Bookblogger Problems: Procrastinating Writing Reviews

I’ve been book blogging a little over two years now. Long enough to know that putting off writing reviews until later is a bad idea—and yet, I find myself doing it all the time. If I don’t immediately write my review, I’ll put the ‘bones’ of it together, save it as a draft, and move on to the next book… or books, even.

Well, I’ve “latered” them enough that I’ve managed to rack up sixteen unwritten reviews. Sixteen, y’all!

Now I have a review mountain to go along with my TBR mountain. Greaaaaat.

Obviously, I need to get more disciplined about my review writing. I’d save myself a lot of time if I wrote it up after I’ve finished reading. If I did that, I’d spend an hour or so writing it up. But when I wait? It usually takes double the amount of time, because I’m constantly having to go back to the book to refresh my memory on names, or about a crucial event that takes place in the book. I can easily recall the overall storyline, but it’s those specific details that tend to get fuzzy after a while.

So why do I do it? Why don’t I start writing my reviews immediately afterwards, when everything about the book is still crystal-clear in my mind? Why do I put it off, making extra work for myself in having to look up specific details that have gone hazy in my memory?

As the scorpion told the frog, I suppose it’s simply my nature. I’ve always had the really bad habit of putting things off until later. Whether it’s important, trivial, or somewhere in-between… I’m bound to put off something until “later” every day.

But I’ve got to stop procrastinating when it comes to my reviews. Receiving advance copies of books—whether it’s a physical or digital copy—is a privilege that I don’t treat lightly. As an enthusiastic, life-long reader it means a lot to me to be able to help promote books and the authors who write them. Being a book blogger has inspired me to read out of my comfort zone. It’s helped me to become a more thoughtful reader and to pay more attention to the flow of a story and character interactions in ways I probably wouldn’t have done before. It’s allowed me the opportunity to tell authors how much I loved their latest book… something I only dreamed of being able to do in the past.

For all of this, all I’m asked to do in return for access to these advance copies is to share my thoughts about them… and I allowed myself to fall behind on getting that done. sigh As The Doctor would say…

(Quoting lines from my favorite TV shows is something that is also in my nature. Haha)

So… how do I plan to get caught up? I’m going to start posting mini reviews. Or rather, I should say I’m going to give myself permission to write mini reviews—the last time I started writing a mini, it ended up being a regular-length review, so who knows what the finished length will end up being! I’m going to plan on doing at least two a week, in addition to any current reviews that need written, until I get them all done. Once I’m all caught up, I’m HOPING I’ll stay caught up. Fingers crossed!