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What’s Your Excuse for Not Writing?

No excuse for not wriitng

What’s your favorite excuse for not doing something you really want to do? Like writing, for example.

No matter what kind of writer you are—blogger, freelancer, creative writer or novelist—you’re probably prone to making excuses when you don’t feel like sitting at your desk or table and tapping out letters and words. Or on your sofa, armed with a laptop.

I don’t have any excuses for not posting a new article here on Simple Writing over the last few weeks. Or has it been a month? Eek! I planned on writing a follow up to “What is a Sentence?” which is probably my least popular article to date, at least judging by share counts. But I wrote it for a reason, and the follow up is almost done, but not quite.

Oh, sure, I could claim my sister’s five-day visit a month ago derailed me a bit. I could also mention we hadn’t seen each other in years, and we played catch up over email both before and after the visit, and we still are. It all took a lot of time: cleaning up my apartment, setting up a bed for her, and cooking enough food so I had little to do while she was here. Oh, and deciding what to wear for the Celebrating David Bowie concert in Orlando! I absolutely had to go shopping. The performance was awesome, by the way. And when she left, it was clean up time, regroup time…

I also did a lot of marketing for my freelance copy editing business, plus I had projects to complete. On top of that, I’m undergoing training for a new in-house gig I started recently; most of it’s in office, but I’m also working on a few things at home.

And let’s not forget filing income taxes. If you’re not in the US or not a citizen or a legal resident, April 15th is the usual deadline for reporting income to the government. This year, it was April 17th because the 15th fell on a weekend, and Monday was a holiday. And I let it go until the last minute. Well, I had three hours before deadline when I finished. But I could have spent that time finishing a blog post.

Excuses, excuses! No excuse for not writing.

Did I spend time on Facebook? Yep. Twitter? Yep, but not a lot. Instagram? Yep. Reading news and articles I really didn’t have to? Yep. Did I watch dumb videos? Er, yeah. You snagged me.

TV, movies, or gaming? Oh, hell no. Hanging out with friends? Couple times, just for coffee. Baking my own bread? Cooking healthy meals? Riding my bike? Yep, guilty as charged, but those are good things, necessary things for me. Did I vacuum my apartment recently? HaHa. No. 

So what’s my excuse for not writing a blog post lately? I have no excuse. And please don’t ask me about creative writing; I’ve done a little almost every day and think about it often, but it’s not been anything focused.

Solution? I have to get better at managing my time, that’s for sure. And I can start with cutting Facebook way down (my personal page, at least). But I need to stay in touch with friends, a little voice whines. “Shut up,” I say.

I can also re-read some of my old posts on time management, like this one: To Hell With Writing Excuses! and this one The Best Time to Write is Any Time. Then again, after looking these over, maybe I just have to do other stuff sometimes, and that’s all there is to it.

What about you? What’s your excuse for not writing? Or what have you done to stay focused and disciplined?

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2 comments… add one
  • Leah – you write a gazillion times more than me. Stop beating yourself up.
    I’m the procrastination king!
    Every so often I read your dog tips below for inspiration.
    http://simplewriting.org/dog-tips-for-writers/
    We’ve got an aging lab girl that lives in the moment and we love to bits.
    Still find it hard to believe that Bowie isn’t with us 🙁
    Love from a sunny (for once) Shropshire UK.

    Reply
    • Haha maybe I do beat myself up a bit much. How cool that you visit the “dog tips” post! I suspect dog lovers like yourself appreciate the post more than anyone. And Bowie—I know. I couldn’t hold back the tears during the first few songs his bandmates and colleagues played. Fourth row from the stage was awesome except for somebody missing. ~sniff~ Cheers! And thanks for stopping by 🙂

      Reply

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