Your friend and/or beta reader wants to see the next story/section. You haven't written it yet. What do you tell them?

And what do you tell yourself?

See, for a long time, I convinced myself that I could only write when it was absolutely quiet in the house. And while I had regular quiet periods, that worked fine -- at those times I was pretty good about sitting down at the keyboard and being able to write. But when my younger child stopped taking naps, and my husband began working from home... my quiet time pretty much disappeared. So, I figured I couldn't write anything.

So I was just wondering if I'm the only one who says, "Oh, I can't write because _____ " and what some other excuses would be! (Who knows, I may need to use them sometime )

PJ

Pregnant with twins? Post-partum with twins? I admit it's a pretty specific excuse, and it wouldn't help, say, Tank , but it's a pretty decent one.

Hazel

Not enough time.

Since summer began, I've actually managed to revise one story, start and complete two others (including the one I co-authored with Kathy) and start a third.

But during the school year? I just have a heck of a time finding a chance to write. I work two jobs (60-80 hours a week at the paper plus 20-30 hours a week at Barnes and Noble) plus I go to school full time. Throw in trying to spend a little quality time with my friends and actually, I don't know, *sleep* and finding time to write gets a little hairy. In a normal weekday, I'm up at 7-8 to get to school and I'm either in class or at the paper until with no downtime until 2-3 in the morning. On the weekends, I cram in three shifts at Barnes and Noble, plus 3pm - 2am Sunday at the paper. And I *try* to do homework in there sometime. So, writing slips to the bottom of the priority list.

What are my excuses during the summer when I have more freetime? Well, I'm still pretty busy, so not enough time is one. But also, I use "just not inspired" a lot. I can write to order if I have to, but I'd rather not. So I usually wait to be inspired. I'm inspired often enough that it doesn't seem to be a serious problem.

Annie

Yeah, that's mine, too. Luckily for me, or not, my beta is a very patient person with as few time as me. It also helps that she lives quite a bit away and so has not the chance to get on my nerves by constant nagging.

Over the school year it's nearly impossible for me to write. I mean to write what I want to write. This school year I wrote at least 100 pages in word but 0 for my stories. *sighs* Now summer is about to start and I got myself a job...we'll see how I manage job and writing. I hope better than school and writing. 'Cause I really *want* to write more! It absolutely frustrates me to see tons of WIP and not being able to do anything about it.

~Sira

For me it's a lack of time as well. Between studying, homework, judo (already mostly skipped that so I can try to find more writing time), friends and my family and my job, it's hard to find time to write.

I've used the excuse of having written something, but not good enough to send to my betas at some point. Obviously, I really hadn't written more yet.

And the excuse of it's too good weather to sit in front of my laptop and write works too. It's hot and nice now, so not much computer time for me and I really don't spend that writing. Though I could take my laptop outside, but then I don't have an internet connection anymore... and I do study outside.

But I'm trying to write more in two weeks time, when I should have vacation!!!

Saskia

Yep. Not enough time. Mostly because of studying. School homework and/or exams, foreign language homework and/or exams, piano homework and/or exams... I'm busy. As everyone. Let's not forget that, though L&C is a big (huge) part of our lives, it's not the only one...

AnnaBtG.

1. Not enough time for sure. If it's not school, sorority functions, Circle K, or church, it's working, Tae Kwon Do, or a trip somewhere.

2. Lack of silence. I need a completely empty house when I write, and my mom works at home. Plus she still thinks everyone online are serial killers so the only time I get to write is around midnight, but I'd rather chat then.

Jen

Hmm, good question... I tend to get hung up on sections and need some idea bouncing, or character disection.. then I am off and running again. Another thing that tends to jolt me from writing is being busy or just plain having my routine interupted.

Laziness. Poor time management. A head full of distracting thoughts about other things I need to be doing (like, at the moment, job hunting). And sometimes, work .

Actually, I go through phases of being very productive and others of lacking any creativity, whatsoever. Actually, that's not quite right. I usually have creative thoughts. However, quite often ideas refuse to translate into words on paper. Sometimes the words flow easily. Other times, they just jam together, causing a blockage somewhere in the synapses between my brain and my fingers.

Also, just because I'm not writing LnC doesn't mean that I'm not writing, period. I got distracted a couple of years ago from writing LnC because I was writing fanfic for another show. Then, occasionally, I'll attempt to write something original. So far, those efforts have resulted in a very small number of short stories and disjointed pages of what might, one day, become several novels. (Yeah, right. With my talent for procrastination?)

Oh... right... You wanted excuses, not explanations. In that case, I'd have to go with lack of time, too.

Chris (who is wondering just how Annie survives)

I have to have inspiration in order to write, and I've learned over the last year or so that inspiration comes from time to myself. If I don't get a couple of hours a day in which I can sit and think any silly thing that floats into my head, I simply don't have anything to write.

Once I have something to write, though, I just can't keep it in; and nothing will stop me thinking about it. Sometimes the house could fall down around my ears (or the kids kill each other) and I'd still be sitting there thinking about that scene, and what he says, and what her reaction would be, and...

And then there are the times - like the past week - when the story I'm thinking about is *not* the story I'm meant to be writing. BRs don't like that excuse at all.

Mere

Wow, talk about multi-tasking! Maybe my life is a lot easier than I thought it was

Maybe I asked the wrong question. What are the ways people use to make writing time? One of my tricks is to take my notebook with me to the bathroom And while I can't recommend that you write while driving... I have to confess that once or twice I've tried it

PJ

You need an excuse to not write, just retire. It's easy you just... wait, that didn't work out too well either.

Truthfully, I do have the time to write if I want it, and there are times when I actually feel guilty if I'm not writing. A lot of that comes from the fact that I have fewer distractions in the evenings than I used to, and that is mainly because television, in general, sucks now.

Still, I find that I'm most 'inspired' to write when I'm no where near my computer. Mostly, on the way to work, or during work, I think about a story and am all hyped up to write it. That is until I get home and can actually write it. Then I'm 'not in the mood'.

I find that if I force myself to sit down and start to write, one of two things will happen. Either the words will begin to flow and I'll be able to be quite productive for hours, or it'll take forever to bang out a few paragraphs. Usually that's when I give up and put on a DVD (usually the Corrs) or something.

Tank (who'd really like to get back to more reading of general non Lois and Clark stuff, you know, like real books, but finds it hard to do as he falls asleep too quickly now days)

Guilt.

I am so behind with paperwork for my business, that I find it hard to write. But then I don't get the paperwork done either; instead I read fanfic.

Also, illness is no fun. I've been ill on and off since the beginning of April, and it's really hard to think creatively when your brain is muzzy and your nose is plugged. (And you keep making disgusting snorting sounds, but we won't get into that.)

Lack of time is another biggie for me at the moment. The wholesaling aspect of my business has taken off like crazy, with no sign of slowing down, and there's a lot of prep work I have to do at home for it.

Lots of ideas, no time, guilt and illness. Yep, that covers it for me.

Irene

Ho hum, a new question.

1. Write at midnight. It's not ideal for me, but I get the silence I need to do research and put together ideas.

2. Write in my head while I'm gardening. Even if it's just a snippet of an idea, if I can think of something interesting to put in, I'll roll with it at midnight.

3. Just wait for my folks to go out of town. <g> They'll be in Destin on Wednesday, and assuming that my sister works, I'll be all over MS Word.

4. I've been known to just lock myself in various rooms, but then other people in the house get curious as to what I'm doing, and then my entire concentration breaks.

<g> A dragon ate my muse. Hey works for me! I've been getting nags for the third story of my NK trilogy lately, but I haven't been working on it. My best excuse as to why is that I've got a WIP being posted right now and that *technically* since the second story is finished, I can wait on the third.

I usually manage to get the most work done in the middle of the night right now--it's easier to write when I don't have people looking over my shoulder. While RRs are fun, I don't generally manage to produce much when people are reading over my shoulder as I write.

BrightFeather

I tend to read the last few pages of what I have written previously before I go to bed, then I have a little spiral notebook on my beside table and a pencil... I scribble for a while until i can't hold my head up any longer... closing my eyes and drifting for a bit tends to get the juice flowing again, I get to visualize the scene that I am working on and then the pencil starts flying in the shortened sentences/point form. I don't worry about getting the wording right, just the gist of the scene down when I do that. It tends to expand when I type it into the computer the next day.

Time management skills, a lot of caffeine, and a sense of humor. Seriously, it's funny the things you can do when you have to.

I take a notebook with me everywhere I go. As a journalist, I never know when something is going to come up and I'm going to need a notebook and pen. The same goes for writing fiction. I never know just when that perfect snipped of dialogue or that perfect description is going to pop into my head. I need to be able to write it down before I'm distracted. This serves a second purpose because it allows me to use every spare minute. When I'm in line, or waiting to go in to interview someone, waiting for one of my writers to be done with a late story so I can edit it or sitting in traffic - I write. At B&N I get two fifteen-minute breaks and one thirty-minute break for every eight hour shift. So I spend one hour per day at B&N writing. Sure, there are times when I get distracted and I'm not able to use every snippet of time to write, but because I always have a notebook with me, I always have the option. Sometimes I outline scenes, sometimes I write down snippets of dialogue, sometimes I write out whole scenes. All that's important to me is that I do *something* so that I don't get out of habit.

Annie

I have 2 ways:

1. I work my stories in my mind whenever I have free time - during the way to school, lying in the bed trying to sleep, in the bathroom etc..

2. I have standard Internet times. I log in the Internet every afternoon at 3 o'clock and every midnight for at least one hour every time, no matter what. While doing the rest of things I want to do, I have opened one of my stories and write a little. This way, I move on with them, and when I have to log off, I think it would be a pity to let them where they are, so I finish one scene - and if I have more time, continue to the next one, and the next one, and the next one...

AnnaBtG.

Now that the five kids are home for the summer, I plan to use the couple hours of imsomnia I get during the middle of the night to get out of bed and write. So instead of tossing and turning and wishing I was writing, I plan on doing it.

Missy

What do I tell my beta if I haven't written the next section? Simple: I haven't written the next section.

Elaborating a bit - I do this for fun, but there are other things I do for fun, too. Sometimes I want to do those more than I want to do this.

Put another way, I don't let writing control my spare time - I refuse to feel guilty if I haven't written much recently. I'd extend that further to include the whole of my participation in the fandom. I love being a part of it, and I contribute what I can to it, but I've got other parts of my life which deserve my attention just as much as L&C does.

I *do*, however, feel enormously guilty if I haven't BR'd the latest section someone else has sent me. That's an entirely different ball game, because then someone is relying on me and I feel a responsibility towards them.

I suppose you could argue that I have a responsibility towards my readers, too, but I still put my own pleasure just a little bit ahead of theirs.

So what do I tell myself? Easy - there's always tomorrow.

Yvonne
(who could procrastinate for Britain )

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.

Hehe. I like writing, and I guess I'm not terrible at it. Or at least I hope not. I've started an LnC fic. LOL. Yeah you wouldn't believe how hard it is to admit that. "My name is Caroline and I'm addicted to LnC fanfic." LOL ya know what they say, the first step to curing the problem is to admit it! Not that I want mine cured of course. <g>

And don't worry, I can't draw a straight line either.

Caroline

LOL Caroline. Join the club. I still won't admit that I'm addicted. /me dodges men with nets

Okay, I confess. I'm an artist and I can't draw a straight line with a ruler. Fortunately, I don't use many of them to begin with.

Jen

I just caught up on this thread, and I'm horrified... you can use the excuse of *too many* ideas????

/me goes bright green with envy

Mere :p

I'm late...but what about the excuse that you cant type because your sister's crazy Doberman decided to lunge for an innocent squirrel and you happened to be in the way? <g>

Hey, worked for me!

Sara

Well, actually, Mere... one of the reasons it took me the better part of a year to write my latest WIP is that I had too many ideas -- too many possibilities, and I couldn't decide which ones to choose and which to chuck -- it just wasn't possible to do all of them. Once I pared down the relationship issues to just a few, I found my focus and could write. So I can relate to this one...

PJ

How about I slept on my finger and awoke with it folded under my ribcage and the middle joint is so sore I can barely type? It really happened and it's going to slow down the next installment of Suspicions a little.

Nan

Well, Nan, it's a heck of a lot more convincing than "the dog ate my homework"

Take good care of yourself, and feel better soon

PJ