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Procrastination afflicts even the most talented and ambitious writers. That half-finished manuscript, the brilliant idea gathering dust, the writing project continually pushed to tomorrow—we all know the struggle. In this candid exploration, Trevor Thrall dives deep into the psychology behind why writers procrastinate and offers battle-tested strategies to overcome this creativity-killing habit.

Drawing from personal experience and years of coaching writers, Trevor unpacks the surprising emotional roots of procrastination. Fear sits at the heart of many writing delays—fear of failure, fear of criticism, and sometimes even fear of success. For perfectionists, the terror of creating something imperfect can be paralyzing. As Trevor explains, "The most perfect book is the book you never start, because you never have to sully that book's perfection with reality." This insight alone might explain why so many aspiring authors talk about writing for years without typing a single word.

Beyond fear, Trevor examines how overwhelm, imposter syndrome, and lack of accountability contribute to our procrastination habits. He dismantles the common excuse of "poor time management," revealing that what appears as a scheduling issue often masks deeper emotional barriers. The conversation shifts from diagnosis to remedy as Trevor outlines a comprehensive system for establishing a sustainable writing practice. At its core: connecting your writing to a compelling life vision, breaking projects into manageable chunks, establishing consistent routines, and creating meaningful accountability.

Ready to transform your writing life? Trevor offers practical tactics like the "zero draft" approach (lowering quality expectations to get a complete draft quickly) and the "fail early, fail often" strategy of sharing your work throughout the creative process. Whether you're wrestling with a dissertation, struggling with your first novel, or finding it difficult to maintain momentum on your tenth book, this episode provides the framework to stop procrastinating and start producing your best work. Your writing dreams are waiting—isn't it time to stop putting them off?

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It happens to all of us: you make a beautiful plan, you’re pumped and ready to go. Then life happens, things go sideways, and you suddenly find yourself weeks behind. If you don’t do something drastic, you aren’t going to hit your goals.

What the heck do you do now?

For most of us, our plans need significant adjustment midstream more often than not. The problem is that most people don’t feel comfortable with what to do at that point. Do I give up? Do I pull some all nighters to make up ground? 

Many folks either get a bit paralyzed or just do whatever occurs to them first. In both scenarios, people tell me that the result was not satisfying or comfortable - they didn’t feel like they made a sound decision. For many people, it’s a reason that they don’t use planning and execution systems at all.

To help combat this problem, the goals for today’s episode are to help you A) make a good decision about how to revise your plan when things break down and B) how to feel good about that decision.

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We’re all getting the message every day. Generative AI is changing the world at warp speed. Every week reveals new possibilities for working more efficiently. Nothing will be the same. A robot is going to cook all your hamburgers and fries. No one will have a job within 10 years. And writers will go the way of the dodo.

To that I say: raspberry sound. Humans will always have a place in the loop.

In this episode I:

• Explain my human centric theory of AI
• Discuss the limits of AI and why writers should not fear losing their jobs
• Describe several strategies and provide examples for using AI today to write better, more quickly, all while amplifying your unique voice.
• Introduce you to Tr3v0r, my new custom GPT writing coach buddy
• End with a few tips for using AI safely.

Links:
GYWD: Writing Like a Human Resource Guide
GYWD: AI Tools for Writers Resource Guide
Google Notebook LM
ProWritingAid
GetYourWritingDone.com

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Do any of the following scenarios sound familiar?

• You know you need to do some research for your book, but you have no idea where to start
• You want to write a book about a new topic, or a novel that takes place in a new setting perhaps, but you are so worried that you won’t sound authoritative or convincing enough, so you spend months doing research, never sure whether you’ve done enough
• You’ve just created a great plan, and doing research is in the plan, but when you start  doing the research you can’t figure out if it’s helping you get anywhere
• You’re in the middle of your book, but run into a topic that you want or need to know more about. Weeks later you realize you have fallen down a rabbit hole of research and haven’t started writing again.

If you’ve ever found yourself in one of these situations, you’ve fallen into the research trap.

I define the research trap as “The act of conducting unnecessary research or conducting research in an inefficient or ineffective manner.” 

The research trap can lead to aggravation. It can make you miss deadlines. It can keep your work from being the best it can be. But maybe worst of all, it can add up to weeks, months, even years, of wasted time. 

So, that’s the goal of this episode: understanding the research trap, why people fall into it, and discussing strategies to avoid it.

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Is there a rock in your shoe keeping you from writing? 

I don't just mean a garden variety obstacle, I'm talking about a major productivity or dream killer. Is there something that needs to change for you to reach your goals?

In today's episode, we discuss The Rock and the Response. We talk about how the obvious layer of the rock almost hides a more important inner layer of dangerous emotion. We consider how difficult it can be to recognize the real causes behind our rocks.

Then we talk about dealing with rocks. Embracing a strategic mindset is key, as is being honest with yourself and being willing to make necessary tradeoffs. Finally, we discuss finding the courage to confront the rocks in our shoes.

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Everywhere I look I see workshops promising to help you get a fast start to 2024. And that’s great! But here’s the thing: how many times have you or someone you know got off to a quick start on a new writing project but never quite finished it? That’s why this episode is all about Starting to Finish. We'll talk about five common reasons people don't finish their writing and five concrete steps you can take to avoid them.

For more information and tools for the productive writer, visit getyourwritingdone.com

We're excited to announce the launch of our new website: 12weekyearforwriters.com

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Do you ever hear yourself saying these sorts of things?
- I don’t have enough time to write
- I don’t have enough energy to keep going to the end
- I am so demoralized at how slow this is going
- I’m losing my enthusiasm for this writing project I’ve been at it so long

If you find yourself in one of these situations, you need to become a master of making slow progress. This idea of slow progress gets very little discussion these days, but I think it deserves a lot more. In today’s episode I define slow progress, talk about why slow progress can be challenging, and outline some strategies for mastering the art of moving slowly toward your goals.

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Did you know that the average person spends just 47 seconds before switching from looking at one screen/window on their computer to looking at another? Or that it takes 25 minutes to regain focus after an interruption? Staying focused in the best of times is a brutal task. Staying focused when life gets crazy is that much harder.

In this episode we'll talk about five strategies for finding focus that all happen before you sit down to write.

Ezra Klein, "Beyond the 'Matrix' Theory of the Mind,"  

Gloria Mark, Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity 

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Have you ever had one of those periods where you just couldn’t write consistently? Maybe your schedule was too chaotic. Maybe you got super busy at work. Or maybe you found yourself looking at the clock and seeing it was time to write but you wound up finding something else to do? Maybe you were going great guns but then went on vacation and when you came back you found that your momentum was gone and you never got back on track? Or maybe you made plans to get to work early every morning and write for an hour before work but after a couple days you stopped and didn’t start again? If any of these sound familiar, do not feel bad! We have all had trouble showing up. In fact, I think being consistent and building a writing routine that sticks is one of the single biggest challenges facing a lot of writers, especially a routine that can stand the challenges and turbulence of daily living. So today’s episode is all about showing up: why we don’t and what we can do about it. By the end of the show, you’ll have strategies for writing consistently.

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Did you ever have a writing project where everything just clicked? I mean, from the beginning when you had the idea to the finished product, everything just went great, and quickly? And on the other hand, did you ever have a writing project that did nothing but give you trouble, from the day you started it until the day you finished it, or just dropped it? I've had my share of both. And lately I've been reflecting on some of the things that determine how things go with my writing projects, and what's sticking out to me today is the importance of being in sync with your writer rhythms. That's a technical term I just made up, by the way: writer rhythms. According to the Oxford Languages Dictionary, rhythm is "a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound." I submit that a writer rhythm is a strong, regular, repeated pattern of writing. Boom, new term created. The argument I want to make in today's podcast is that when you are in sync with your writer rhythms, when you honor them, in a sense, your writing will flow much more easily. When you are out of sync, however, even the easy things will eventually start to become difficult. Today I'm going to explore the concept of writer rhythms and offer a few observations that might help if you're looking to get in better sync with them.

We're excited to announce the launch of our new website: 12weekyearforwriters.com

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