Tina Haapala, Excuse Editor

We've been telling stories since we learned how to talk, and writing them since we could scratch meaningful symbols into the sand. Well, maybe you'v e never written a love letter in the sand (Ha! Back in the Day Skid Row reference ), but when I say "we", I mean the big "We"--the Human "Us". This communication has been around for quite a while, but sometimes, especially when we find ourselves "blocked" we feel we don't have a handle on it. You know, we can send a man to the moon (or at least space, if you are one of those who believes that story is fiction ), but we can't assemble the correct technology to get our novels from point A to point B without tearing our collective h airs out. What is the problem? We  have the best and fastest computers, we've  bookmarked links to hundreds of helpful writer's sites, we've even purchased the best novel-screenplay-poetry-essay building software available. We ask all the be...

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 ...

The simplest writing advice, and possibly the best, is some verson of Keep Your Butt in The Chair. With your butt in the chair, you have nowhere to go but to the screen or to the page. If you've set aside your time, and you have finally made it to your writing space, you should be halfway there. Your writing potential is suddenly alive and well. Your butt is in the chair. Hmm...that Excuse Editor lady says this is the best advice-- so where's my great writing?!? DISTRACTIONS Take a look at where your fingers and eyes travel once you sit down: "You've got Mail!" How can you ignore that little envelope on the screen? It could be really, really important... "ThatChickYouMetThatOneTime is Following you on Twitter, or SomeDudeFromHighSchoolWhoNeverTalkedToYou wants to be your Friend." Tweets and Posts are like potato chips, you can't stop with just one... "Down with O.P.B." --Other People's Blogs. Yes, there are some great ones o...