Nathan Bransford - The Forums

You tell me. What’s your best procrastination ploy? Mine is currently writing this blog so that I can put off doing my day job, which involves writing and more writing. But the daytime gig – which too often becomes nighttime work – is not the kind of writing I long to do.

What’s my day job? Funny you should ask. But unfortunately, it’s not actually funny. As a freelancer, I write magazine articles, newsletters, websites, press releases, speeches and you-name-it for healthcare clients. Don’t you wish you could write about how paramedics administer tissue plasminogen activator to slow the progress of heart attacks? Or how about diabetic foot ulcers for a topic?

So … while I long to carve out more time for fiction writing, I waste time by concocting elaborate reasons why I should put off doing my day job. This afternoon, for example, I decided I absolutely had to construct an elaborate duct-tape barrier so that mice could not enter the cupboard under my sink. If any mouse were to even think he could be clever enough to …

But I digress. Besides constructing duct-tape barriers, what other clever procrastination techniques have you used to delay your writing? Has a hang nail kept you from pounding the keyboard? Did your dog lift his leg on the keyboard? Or have you ever used the excuse that you have “Writer’s Block?” (With the added excuse of “But hey, it’s okay, because virtually all writers get it at some point.”)?

Let me know what works for you.

Submitted by Anne Gallagher

I donated all day ... and apparently most of the night as well ... to entering this contest and reading other entries. It's been great fun. The entries are fascinating!