How to stall like a pro...
This was the morning I was to print out a partial first draft of my historical novel. I'm 25,000 words in, and feeling good even though I know I need to cut at least 5,000 words before moving on. Some scenes start too late, others ramble, and I have one secondary character who is so strong, she needs to be cut down to size. So I've decided to make her a man; nothing sexist here, she simply plays better that way. My main characters are riffing off each other well and my convoluted plotline is, at long last, beginning to make sense. One tiny problem: I'm still missing one of the main threads in my storyline and, without it, I'm doomed.
So, why then am I writing this piece?
Roget's Pocket Thesaurus is quite clear on this point. I'm procrastinating in an effort to defer the inevitable.
In other words, I am putting off, deferring, delaying, laying over, suspending, staving off, retarding, postponing, adjourning, proroguing, procrastinating, dallying, prolonging, protracting, spinning out, drawing out, tabling, shelving, reserving, temporizing, stalling, etc.
It could even be said that I am engaged in a filibuster.
(And should you require further proof, I just looked prorogue up in the dictionary, another good stalling tactic mastered in high school, perfected in university. I would always begin my essays by defining, literally, the subject at hand. Took up at least seventy-five to a hundred words, thereby cutting down on the work required to meet the minimum word count, not to mention the added bonus of seeming to provide sound academic grounding for what I was about to say on any given subject.
Should you be wondering, prorogue does indeed mean to "defer or postpone".)
It's not that I'm lazy, in fact most writers are extremely hard-working people who do the job out of passion and, more often than not, without the promise of a paycheque. That alone is enough of an excuse to put the hard task off to another day.
Well, it is another day and I have read, and reread, those 25,000 words and they're not so bad. In fact, I'm quite pleased. My time away from the computer has helped me put things in perspective and I've been able to mull over a few of the aforementioned problems I already knew existed. Seeing what I have done "on the page" and knowing where I need to rewrite has given me a shot of enthusiasm. And a possible solution to my missing storyline.
So there you have it, a 441-word deferment (including headers, footers and salutations).
f & f, Anne
