Things Writers Can Do Instead of Writing

Using myself as an example, I thought I'd show you a few of the things writers might do to avoid writing.

1. Take your camera outside and photograph the weather. You saw my yellow flowers and my double rainbow pictures earlier this month, but here's a shot from last winter. It was early in the morning, the air was frosty, the snow fluffy, and the whole neighborhood was white.



If you like looking at nature photographs, visit The Coloradoan's Colorado photo contest entries for July. There are more great photos of the double rainbow.

2. Pull out your old picture albums, and scan and organize the best prints. I turned up this picture of me as a kid. That's kinda the way I look today when I discover a great new book to read. Some things never change.



3. Visit the family and entertain yourself by taking silly pictures of family members. This one is Birdee. She is very intelligent and has proven many times that she has a memory. Bird brain, indeed! She would be highly indignant if accused of being a bird. Oh, yeah, the guy in that picture is my brother. He's also very intelligent. Funny, too.



4. As a writer, you can always avoid writing by scheduling book signings and other promotional activities. Group signings are entertaining, especially if you can connect up with great authors such as Colorado's Mike Befeler (Living With Your Kids is Murder), Linda Berry (Death and the Crossed Wires), and Beth Groundwater (To Hell in a Handbasket).



5. If you've forced yourself to sit at the computer, you can switch to Solitaire or Minesweeper, or you can open your photo editing software and play around with graphics. On an earlier post I displayed a photo I took in Norway in 1998. Here's the altered version.



I know I'm not the only writer who procrastinates. It you write, what are some of your favorite way to avoid working on your current project?