Ten Ways to Procrastinate

Some days it's just impossible (read: unappealing) to sit down and start writing. There are so many other things that absolutely have to be done (read: could be done) first. Besides, that deadline is negotiable (read: etched in stone) anyway. Here's a list of some of those things that become urgently pressing when my cursor is blinking back at me from a blank screen.

1. Watch Survivor Palau The Complete Season on DVD in a non-stop, 12-hour marathon.
2. Catch up on laundry -- legitimately urgent because the dryer just got fixed after not working for a week.
3. Complete the following at-home beauty rituals: facial, manicure, pedicure, body scrub, brow tweeze, and bikini wax. Okay, maybe not the bikini wax.
4. Reorganize the TBR (To Be Read) pile into color order -- does pink go with red or purple?
5. Empty the refrigerator, scrub it clean, and put everything back according to the Real Simple principles of food placement.
6. Bathe the dog. Brush the dog. Paint the dog's toenails cotton candy pink. Wait, she would never let me do that. Better make it candy apple red!
7. Go to Target.
8. Read old story ideas -- did I really think anyone wanted to read a medieval, vampire, time-travel fantasy?--with the intention of deleting the really bad ones. End up reviving nostalgia for those bad ideas and trying to write a synopsis that would make it work.
9. Browse catalogs and websites to find the perfect "YA Author Wardrobe" -- even though release date is over a year away this still counts as "working on writing," right?
10. Stare blankly at that blinking cursor, hoping that your life suddenly turns into a Stephen King novel and the computer starts to write your story.

If these procrastination techniques do not succeed in taking top priority on your "To Do" list, there's always baking. Cookies do wonders for making you forget what you were trying to procrastinate in the first place.