Procrastination Redux

"The thing all writers do best is find ways to avoid writing." — Alan Dean Foster

I was getting behind on my personal deadline that I set for writing my book. This morning I got up early and was making huge progress. I took a coffee break, which for me means stopping long enough to make a cup and then bring it to my desk. I spilled coffee on my keyboard, and while cleaning it out I was horrified. My mind starting imaging the cesspool that was under the keys—a place where my fingers virtually live—and I just HAD to clean it. Between toothpicks, cotton swabs and alcohol, I freshened the thing up.

Then I remembered this quote I heard this week, something about how all writers feel the urge to procrastinate. The successful writers are the ones that write despite the urges. It was stated more eloquently than this, so then I spent a bunch of time trying to find the quote. After looking through the magazines I read recently, I did an Internet search. When I put “writing procrastination” in the search field, there were more than a million results, and as much as I wanted to find that quote, I could not justify further procrastination. After all, didn’t I get the point of the quote?

So, I decided to blog about it. If I am going to procrastinate, I might as well turn the experience into material…