Join our guest Lianné JvRensburg in discussing reasons we procrastinate and ideas to get creativity flowing again.
Tea and Tales
S1:E11 Writer Procrastination
So, do you even use that? Like, do you even go onto Instagram and see reels? I don't feel like you do. I never, I rarely rarely get on Instagram. Are you kidding me? I'm on my Facebook all day long. And I'm like, I need to go do the dishes. So I procrastinate and I don't go to Instagram. And I don't go to Twitter. And then I see emails that say, Hey, T and tell posted something. And they like tagged you over on Instagram. And I'm like, Oh, yeah, I'm Instagram. We're not that happening. Oh, yeah, like five months ago. That's why I do all social media. I see. All right. What are you drinking today? Well, I have apple today. I switched it up. You're drinking an apple. Are you drinking an apple juice? Are you drinking like apple? Apple cider. It's 103 degrees outside, but I'm still drinking apple cider. I forgot I'm drinking. I'm drinking something that's with a bush, but it's a tea. And let's just say that. It's a tea apparently. Apparently we go. We are ready to go. Let's talk about today's episode. Hello, everyone. And welcome to tea and tables. I'm now and I'm Sarah. We'd love to thank everybody that is helping us out on our social media, especially Rose Lawrence and Olivia McCarthy. Thank you both so much for liking, sharing and commenting on the things that we put up for tea entails. I'm very excited about today's episode because I feel like writers have learned about this word. It's called procrastination. It's the same word that actors fear when they're on stage, the M-A-C-B-E-T-H. I thought to myself, you know what? Who better to invite on this podcast than my dear friend and fellow writer, Liana Yanton van Einzburg, because she has made it her last mission to procrastinate the hick out of it. It's like she feels like she is getting paid to procrastinate. So without further ado, I'm going to scoot along this side and say hello to Liana. Hi, everybody. Excuse the squeakiness of the voice. Try to have it fixed before today. Yes, how did that work out for you? I apparently procrastinated and didn't get it done. Yep, yeah. It's because she's drinking coffee and I'll talk to you soon. So this is my first time meeting you and I just want to know a little bit about you. When did you start writing and what do you write? Oh, so I basically really started writing my first full-length story in grade nine, which is quite a few years ago. Like two years? Yeah, sure, we're young. Very young. I actually started writing due to a teacher that encouraged me to put down my feelings onto a piece of paper and I'm not very good with journaling and I was better with making up stories. So at the end of the day, I just started writing. So I write fiction. Let me just put it this way. And the first story that I ever wrote is a teen young adult. I think it falls into both categories because it starts off in high school. So it falls on both categories. So the story I wrote was basically a complete work of fiction, but the feelings written down was more me trying to work through a lot of stuff in my own personal life. And it took me 13 years to finish the story before I actually got to a point where I felt it was ready to be published. And I think I would have gone another 13 years. I don't know the right you're going right now. Your next novel is going to be published in 13 years. Yes, probably. I actually did finish two other novels as well. Those are more romance to young adult fiction side of it. The clean romance, not the two romance. I love reading dirty romance, but I don't write it. So I actually did complete three stories, full length novels, published one. I'm trying very hard for her to publish the race. Yeah, I have my reading that the race did. Let's just put it that way. But yeah, so my love for writing basically started in grade nine and then it just blossomed from there. And if you listen to our episode five, where we talk about traditional publishing, Liannae did go the traditional route and she did find a small publishing house, small publishing, large publishing. It's quite a large publishing house in Europe, but it's very more locally in Europe itself than it is worldwide. I feel, but yeah, so I contacted them directly. I didn't go through an agent or anything. So they did the editing and the cover art and all that for my novel, but yeah, it's published over there, not yet. That's okay, published and published, right? That's pretty exciting. And that was my approach to the feeling published, is published if it sells or if it doesn't sell. There it is. Yes, so it is my friends. Yes, and that story actually has a sequel. It still needs a lot of work, but I actually did complete the sequel. But I've been procrastinating for about two and a half to three years now on the editing part of it and actually finishing any other story. I've got about 50 stories. That's about two chapters in. Yeah, because you know what you like to do? What's criminal minds? Well, I can get behind that. Let's talk about procrastination because that's what this episode is about. What makes us procrastinate? What do you feel like is the main force behind why you end up procrastinating instead of just finishing those edits? I'm raising my hand because I have the answer. Do I get five stars? So for me, a lot of times I procrastinate because I maybe have received feedback from someone from a beta reader or I was querying a novel and received a rejection back from an agent. And then my brain immediately goes to I'm a bad writer. Nobody likes my writing. Why do I even do this? Because clearly there's no point to doing this because people hate my writing because they find this wrong and that wrong. An agent don't want me. So what is the point for our life? That was a lot. Yeah, absolutely. Feedback from other people or for me, it's also if I get nothing from other people. Like people say, "Oh, I'm so excited to read for you." And then ghost me for like a month. That's almost worse than getting feedback that I don't like because it's like, "Did you hate it so much? You just don't want to tell me now." Or did your life get busy? Like if your life got busy, I'd rather just send BMS users that says, "Hey, I've been meaning to read and life blew up in my face. Give me an extra couple of weeks versus just saying nothing." I think your reasons for procrastinating is very valid. I feel compete. No, compete to me. For me, I've been struggling to find the right inspiration. I'm actually sitting on a story for, it's been a year now that I've been on the topic. And I just cannot seem to get the plot flowing. So, I can't get my characters to get going. And for me, that takes away the inspiration for the fun in the writing. It feels like work. And I work full-time. I really don't want to work when I get a pen and paper in my hand and try and write a story. It must just flow for me. So, I avoid picking up the pen and paper instead of just hashing out the plot line. I think that's a big thing. I don't know where the story needs to go. So, my character doesn't know where to go. So, the story doesn't go and then I just watch Criminal Minds. And I tell her, and this goes back to writer communities, love writer communities. I love the little Zoom meetings that people do so you can just sit and write. You don't necessarily have to talk to anyone. It's just like your time that you set aside to write. And then I tell Leon, I'm like, we should sit a time. And then you just sit on your computer or your notebook or anything like that. You said you're like, okay, I have this 30 minutes. I have this hour. Sit and do something. Or just sit and stare at a blank page. Because even though it feels like you're not doing anything, like inspiration will just kind of come weirdly enough. But I think it's because you are a writer and you love telling stories and you love like doing all those things. And so, that's what has been helping me a lot. Because even though the person sits there in the Zoom meeting and you don't talk to each other or anything like that, I still feel, I'm honestly obligated to write. Because I'm like, they're looking at me. But they're not looking at me. But I feel like I have to write. Okay, that's right. And then naturally you go down a rabbit hole, because you're like, no, but I have to research this. Because hmm, what color is there shirt, blue? But what kind of blue? And then you go like down a rabbit hole of blues and then you end up looking at pictures of the ocean. And then all of a sudden, you are like talking basically watching criminal minds. Yeah, it's basically what you say. It's funny because that's what procrastination can look like sometimes is you actually do sit down to do something and you end up three hours later, you're like, my day's gone. I have 10 words. This isn't, it's not like you are not doing anything. You were just doing everything, except what you need to be doing. And it's like my, the novel that I need to edit, which is actually a fun story. I love the story. I really love my story. I will open it up and I will tell myself, just read through it, don't try and edit it or write it or everything. And I'll read the entire thing. And then I'll go and I think it's good enough. We'll just leave it there and then I'll close it down. And then two hours later, it's not good enough. It needs work. It needs work. Doesn't work. There's no work. So now I just don't open it. I'm very, very bad. Oh, now I know. I'm just going to have to open it every day and let you show it to her. Show it to her. My new mission. I think I was actually just taking a piece of paper and a pen and just step away from the computer. And because that's how I started out. I started writing my story on a piece of paper, you know, old fashioned work. Maybe I should just try that because that sometimes works gets the juices flowing again. But like you said, it's just push yourself to sit down. I feel like an old fashioned pen and paper is more movable. So like if your house isn't inspiring you, go somewhere. If you've got your book and your pen or your pencil and you go to sit with the horses, take a walk to the park downtown. Here we have zebra here, honestly. Okay, go watch the zebra. I'm sorry. What did you just call them? Zebra. Excuse you? It's a zebra. Zebra. Zebra. I don't think so. It's debris. Okay. Actually, listen, we have just those very moments. If you're feeling stuck, then what you are doing while you are stuck is not going to get you unstuck. Yeah, that is true. You're right. You need to go out and find inspiration. Like you say, go find the zebra. Oh, that hurt my heart and my ear. See if it helps you. But maybe I should just leave that story, that other plot line for the moment. Because that also doesn't help trying to sit with an idea. And it's not a bad idea. But go back to the easy stuff, editing something that's already there, just starting there. But I do agree with just going to a new space or a new area. Because I found, because I went to the farm a while back, as you would see in one of the videos that I made. And literally, as I was just, it was like a short time that I went there. But just being in a different space gave me a new idea. But then I was very angry. Because I was like, no, no, we are working on this story now. No, no, no new ideas. Thank you very much. I was like, listen, listen. But I think that's wrong. You shouldn't do that. You should even if you just bash out the half a chapter of a new idea. I always write down the ideas or I do voiceless. And then I'm like, okay, then it's away from my brain. And I can focus on what I'm writing right now. So I do write it down. Because, again, you know, there's means, is it means? Yes. There's means that people post. And then it's like, you're sleeping a bit and through it. And you're like, idea, I have to write this down. And then, and then you write it down. And then you go to bed. And then it's like, I finished like, milk, carton, gibberish. And you're like, wait, what is this? Everything. Come back to the dream. Yeah. Well, sometimes, well, the issue with that is sometimes people will do something to get away from their environment. And instead, they just procrastinate more because now I just rather brush horses or something. So breaking the procrastination cycle, sometimes you have to find your own ways to make that happen. And if stepping away isn't working, then maybe what you need to do is more research. Or maybe you need to go do what I call people watching. Because if your characters are feeling kind of flat, I go to a cafe or somewhere busy and I people watch to see what they're doing and how they're interacting to get inspiration. And every once in a while, every once in a while, my character will start being like, I want to talk with that guy because he sounds interesting. He looks interesting. And then the scene starts flowing again. It's really there are in a cafeteria. She is not stalking you. She's just like a character. Her idea, you know, just make it interesting. Make it interesting. You might just end up in one of her stories. And you know, she wouldn't say no to a cup of coffee is what I'm saying. Well, my husband wants to get me a shirt that says, I'm a writer, everything you say or do, can and will end up in a story. I love it. I love it. I'll totally support the purchase of that. Totally go for a shirt like that. I love how you say that actually, because that's one of the techniques we learned in one of my acting classes. My professor told us we had to go sit and just look at people and then write down what you see. Because that also as an actor, that gives you different point of views. It gives you different ways of acting as a certain character. So if you see someone sitting on a subway, creating a book, that could be a character that you could one day be portraying. And it would make you think about like, who are they? What do they do? How old are they? What are they thinking? And all these small little details that the readers don't always see in the novel. Yet the writer always knows in the head. Yeah. Well, I think also for me, it's a lot of a personal feeling. I don't know about you guys, but a lot of what I'm going through personally in my own life ends up on my pages. And if everything is completely crazy in your life, trying to get that jumbled miss on a piece of paper, that poor character is going to look like somebody that needs to be in a mental institution. So you'll end up writing a psychological thriller. Oh, I'm going to show a psychological thriller. Believe me, kids, we end in here, okay? It's crazy. But if you're feeling your emotions all over the place, I think that's also the reason you procrastination kids' top priority. Because if you can't figure yourself out, how are you going to figure out somebody else? And that's essentially writing somebody else. So that's also for me. Oh, see, I've got very valid reasons to procrastinate. Sure. Yeah. Good, great reasons to procrastinate. Told you I'm very good at it. Number one, a lot of times I end up procrastinating when I just want to avoid a task by any and all means. Like the other day, I was supposed to be doing all this work. And my husband walked in at the end of the day, he goes, wow, the house looks so great. You got so much done today. I went, sure, I did. He said, so what have you been doing? I said, procrastination. 100%. That is a balance procrastinating method. I think I will say that the past three weeks with procrastination. Yeah. Literally moved the entire house. Well, he left everything the way it was. For a lot of these instances, one of the things that helps us to overcome all that stuff is somebody that can check in with us. Like my husband who said, okay, well, the house looks great, but you need to go do that editing. You need to go find those agents. And then he's like, let me take over this. Go sit on your computer. I got it. Or just that friend who like, no, yes, and let's go, let's go, let's do something so that you don't feel, I think procrastination gets worse when you feel like you're the only one trying to go that direction and nobody else cares whether you make it or not. No, the accountability of another person just, like you say, checking in can help as well. I think the best way to motivate all of us, especially me on nine is to go to Apple podcast, you know, and get to that purple icon and comment and see those motivational encouragements along and five stars just because you're like us. We want to keep things short here on T entails podcast. We want to get your fingers back on the keyboard and your pens back on the paper. So head on over to Facebook and Instagram to follow us at T entails podcast and then also on Twitter slash X at podcast details. And we are on TikTok now. So you can go follow us on TikTok. We want to thank our awesome guests, Leon and I, for joining us today. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Bye. [Music]