Saturday, December 06, 2008

Please share your stories of writer's block.

With the deadline for What Women Really Want in Bed about two months away, I've officially entered panic mode. I did get a good start last Saturday during a cafe writing date with my co-author, Dana Fredsti, but I spent the first half hour waiting for my laptop to boot up.

This afternoon, my son went to spend the night at my (sainted) mother-in-law's house, leaving me about three hours during which I could have gotten a lot done. Instead, I tidied up the kitchen, did some laundry, re-arranged my son's closet, downloaded my own story (and some others) from RavenousRomance.com, and synced (sp.?) my iPod. Sat down to write, and look! It's time to get ready for my dinner date with my husband!

The thing is, I always do this to myself. When I was writing What Men Really Want in Bed, I went and had a baby as a way to procrastinate. I had to grovel with my editor to get an extension on the book and hire babysitters to stay with my infant son while I stole off to a cafe for a few hours. I once bought a book on procrastination, but kept putting off reading it. (Folks, I'll be here all week!)

What's the most creative way you've found to procrastinate? And why do you do it? Help.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Try to spend about an hour writing some terrible stuff, just blow out the cobwebs writing utter bad copy.

After doing this a while you'll either get bored of happen onto something. Its works for me like a charm.
-Tommy ;-)

Dana Fredsti said...

Er...I get a contract for two books due the same day? :-)

Cynthia Badiey said...

@Anonymous: My screenwriting teacher liked to say, "Lower your standards and keep going." Words to live by.

@Dana Fredsti: I still can't believe your courage.

Remittance Girl said...

I've found the most creative way to procrastinate is to roleplay online. It burns up hours and I can lie to myself that I'm doing research.

Cynthia Badiey said...

@Remittance Girl: I love it! I'm a fan of anything that can be considered "research."