In his introduction to the Third Revised Edition of Writing to Sell by Scott Meredith (published 1987), Arthur C. Clarke wrote:



This thread is for discussion of such pet excuses .

For the past week mine has been "How do I make Bobby and Tinny memorable?" without carving out the time to think on that too much. Using "likely out of a job in June or December" is a great excuse, too.

For me, it's mostly that I'm a college student in a bunch of senior seminars. So it isn't that I'm not writing. I write a bunch. Just all of it is for school.

Hmmm... usually for me it is that I have so many other "more important" responsibilities. That, and the dreaded, "I'm just not on the mood." That last one is the backlash on a few weeks of waking earlier to write without going to bed earlier... I literally couldn't stand the thought of writing until last night.

I have found "just write a little" helps overcome my mood. While my writing doesn't pay the bills a few people seem to enjoy it. If I just write a little each day I can make progress. While lots of people can do the job I do, no one else can write the stories I do. The same is true for you.

My main one is school. Although, technically I am writing a lot of things, but papers on why it's important that Christ was fully God, why it's important that Christ was fully human, the morality of Robin Hood (stealing and deceiving, but for the right reasons?), and various other similar (and insanely difficult) topics, aren't exactly my first choice of things to write, and it's so different from my books that I mentally classify it differently, if that makes sense lol.

Next would be family, because, if I have actually finished school for the day and my family is all home I'll spend time with them.

Then friends, because I want to grow closer with them, and writing takes a backseat to growing my relationships.

Another would be things like youth group and volleyball. They're commitments I have and can't back out of (and don't want to back out of).

Then there's babysitting (and this summer I'll have a summer job). Writing isn't something I get paid for, whereas I do get paid for babysitting and such.

Finally, I just have so many hobbies, that when I have free time, it's hard to choose one. I love writing, reading, drawing, and occasionally baking. A lot of the time, like pretty much all of this week, writing has taken a backseat to drawing (although, tonight it's taking a backseat to reading).

Also wow, looking back over this, I have one main thought: I have a lot of excuses. Some of which are valid (such as family and work and school). I think most of them (except just having too many hobbies) boil down to one thing, though: I really don't have much time for anything outside of what I'm committed to or required to do

Don't worry about it. Yeah, "professional writers write all the time", "you can't get good if you don't write", blah blah blah. Don't worry about it; live life to the fullest. You're doing a great job of gathering material for your next season of writing.

I would suggest packing a "fieldstone" notebook. Just a small one that you can transfer stuff from, but if you see a scene that stands out in your mind, jot it down. I have a scene in one book where there's a video screen giving out information (I hate blaring TVs in Dr offices) and a lady with child starts when someone says something loud. Both ideas came from things I had seen and written down in my fieldstone notebook. I seems to make the writing more real.

Actually I think the "moral" of this conversation is that none of us have interesting excuses... like the pet monkey mentioned in Jon's original post... we all have boring, normal, adult/homeschooler excuses.

Hahaha! Yes! Perhaps dramatic to us, but when you look at them objectively...



Thanks! I am planning on trying that today and digging back into my main work in progress... Once I send off a music clip I edited...



Yes, I have been learning more and more is to honestly say, instead of "I didn't have time to write," "I chose X over writing today." Really, you can do that with anything. That helps me see where my priorities are. Did I choose spending time with family over writing? Good. Did I choose becoming distracted on Facebook over writing? Not so good. Did I zone out and finish a necessary project at a snail's pace because "I'm not going to have time for writing anyway, so I may as well get some leisure in now"? Ummm... that's just silly. And often I lose my writing or rest time just because of that. Personally, there are times I need to pause and recharge my creative well, and other times I just need to change my mindset. In any case, it helps to be mindful of your priorities - it sounds like you are doing a great job at that already! And also, my mom especially has been encouraging in reminding me that my writing does have value, and it is perfectly fine to set aside time to work on it - in fact, she really wants to see me finish some books! So, don't be too quick to relegate writing to a selfish pastime (talking to myself here ). God uses your written words to bless others, too!

Those sound like very interesting papers. We don't get anything that interesting and mentally stimulating in community college. Alas.

Those sound like very interesting papers. We don't get anything that interesting and mentally stimulating in community college. Alas.[/quote]

Haha yeah homeschooling in high school means papers on incredibly interesting but insanely difficult topics.... It's great because I always like a challenge, but sometimes I kinda hate it simply because it's hard to prove my stance, even if it is the correct one. Especially when most of the books I read are things like Herodotus's Histories, Eusebius's The Church History, The Code of Hammurabi, and Bede's Eccelesiastical History of the English People, so they aren't the most interesting books. But, I'll take it over the topics for most of the papers my friends write in public and private school!