In a recent article for The American Scholar magazine, the very fine novelist David Guterson recalled his first college creative writing class. His teacher, Jack Brenner, gave the class a piece of advice that has stuck with Guterson during his distinguished career: JUST PLUNGE IN. Don’t worry about whether you’re prepared for whatever writing project is on your front burner. Don’t be afraid of writing badly, of failure. Just plunge in.

I agree, and share that advice often with people who tell me they have a great idea for a book, a story, a movie, whatever. Apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair and do the work. Talkers talk, writers write. My own college writing teacher had a similar piece of advice. His term was, “Just blast it.” Put something down, no matter how much you cringe when you read what you’ve written, and then go back and make it better.

However, there is also something to be said for procrastination, which flies in the face of what we’ve been told from infancy about getting along in life. “Don’t put off ‘til tomorrow what you can do today,” our parents admonished. In school, in work, in life, we face deadlines. Sporting events have rigid time constraints. The shot clock is ticking. Golfers are penalized for slow play. Pit stops are timed down to the last chaotic millisecond. We are all in a race, and those who slow down are doomed.

But wait. How about the story of the tortoise and the hare? Who won that one? The slow and steady guy, who just kept plodding along at his own sweet pace, smelling the roses and enjoying the scenery. I like to think he paused periodically to just contemplate the journey. He not only finished first, he no doubt lived a lot longer than the hare and enjoyed it more.

For me, writing is like that. I work at the business, putting in my daily time, aiming for a reasonable output of words. I admire those folks who can spend eight hours a day at their writing, but I’m not one of them. When I’ve met my daily goal, I need to get up and go do something else, something unconnected with the work. But if I’ve got a good yarn going, the characters and their story are always with me. When I’m away from the actual writing, the story is marinating. And often, at odd moments, something from the story speaks to me in a serendipitous way, something I can use the next time I sit down at the computer. I call it creative procrastination.

Maybe the best piece of advice came from Fred Rodgers. When our daughter Lee was small, she watched Mister Rodgers’ TV show every day. One day when we were getting ready to go somewhere, we told Lee to hurry up. She put her hands on her hips and said, “Mister Rodgers told me to take my time.” I try to remember that.

We probably all need to rush less and marinate more. No telling what we might discover along the way that we would have otherwise missed. Like the tortoise.

Robert Inman