Think you are a procrastinator when it comes to writing.. nahhhh….Here are some things to do to REALLY get you off track…….
( A lighter side to writers avoidance)
1. Have a sudden urge to remodel your pantry, pull out everything you own and categorize the contents. Replace in alphabetical order.
2. Discover your writing space looks tired and needs to either be repainted, re-organised or totally revamped. Spend the day going through old magazine cuttings and paperwork that has been piling up for a rainy day.
3. Re-haul your filing system on your computer. Rename all the folders and ensure each short story, articles and piece of writing you have ever done is clearly marked with a word count, category and is filed in a correct folder. Start a spreadsheet to track progress of unfinished work ( goes for pages) and that which is ready for submission and final editing ( perhaps has one or two entries)
4. Visit your bathroom several times and walk around aimlessly – suddenly decide to clean your toilet. Ensure you get a small brush and scrub around the tiles and get very fussy with the way the extra rolls of toilet paper is stacked.
5. Begin researching information for your next piece and get caught up with the social injustice of the subject area. Join an action group and being writing letters and organizing fundraising efforts to support the work.
6. Go to your blog or website and get dissatisfied with the way it looks and the functionality. Spend many hours remodeling it, adding widgets and refashioning the style sheet so it looks perfect.
7. Get depressed about the amount of traffic and lack of comments you get on your website. Spend hours joining and researching social networking groups and traffic generating areas such as facebook, digg, stumble and blogcatalogue or Blog Log..
8. Remember that you need to eat and feed your family sometime today. Decide to bake a cake or a three course meal, discover you have no ingredients and go shopping.
Oh damn… where do my days and hours go?
Very scary – this list was not difficult for me to compile. I think I might have done each of these things just yesterday…and with NaNoWriMo coming up – just can’t afford to keep avoiding my writing…
