While browsing Reddit during work today I stumbled upon this post regarding Patrick Rothfuss and the status of a book fans have been waiting 5,558 days for him to publish (but who’s counting.)
“Just finished ‘The Slow Regard of Silent Things’ — the last few pages Pat is talking about how this Novella came to be .. he says several time that he’s sorry if we don’t like it and seems so obsessed with how other people view his work. I’m guessing that’s why he hasn’t released the 3rd book.. he has no true confidence in his own writing.. I wholeheartedly believe there is a 3rd book.. but he’s on his 800th revise. If he likes it that’s enough for me.. breaks my heart that he feels the need for validation so strongly that he got feedback through Beta Readers. Whom by the way, will shift their perspectives throughout their lives and like it one day and not the next. Because humans are fickle.. so publish the 3rd because it’s futile to need the acceptance of others”
For the last few days I’ve been meaning to finish a personal statement for an application to grad school. Yesterday I asked a coworker for a letter of recommendation and she had it done within the hour. Despite having had over a week to finish my statement, I haven’t been able to bring myself to get it done. I’ve written thousands of words but none of them are good; If I were a professional editor, I would tell the author to scrap the whole thing and all of it disgusts me. It doesn’t help that I’m applying extremely late in the admissions cycle making my chances of getting accepted quite slim. This prompts me to panic and conclude the only way to get accepted is to make my admissions letter as perfect as it can possibly be.
It wasn’t until this Reddit post when I realized me failing to write my application essay is the similar Rothfuss not finishing the book. Trying to justify myself to admissions counselors at a university doesn’t particularly appeal to me, and my desire for this thing be perfect even when I am completely uninterested leads me to forgo working on it almost indefinitely. These things are both complicated tasks, albeit his is substantially more complicated then my own of course. They take a lot of mental energy and effort, and if you’re not excited about them it ‘s very difficult to get to work.
I tend to procrastinate by working on other less difficult tasks. By a coincidence, many of these make me look like I’m doing something productive, though I can assure you that’s not the case. Often there are things such as designing a board game, sending emails, re-scheduling an appointment or doing laundry. Doing laundry is one of my favorites as it lets me feel very productive while making me forget about that job application I was supposed to submit last week.
Even though The Name of the Wind is one of my favorite books of all time, the fact that he hasn’t published book three doesn’t bother me that much. Despite my depressive tendencies, I have a lot of things in my life to be happy about. I love my friends, my co-workers and therapy group. The release of the book will not make me complete; If it ever does come out it will simply be a nice surprise, rather than something I’m waiting for.
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Patrick Rothfuss, author of The Doors of Stone, a book he promised fans would be released over a decade ago.