Academic writing, is this normal?

[daisyjgrey]

Academics, writers, anyone with that kind of experience, help!

Not only am I a professional procrastinator (a different topic entirely), but it genuinely seems take me a good hour or so of sitting in front of a computer flitting between reading reports and scrolling through ASOS/Mumsnet before my brain has warmed up enough to actually get any sense out of it.

Is this a thing?
Am I just maybe a little bit stupid and need to give myself a stern talking to?
Do you do anything similar?

(The irony of starting a MN thread while obviously procrastinating is not lost on me by the way).

@Daftodil

My editor gives me a deadline and leaves me to it. Nothing so motivating as being 72 hours out and realising you haven't really started 😂😂😂

I mostly did the whole "write drunk, edit sober" thing to produce my PhD thesis (and, indeed, other essays/ articles before and since). I think pissing around on mumsnet is probably preferable to actually getting pissed

You keep deadlines, @questionable?

My deadline was, ahem ... ok, I'll go back to work.

if I worked all the time the way I do just before a deadline, I'd be Leader of the Free and Unfree Worlds, probably ...

Late last year I agreed on a late January deadline for a preliminary draft. I think I started re-watching Buffy the minute I put down the phone. I’m on series 5 now. Barely squeezing out a few sentences a day. I am embarrassed in front of myself.

Yes, normal. I usually go for a walk, come back and read again, I do this a few tomes and then settle down to it properly. The walk seems to help me process

Daftodil 😂

@SarahAndQuack

Usually only by the skin of my teeth 😂😂😂

I once wrote ~12k words in one day because I'd put it off so long. Not my finest moment.

Were they any good?

Honestly surprising so. I had quite a lot of typos but getting that chuck of the story down in one go seemed really helpful actually. Though I'm not in a rush to do it again 😂

@QuestionableMouse wow that’s amazing! (And insane ) How long did it take you?