On procrastination…
Over five months ago I began recording the audiobook of my second Shropshire Mystery, Death by Relic. I’d enjoyed recording the first one and was looking forward to the second. For some reason, though, I failed to make it a priority and it seemed to take ages.
I was using different software, which I loved, but even so, whenever I had a recording session planned, there seemed to be something else that was more urgent. The first audiobook, Death at the Devil’s Chair, was released around the same time as Death by Relic came out in ebook and paperback so in theory, I had plenty of time. Except that I had already started work on book 3, Lies Beneath the Mynd, which was due for release in May. And needed to promote books one and two, which meant visiting local bookshops, endless hours of social media and learning about ads and… and… and….
An indie author’s life can be very busy. Whilst we have perfect freedom and control, we also bear all the risk and responsibility. Before you get the violins out, please don’t think I’m complaining. I’m not, I promise; I love it. Sometimes it’s scary. Like when you realise you’ve left it too late to engage your cover designer for your latest book and you might have to reschedule your launch. (I didn’t because he’s not only brilliant but kind and efficient too.) But most of the time, it’s great. You are answerable to no one but your readers. It also occurred to me the other day that if I wanted to, I could just stop writing and publishing. There are no contracts to which I’m beholden. Except, of course, the invisible contracts I feel with all the people who have been kind enough to support me from the start: my partner who does all my tech and design; friends; family; local bookshops; and most of all readers who have bought my books and been generous in spreading the word.
The thing I find hardest is allocating my time. I’ve got better at it. I now have a book which is part journal, part diary. Each morning, I write my thoughts and achievements from the day before, followed by a list of tasks for the day. Anything that I need to remember is written down and colour coded. It helps to keep me on track but I stray from the list most days. Because there’s something I’ve forgotten which assumes priority or just because I’m not very good at keeping to schedule.
Busy-ness was not the only reason that I made slow progress on the audiobook, though. Once I’d recorded it, which took longer than I’d planned because of the above-mentioned inability to stick to schedules, there loomed the need to edit it. Owing to a mistake in my recording set-up (home studios are very convenient but, on a budget, they have their quirks) there were more breath sounds than I was prepared to tolerate. Audiobook platforms don’t like complete silence between phrases; some room-tone is necessary. But gasping breaths don’t sound good, neither do pops and clicks from tongue and lip movement. My recordings sounded fine when listening back on a speaker but with headphones, I could hear way too much background. There was no quick way to edit it. I had to paste room-tone clips into nearly every gap between phrases in an eight-hour plus book. Each chapter took about an hour. Some longer chapters took longer. I was losing the will to live.
Then a quirk in the new software meant that some chapters got corrupted, with sections of chapters becoming folded underneath each other. I still have no idea how it happened. One night, all was well. I saved the file and closed the programme. The next morning, everything was a mess and I didn’t know how to sort it out. After a while, I managed to rescue it; I duplicated the file, separated things out, chopped and cut and pasted. But it took days. Or rather hours, spread over days, spread over weeks. I began to put it off because it was hard. Because there was always something more attractive to do.
Eventually, I finished. Chapters were edited and sound-corrected. All I needed to do was go back and correct 3 errors that had somehow slipped through the net. Two involved inserting some text which I’d failed to rescue from the ‘folding under’ incident. The other was re-recording a short section where my phone had rung during recording and I’d missed it on the first edit. Shouldn’t have taken long. Except that I became convinced that I wouldn’t be able to do it. That more problems of the folded-files type would occur and I would be back down the rabbit hole.
It took me about two months just to start.
For one of those months I was ill — and trying to finish book four in the series. For the second month, I was just procrastinating. The task had ballooned into a massive mountain that I was sure would be the hardest climb of my life.
Yesterday, prompted in part by the fact that my recording software licence is up for renewal at the end of the month and I want to give my bank account a break from paying it for a while, I decided I had to grasp the bull by the horns. I had to make a start. If I failed, then at least I would have tried. If it was going to take days or even weeks, then the sooner I started, the better. The only other option was to give up on the audiobook and I didn’t want to.
I started work on it at about half past four. By five-forty, I had finished. And mastered everything. And worked out how to export the audiobook to the relevant platforms.
Today, I’ve started the final proof-listen. The book should be ready to upload to INAudio (the audiobook distributor) in two days, tops.
Why, oh why did I waste all that time wallowing in ‘this is too hard, I can’t do this’? What an idiot. Or maybe not. Procrastinating is normal. Fear of failure or difficulty is normal. The best we can do is learn from it.
At some point, I want to record the audiobook for Lies Beneath the Mynd, book 3 in the series. And then book 4, Bones of Caer Caradoc. Before that, I’m going to give myself an audio break. And then I’m going to improve my home studio set-up.
For now, I’m just going to celebrate. I did it. Better late than never. And, best of all, it sounds good. I know we’re not supposed to blow our own trumpets, but today I shall. Five months down the line, I’ve produced something of which I’m proud.
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