is expecting to read my work, it tricks my brain into action. It can’t just be a verbal check-in either. It’s not enough for me to only report back how much writing I accomplished. I need real people who are expecting to see real finished pages. A good critique group is worth its weight in gold.
- Make the Work Less Precious.
I procrastinate most on projects I care about most deeply because those are the ones where I expect to be brilliant. I don’t expect brilliance from a sketch or stand-up bit. But in my mind, a novel is supposed to be literature, and a screenplay should be eligible for an Academy Award. The expectation of brilliance creates pressure, fear, and avoidance.
So sometimes the trick is to simply make the project feel less precious. This is when I give myself permission to experiment. To play. To be sloppy. The writers who become productive are the ones who allow themselves to write bad first drafts.
- Diagnose the Procrastination.
Most writers treat procrastination like a moral failure. But in my experience, it’s more about emotional resistance. The key is to find the specific thing you’re avoiding.
Sometimes the project feels too precious. Sometimes we’re afraid we won’t be able to execute the vision we carry in our heads. Sometimes we just don’t know the story well enough yet to write it. Don’t assume you only have a discipline problem. Find out what your resistance is actually about, and the tricks above will make a lot more sense.
Which brings me back to where I started.
The more meaningful something becomes, the more psychologically dangerous it can feel to attempt it. So. resistance isn’t always proof that you’re doing something wrong—sometimes it’s proof the project matters.
These tricks have helped me lower the emotional barriers between me and the page. If you find yourself procrastinating like I often do, I hope they help you too.
In writing I have shown myself
a very simple solid fact
that ego should go on the shelf
for I am just a hack,
and nothing will go far amiss
if I just get the whole job done.
It’s a thought I did try to resist
for once I thought that I’d become
something of a ‘creative’,
but I don’t think that now.
I’ve learned it’s better to go native
and not to worry about how
I look in a prideful looking-glass
and just get down my words real fast.
Check the ego at the door. Great tip!
“I’ve come to realize that when I procrastinate, it’s almost never about discipline. It’s because I’m overwhelmed by the scope of the project in front of me. If something feels too big, too long, or too important, it becomes daunting enough to cause paralysis.”
This doesn’t get acknowledged nearly enough when writers discuss productivity and it nails it for me. “scope of the project” – that nails my chief struggle. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, my brain doesn’t think in terms of stand alone fiction. I’m constantly scheming historical fiction series. So you have not only the pressure of plotting out the first book, but also being cognizant of the story-line flow you’re going to use throughout the series because you can’t publish the first book without giving thought to where the series trajectory and series story threads are going.
It’s paralyzing at times.
Also very real to me is your statement “Sometimes we’re afraid we won’t be able to execute the vision we carry in our heads.” Boom. This. I can’t tell you how many times this thought nags at me.
I like the idea of writing long-hand and also thinking of scenes as shorts to help lessen that strain. In fact, had already planned a long-hand session for myself this afternoon while I’m waiting for a doctor appointment.
Thanks for these tips.
Oh, yay! I’m so glad these resonate with you. Yes, when it’s not just one project but an entire series, it’s even more overwhelming.
Here’s to us both getting our projects done!
Fantastic advice–way better than “keep your butt in the chair.” Thanks for sharing this!
Yes to leaving the document open and critique groups!
I often have a quick burst of inspiration regarding my work in progress. If my document is already open, I’ll take the minute to type it in (and oftentimes, continue with more good thoughts). Somehow, not necessarily logically, opening the document feels like work I should put off till later.
My critique group deadlines keep me moving forward with a project. And once I have their suggestions, I’m eager to dig into editing.
Such a good post, my favourite, ‘Leave the screen open.’
Who doesn’t get caught up scrolling first thing?!
Thank you!
I used to leave my document open sometimes, but my laptop started doing an annoying thing where, after being left alone too long, it closes anything that I had open, even after I tried to change the settings to make this stop. So, now I just have to discipline myself to open my document before anything else in the morning.
I agree completely that there’s always an underlying emotional reason for procrastination. Last year, I got beta reader feedback on my novel, and they all said that a certain element needed to be introduced earlier in the story. I agreed, and even had an idea about how to do it, but then I got scared that I wasn’t going to do it well, or that my idea didn’t make sense. It resulted in procrastinating my novel by working on other projects. Finally, I got tired of putting it off and asked some online writer friends if I could just word-vomit my idea and have them tell me if it made sense. They said yes and were able to help a lot. Once I had that clarity, I fixed the problem so much more easily than I feared, and now I love the story that much more!
Critique groups can be great, but I think they work best when you know how you work and at what stage in your project you need feedback the most. For myself, I was in a critique group for several years and it worked best for me when I had a backlog of complete and self-edited WIPs to share. Once I ran out of completed stories, I had to drop out. I’m a plantser who needs the freedom to write a messy “zero draft” and even write out of order, not feel forced to write in order lest it not make sense to my critique group. I’m also a good self-editor who needs feedback only after I’ve done a round or two of self-editing, otherwise, all the feedback I get is about stuff I already knew was a problem and could have fixed on my own. I’d rather polish my story as best I can on my own, then have a critique group or beta readers help me level up further from there. There were other reasons I dropped out, like high membership turnover, and no set genre for the group so we were getting a bunch of horror writers in the group whose works I couldn’t even read, or regretted reading when I tried. (I’m a wuss with a vivid imagination, sorry.) But the biggest thing was knowing that submitting my rough draft chapters while I worked wasn’t going to help me.
This is great. The main thing here is to know yourself and your process well enough to determine what’s going to help and what isn’t. I’m glad you have clarity on this!
Excellent suggestions. Thanks.
I am so grateful to come across ideas that aligns with mine.l always enjoy writing with my long hand.However,l have gained a thing; not to waste much time in writing at a time,also not to look the work as too precious which can cause procrastination.
I may be a beginner or even a novice when it comes to writing perfect christian stories but I always bear in mind that God has endowed on me the ability to write for his glory.So l would say,l am in the process of learning from you all while getting my inspiration from the Bible.l am so elated to be part of this platform .
So glad this resonates!
This is an encouraging post. Thoroughly identified with the stops to writing and plan to put your advice to test! Thanks!!
I’m so happy to hear this. We need all the encouragement we can get!
Oh I think you looked into my soul! I resonated with every point. I too have learned the benefit of writing sloppy first drafts – just write something. Get it down. It can always be tweaked later. And I’ve also learned the value of leaving a document open so it’s the first thing I see. Sometimes just opening a blank file and typing the working title is the push I need to begin the project. Your emphasis on identifying what’s making us procrastinate and making the story less precious are so helpful. I see myself becoming overwhelmed because I don’t feel equal to the task of addressing something so big and important. Thank you!
Yay!!! Love this!!