Not getting it done…

A long time ago, I fancied myself a writer. Turns out that’s not really the case.  Writers have to write. I guess by that logic, if I stick with the Hugo House 30/30 Challenge, I’ll be a writer for the month of October.  Then I’m sure I’ll just go back to being someone who used to write.

When so much time goes by between posts, stories, poems, I start to worry that I’ll become rusty and lose any skill I once had (or thought I had).  While I won’t speak to whether I think I’ve lost my mojo, I have noticed one writer’s skill that is still very sharply honed: Procrastination!

I have backlog of six blog topics written down in my Life Book, but I used every possible excuse not to write about any of them tonight.  Here are a list of things I did to prevent myself from writing:

1. Spent a half hour messing with my site formatting. If I’m going to spend all of October posting, I should at least clean it up and make it easier to navigate, right? Well, I didn’t like any of the formatting changes I made so I I didn’t publish them.  Maybe tomorrow. (How meta…)
2. Looked at my “to do” list to see if there was anything I could do before I got to the business of writing. Checked off a couple cookie-related items and then read the item “write blog post” and thought I should get down to serious business.
3. Facebook. Jason posted about the new Doctor Who Lego set. I sure hope he and I can find time to assemble a set together!
4. Checked work email and replied to a few…
5. Got a mobile notification from Fitbit reminding me that I have only a quarter of the steps I normally have in a day. SHIT! Went for an hour long walk.
6. Came back from walk and spent about three minutes debating whether I should shower before or after writing. Opted to write first.

Even as I was writing my post I felt the need to get up a couple times, take off my shoes, put my Fitbit on the charger, get a drink of water…

Joining the club…

I think all writers and people-who-wish-they-were-writers experience this to different degrees. I daresay most of them/us have even written about procrastination at least once. I guess it’s a good thing I’m just doing this for fun…if my life depended on this I would die by mid month.

And in order to effectively procrastinate (and ultimately avoid) writing a good closure to this post, here’s a picture of Chirp.