How Do You Know When You're Procrastinating-Writing and Actually-Writing?

The browser window gives it away.

In all seriousness, is one timewasting and another not? Surely you're talking about early versus late rewrites. Personally, when I feel either sick of the sight of something or thrilled with it, I try and move on. I can always go back. Some advice I read a while back went along the lines of: stop writing before you want to stop writing. Pithy, but makes good sense, i.m.o.

But if you are stuck, try thinking about things like voice and tone. Does your bit being edited match tone? Does it drop the tension in the middle of an action scene, for instance? Does it contain a repetition from something else nearby? These should hopefully give you nudges to bat it all in the right direction. Good luck

 

Only you can make that distinction.

Are the changes you're making now legitimate changes that affect the story or just nitpicky things? If it's nitpicky, like changing out a single word here or there, then it's probably past the point of being productive.

 

I think it depends on your goals and motivation. Sometimes there's things I know I need to do, but I mentally, emotionally, psychologically don't feel up for, so I lapse into "procrastination" writing, and while it's certainly not the best use of my time, I don't consider it a waste of time.

(Disclaimer: While I would love to be published one day, it is not a burning life goal, nor a career path I have made life choices around. I have a day job I love and writing is a serious hobby that one day may lead to more.)

I believe that any writing you do makes you better. Whether it serves an immediate purpose or goal, or if it's just putting off writing that pivotal, but daunting scene where you need to cram world building, character development, and a new conflict that makes things worse for your MC that you feel real-world guilt for piling on them because damn, they've already suffered so much.

I've written about seven (?) different chapters for a WIP where the goal was to bring two characters together and set some stuff up. Same goal, seven different scenarios. Was it procrastination writing? Yes. Iteration #3 was pretty good, but it was a fun thing to try out "what ifs?" on. I ended up sticking with #3, but the subsequent 4 chapters that I wrote, and shelved, helped me get to know my characters, their needs/wants/faults/motivations; better than I ever would have grasped had I not went through that writing process.

There are definitely times that writing can be a big old time waster, if you have goals and word counts and the such, but if you're writing more for the journey, and less focused on the destination, any writing is valuable writing.