Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Excuses for not writing

What are the ways people use to make writing time?

For me, that'd either be the middle of the night or when I 'really' do have time for it. I'm studying and that's very time-consuming. Most evenings I'm so dead that one more minute before the PC would mean my end.

I hate that, but there's no way around it. I'm studying to build myself a future. Writing is a hobby, and as that it has to take second place. It's sad but true. I can't help it.

But maybe summer time can...
~Sira

Excuses for not writing? Easy... Procrastination, procrastination, procrastination...

- I'm too tired to write
- I've had no time to write
- I'm stuck on the story and not sure where to go with it (Kaethe's response to that is: get on IRC and brainstorm!
- or - lately, and being honest - playing too many card games on Yahoo!


Wendy (who has far too many would-be long stories as works in progress on her hard drive and must stop letting herself get distracted by vignettes! )

Excuses for not writing? Well, how can you write when a story doesn't exist?

Or.. "I deny all knowledge of the existance of any story that may or may not be floating around in paper or electronic format."

See, can't be excuses when said writer has no idea what you're talking about.

This doesn't work for those stories who already have parts posted, as there's physical evidence that can be flaunted.

Very true, Karen. And being the queen of procrastination that I am, I have no qualms about setting a deadline around 2004/2005 for my next L&C Fic. I haven't written anything in weeks, but I'll never get caught since I don't post it on the boards. There's not much physical evidence floating around.

Jen

Well, LabRat just sent a story for me to GE. Wait, that doesn't work. I finished it. Time is always a problem, but I could make time even if my husband wants me to help him get ready for his fishing trip. I have to wait until he goes fishing, and then I'll have plenty of time.

No one seems to have mentioned my biggest obstacle: FEAR! Right now is a typical example. I know what I need to write for the story, but I wonder, "What if I sit down in front of the computer, put my fingers on the keyboard and nothing happens?" Fortunately, that scenario hasn't occurred yet, but I still believe it will. So I procrastinate by writing about why I can't write.

My beta is patient to a point, but she's beginning to get antsy (you can read that as an anagram, if you like). Her last communique was "MORE,MORE,MORE". Writing is taxing, time-consuming, challenging, sometimes exciting, sometimes painful, and I love every minute of it.

:Jude

MORE sounds good to me, Jude!
But I'm sitting with two WIP on my hard drive and I haven't moved much since last summer. Like everyone else I'm too caught up in marking, lesson planning, more marking, and then family responsibilities.
But, in 24 more days (plus my three week trip when I hope to see Hazel), I will be a free person, a retired person (and I won't give up retirement the way Tank does). At that point I won't have any excuses for not writing.

gerry

PS. How come I can't get those cute little gremlins to work?

Gerry: Maybe you have disabled the graemlins. There's a little check box under options when you write/edit a post. It reads 'disable graemlins in this post'
Maybe it got checked unintentionally?


~Sira

I just tried Sira but it didn't work.
But I shouldn't clog up this thread with my problem.

gerry

Excuses? You mean you actually need excuses not to write? Excuses that work? All those I've tried have never worked with my betas. But here's the list of the top 10 recent ones:

1) My computer doesn't work.
2) My computer still doesn't work.
3) Oh, look, my computer isn't working properly...
4) How come I found reboot.exe in there? Wait, there's also rereboot.exe, rebootsRus.exe, yayareboot.exe, howaboutareboot.exe, ohcoolanotherreboot.exe, weirditrebooted.exe...
5) What do you mean, "general failure"?!?
6) My screen is black, is that normal?
7) I kind of lost the 4 paras that took ages to draft in the last reboot.
8) I'm too busy throwing the computer out the window (hey, that gives El the SPLAT she's been pining for).
9) Writing longhand is tedious.
10) Where's my good old laptop?

Kaethel

/me promptly has a panic attack. It wasn't WITS was it?!?

LabRat (you can also take that as a nag if you like)

LOL! I know it's not funny, but at least you still have a sense of humor about the whole thing. Seriously, we feel your pain. Maybe if we converge on your evil techie as a group, he will feel compelled to behave properly....

Annie

It was. And to be completely honest it was a few lines rather than 4 paras, but it drove me nuts nonetheless. The automatically recuperated file in WORD wouldn't open. :p I also lost half the BRing comments I made to an author, and could thankfully retrieve them from the email I sent her before the computer rebooted. But I haven't found the courage to write anything else since.

Annie, thanks for the support. I guess that laughing about it is the only thing left. And hey, it gives me pretty good excuses not to write, after all. Much better than Rat's abduction by aliens.

Kaethel

Annie suggested:
And maybe Kaethel's good techie will ride in on a white charger and rescue her from her evil techie intead.

Awwww, and , poor Kae!

Looking at the boards at good ol' 6:49 AM after being up all night, i found this thread amusing, so I decided to post!

Reasons for not writing:
1. Lack of time: School takes up a lot of time, but for the past two years, I've been doing three plays and two musicals a year. (2 fall plays, 1 winter play, 1 spring musical, and 1 summer musical, varying between school and community theatre) That combined with something resembling a job, homework, voice lessons, speech team, and an attempt at a social life, makes it pretty dang hard to find time for sleep, let alone writing.
2. Lack of talent: Pretty self-explanitory, eh? LOL
3. Lack of Self-confidence: See above.
4. Too many ideas and not enough time to jot them all down: And then of course the ones I do manage to scribble on a napkin, don't make any sense later.

Thats about it...

Caroline

3 plays and 2 musicals a year?? You've got to have *some* talent, then, or they'd have thrown you out by now <g>

As for writing -- if you want to do it, you *can* learn how; sucessful writing takes at least as much skill as talent. But if that's not your area of interest, then by all means, concentrate on other creative outlets

Personally, I'm in awe of artists -- I can't draw a straight line with a ruler!

PJ

But drawing a straight line isn't hard... It's drawing perfect circles that's hard! <BG>

BF

Well, a wonderful, awesome, amazing, brillant good techie came to my rescue (and that of my computer) - thanks John, you're the best! - and so I'm out of excuses. Any suggestions are most definitely welcome. Somehow, "I'm spending too much time on irc" doesn't seem to work with betas.

Kaethel

He did! And Wendy not only predicted him, she provided him!

Humorous Excuses

1. My muse went on vacation and hasn't even bothered to send me a postcard.

2. I've got so many ideas, my muse is confused.

3. My muse got back from vacation and is too tired to write.

4. My idea must have fallen into a quantum singularity on my mental hard drive.

5. My muse is split between too many alternate universes.

6. My muse found a Thumb and hitchhiked across the galaxy, and is now happily enjoying a pangalactic gargle blaster and a cheese sandwich.

7. My mental hard drive must have gotten a virus. I think it needs to be rebooted. A long vacation should do it.

8. My muse is overworked and underpaid, so it went on strike.

9. My muse went on a coffee break and hasn't come back yet.

10. My muse went out to lunch and is still enjoying dessert.