Tina Haapala, Excuse Editor

You are probably familiar with " hoarders ". Those are the people who have buried themselves under mountains of stuff, and are so sure that they need this stuff to survive, they cannot find a way to stop. Now I certainly have no expertise on the psychological ramifications of hoarders, but while watching a recent episode of Buried Alive , I was struck by the excuses hoarders make for not changing their lives. Their rationale was similar to the people who say they have a drive to write but never shift out of neutral. Piles upon Piles For the writer, what at first seems like a tiny setback or two can build up if not tended to over time. Seven days of making the excuse that you cannot find 30 minutes in the day to write piles up to over 3 hours of lost writing time. Where did it go? Somewhere under that pile of excuses, apparently. The Writer's Blocks you've been claiming for weeks have now stacked on top of each other, cutting off the path to your next scene. You ...