You’re right. It is like exercising. Hard to get started, but once I do, it’s worthwhile, sometimes even exhilarating. I think I need to give myself better choices than “write or surf the Internet”. More like, “write or clean grout”.

Yes, worldbuilding-on-the-fly often is too thin. Sometimes you need to research and get those details down before you start writing, because the rules of the world are integral to how your characters will act and how the plot will unfold. I needed a lot of notes for my sunless world before I could write my current novel-in-revision.

And yes, if no one is anxiously waiting (or just waiting) on me to get my work ready, it’s easier to set aside my writing. That’s why some days I find it easier to motivate myself to blog than to write!

You sum up right here where I usually have to be to move forward. Sure, I can substitute ending for some major scene in the middle and the handful of beginning scenes for a handful of things to include and one really good beginning scene, but there is one thing I cannot substitute.

Premise.

Now, when I talk about premise, I don’t just mean the basic idea of the story, though I used to think that’s what I meant. When I wrote fanfiction and came up with a specific set of circumstances I would play with in the fic, I called that a premise. Well, now I know better. That’s part of the premise.

For me, the premise includes the rules of the world, all of them. This means having a vague feeling of geography, a strong knowledge of individual cultural structures within the world, at least a general understandng of language (I can improvise), knowledge of customs such as clothing, furniture, architecture, industries. All the things we take for granted in the words Colorado suburbs, present day, or any other such statement must be completely present for me to move ahead in any world that I intend to write about.

For historical fiction, this means I constantly stall out, then procrastinate, research some more, then stall out. Rinse. Wash. Repeat. I don’t know the rules of my world. I know the rules of my story, but that is only half of my premise.

For the novel I’m writing now, that meant I procrastinated, mucked around, then procrastinated, etc. until I knew the rules of my world, then I could finally match them up to a story with its rules.

So until the three pieces click for me, to be honest, I can’t move very far ahead. I need the rules of my world, the story, and the rules of my story. (Characters aren’t usually a problem. They ARE the story.)

It took me a long time to figure out that I procrastinated because I had to have my premise first. Now, I try to not write until I have it. Then I can point my efforts in the right direction and get myself back to work.