The Art of Procrastination - what I learned by procrastinating

I thought I would write a whole series and then publish it in rapid succession. This was a bad idea for me. You see I've been sitting on a completed novel for almost a year now. I actually have two finished novels I've been sitting on since July last year. The problem is complex but it boils down to procrastination.

Things I have learned by doing the wrong thing

1. I am a discovery writer. Unlike a pantser I have outlines but I like to discover the story along the way. By writing it all down and then going back to revise means I've basically created spoilers for myself.

2. When you don't have a deadline you are dead in the water. Being self published you set your own deadlines. Since I never did this before, writing the whole series, I didn't set a deadline. A bad idea.

3. The whoohoo moments get drowned. You finish the first drafts. WHOOHOO. but when it is in a series where you have four drafts that whoohoo is now in lower caps. More like a whisper.

4. Plot holes are magnified. I plotted the whole series out in an attempt to write it like one big book. Unfortunately, this meant when things go wrong it goes wrong across the whole series. I ended up replotting book three completely and to get book four to work I had to rewrite book one and two.

What now?

Well, I'm going to set a deadline for the first book. Here it is, you are my witness. I want book one out in August. I'm going to be working on an anthology for December but book two will be out February of 2019.

I will share my woohoo moments so they don't get drowned out. To start. I've redone the cover for the first book and I love it.