Excuse me.

I have all the excuses. The best excuses. No one makes excuses better than I do.

My excuses can elicit sympathy, pity, perhaps a little disbelief at times, but shit...if you don't want to be a dick, you're most likely going to commiserate with me anyway.

I listened to a fabulous podcast by Sarah Werner about excuses a while back. I highly recommend her whole podcast to writers, but this one hit me in the procrastination bone.

(Find the episode I'm talking about HERE.)

The part of her episode that spoke to me most was looking at your reasons for not writing and deciphering if they were excuses or real legitimate reasons for not writing.

And while the podcast is devoted to writing as a craft and making time for your writing on the daily, this episode in particular could be used in any aspect of your life you're putting off.

So I thought I'd list my top three excuses for not writing everyday, and bust them open.

1.  I'm tired. No shit. We're all tired. Life is hard. They make coffee for that. And if I can watch YouTube, I'm not too tired to write. I could also go to bed earlier. Because I'm an adult and I have control of this.

2.  I'm not inspired. So? The best ideas I have had, have come from getting the crap out of my fingers first. I know this. Sitting my ass down and writing is what gets the inspiration flowing. My muse can't show up while I'm dancing in the kitchen to Bruno Mars. (Although he is sexy as hell, and I'm listening to his music as I type this.) Not feeling inspired before writing is an excuse. Can't get the water flowing until you turn on the faucet.

3.  Everything I'm writing sucks. This? This here? This is fear. Something I had to decide when I sent in my first manuscript was to get over the fear of failure. You know how to get better at something? Practice. Research, classes, reading books on craft...all these things are great. But only if you are doing them while writing. So when I get to the point where I want to stop because I'm sure everything I'm writing, and everything I've ever written is a huge pile of garbage, (and we've ALL been there) I still open my laptop. I'll write until I get past the crap and get the good stuff out.


Of course I always have the old stand-by of dirty dishes and laundry, and all the other various adulting things I have on my plate, but those are just as easy to debunk.

What are your excuses?

I didn't have time this morning to write a blog. I have to be at work in an hour. Huh...guess I got past my first excuse of the day. ;)

~Roxy


To find Roxy's books with buy links and what she has coming up next check out her website at RoxyRocksMe.com