What Do You Need to Improve: LWC Writers Share Their Top Five

This winter LWC will celebrate five years of LWC. We are starting the celebration a little early by doing a weekly top-five series. Each Wednesday LWC members will post their top-five answers to a specific question. This is week six, and LWC writers were asked this question:

In what areas would you most like to improve in your writing?

Karen Aldridge:

1. Giving myself the freedom to break the rules when it aids my story to do so.
2. Letting my imagination soar - I tend to reel it in too often.
3. Finding the right balance in description. I think I under-describe often because I'm afraid of getting too wordy.
4. Vocabulary - If I had it to do all over again, I would have paid better attention to vocabulary exercises when I was in school. I often struggle to find just the right word when I'm writing.
5. General writing knowledge - I feel like I never know enough about writing even though I constantly look for more learning opportunities. I'd love to know enough to formally teach writing some day.

Frankie Ren:

1. I need to get the stories that I write in my head down on paper.
2. Getting my POV across.
3. My spelling is the worst.
4. Writing a story in order.
5. I need to do my rewrites.

Jennifer Ballard:

1. Self-discipline. I'm not sure if this is something you can learn or improve with practice, but I struggle with it constantly.
2. Organization - of my writing: files, notes, outlines - and within my writing: plots, timelines, etc.
3. Sensory description. I am terrible with this because I don't pay much attention to such things in the world around me, so often leave it out of my writing.
4. Characterization. I'd like to be able make my characters as interesting on the page as they are in my head.
5. Plotting. I admire writers who can weave a complicated plot or subplots and have it all make sense. I struggle keeping a simple plot working out in my novels.

Ed Chinn:

1. Building good, solid endings that leave the readers weak with "wow!"
2. Integrating story lines
3. Developing plot
4. Crafting believable dialogue
5. Creating vivid and distinguishable characters.

Amanda Green:

1. Punctuation (having my work read exactly as I am intending)
2. Grammar
3. Being more concise. Getting to the point quicker.
4. Point of View / Audience
5. Dialogue

Heather Clift:

1. Scenes that are more dynamic
2. Richer vocabulary
3. Better dialogue
4. More discipline to make my fiction writing a priority
5. Self-confidence in my abilities

Sheryl Griffin:

1. Strengthening Grammar and punctuation use
2. Ability to use “word power” better (I use my thesaurus, however, I would like it to come naturally)
3. Point of view usage
4. Time management (i.e distractions)
5. My passion and bend is towards non-fiction, although, I would love to write fiction or humor pieces at some point in my life

Karen Phillips:

1. Getting started. I have spent this whole summer working on character profiles for the book that I want to write. I have written a couple of pages, but then I’ll change my thoughts about the POV or whatever and won’t use what I’ve written.
2. POV. I think maybe, just maybe I have a handle on this now, but it’s been driving me nuts who in my list of characters might tell this story that’s buried so deeply in my brain right now.
3. Did I say getting started?
4. Getting
5. Started!

Ron Billmyer:

1. My weakest area is setting and adhering to timeline goals. I want to improve and adhere to goal setting timelines.
2. I would like to develop a much better outline for my novel
3. I want to improve my character development process with detailed biographies on each character.
4. I want to be more creative in my settings and storyline.
5. Finally and lastly, I want to stop being redundant and repetitious, repeating things over and over, again and again, repetitiously.

Trisha Petty:

1. Grammar.
2. Lots of time.
3. Grammar.
4. Syntax.
5. Grammar.

Ross Martin:

1. Learning the meanings of all the writing guidelines printed in help books.
2. Finding a a mood and comfortable place to write.
3. I do not like punishing my main characters, but I must learn how to do it.
4. Learning the proper grammar to use as I like to use words that are like they sound instead of proper words.
5. I think I need to go back and take English classes.

How Will You Spend Your Millions? LWC Writers Share Their Top Five

This winter LWC will celebrate five years of LWC. We are starting the celebration a little early by doing a weekly top-five series. Each Wednesday LWC members will post their top-five answers to a specific question. This is week five, and LWC writers were asked to be creative and fantasize a little with the question:

When you make that big book deal, how will you spend your millions?

Note: I told LWC writers that giving money to charities and putting money aside to prepare for their futures would be assumed, so this was all about having some self-serving fun.

Cece Dockins

1. Buy my dream home: an old farmhouse, lots of land, with a pond and creeks. Privacy! Privacy! Privacy!
2. Collect-to my heart's content-every rare/1st edition book, pulp, and comic. Quadruple my library and never feel guilty about it.
3. Hike the Pacific Crest Trail.
4. Hire a personal chef and personal trainer.
5. Have a bobble head made in my image, and own an ice cream, deep-fried Twinkie franchise.

Heather Clift

My husband and I have fantasized the Big Payout many times. Once all the do-good stuff is completed and cousins I never knew existed quit calling, here is what I'd do with the remaining money in no particular order, assuming there is enough money to spend:

1. New living room furniture
2. Hardwood floors installed downstairs
3. A two- week beach vacation
4. A new truck for my husband
5. Build the sunroom which will become my office

Trisha Petty

1. Buy an old antebellum home and refurbish it to bring it up to date, and yet have all the fun to learn the history of it so that we could do tours. The house could be used for meetings and to be able to rent for parties.
2. I would make a garden that would make a Southern Belle swoon. Lots of places to sit and read, think and pray. It would be large enough in one place to have weddings and garden parties. (the rentals and parties would sustain the house for the spring, summer and fall)
3. A portion of the expansive yard would be made with a huge covered area and bar-b-que, outdoor kitchen and plenty of yard to either have parties, rent for parties or just enjoy for wonderful spring and fall evenings.
4. The house would hold a place where I could write- with the office being off to the side, yet with large windows to allow light and a faboulous view to come and encourge my words.
5. And five: hire a staff to take care of the garden, cleaning, and catering so that I could be able to just do the fun stuff and write.

Karen Phillips

1. Buy a new house. One with a huge study with wall-to-wall bookcases on the other side of the house from the TV so I can write without constantly being tempted to go watch a movie with my husband. I want a bathroom that has a shower that looks like a rock cave and that has a door opening to a private covered patio with a hot tub. I want a workout room and an Olympic-sized pool, too.
2. Buy a new truck and a motorcycle trailer. So we can go on a trip and I don’t have to ride on the back of the motorcycle when my butt dies.
3. Travel. I still want to go back to Yellowstone National Park and to South Dakota. I want to go see Stonehenge. I want to go hang out for a month in Houston with some friends. I want to live on the beach for a whole summer and hunt shells.
4. Get a physical trainer who will make me workout.
5. This is a good sort of terrible….I can’t think of anything else.

Mary Ann Weakley

After all my favorite charities are fully funded:
1. I'm going to design and decorate a two-story condominium (like Taylor Swift) along Lake Shore Drive in Chicago overlooking Lake Michigan where I can watch the sail boats and the tall ships come in.
2. I'll design and build a comfy cottage on the beach in the Gulf or maybe the South of France or maybe both. This will be my favorite writing place.
3. I'll fund, design and decorate the perfect retirement home in Williamson County for retired LWC writers; it will have a 3,000 sq. ft. cozy unit for me. It will be near my riding stables in the most picturesque natural setting in the area. All my homes will have state-of-the-art facilities for senior afflictions, hot tubs rather than swimming pools.
4. I'll have a private Lear Jet to transport me to all my book signings and speaking engagements here and abroad. A fully equipped limousine will take me to the landing strips and anywhere else I need to go.
5. I'll have the latest electronic equipment for communication and I'll know how to use it. I'll dictate my writings which will be transformed into documents automatically spell checked, grammar checked, POV consistent, edited, critiqued and copy edited.

Sheryl Griffin

1. I am hiring a note taker and editor full time. That way someone is always near by write down any and every idea I have. I will need the editor to make the whole publishing process faster (after all this I will need more money)
2. I love my house so don't need a new one but I desperately need my kitchen updated as well as the master bath and some projects finally done
3. Since our summer cruise I have fallen in love with cruise vacations so I will purchase a cruise line that has an amazing owners suite so we can go whenever we want
4. I would also invest in several local organations that serve and help women and children
5. I have recently become very passionate about a local artist Kelly O'neill and I would buy several of her paintings and comission her to do many more!

Jennifer Ballard

1. Travel.
2. Pay off mortgages, medical bills, etc. for my family and friends.
3. Support animal rescue organizations - Dog breeds, Pegasus Foundation (horses), Elephant Sanctuary
4. Get a vacation home - in several parts of the world.
5. Get my husband a boat and all the other toys he's done without to support my writing.

Alan Hooper

What I would do with all that money when Wilbur and Charlie come through for me?
1. Buy a Bugatti Veyron automobile (Its about two million dollars)just to carry my golf clubs to the golf club. (I think the Veyron miles per gallon is actually gallons per mile, so I could not afford to go far at today's gas prices.)
2. Buy the latest and greatest set of Taylor Made golf clubs, built to my specifications.
3. When the guys who know my game laugh when they see my new clubs, I would buy the golf club and throw them out.
4. Have my own personal caddie to carry my bag at the golf club.
5. Commission a real artist to build me bronze statues of Wilbur and Charlie in rocking chairs, to sit on my front porch.

Mike Hudgins

1. Meet with my CPA to calculate federal income tax liability.
2. Pay the tax.
3. Pay off mortgage balance of two daughters homes.
4. Put balance into American Funds With instructions to pay qtly. Dividends. and purchase more shares with cap. Gains.
5. Sleep in the next day, then go back to work!

Ross Martin

1-2. Well after paying off bills and establishing a nest egg, I would invest a lot of it.
3. If it was a large amount I would even build a building for the LWC to meet in with a smooth paved road.
4. I would probably take a vacation to somewhere I had not been, might be difficult finding one.
5. I am sure I would give some to my favorite charity, the Shriner's hospital.

Karen Aldridge

1. Buy a convertible Mustang Shelby GT500 in metallic blue with silver racing stripes.
2. Buy a medieval castle in Ireland overlooking the ocean with lots of land. Nothing obnoxiously huge just clean and cozy and with an ocean-front writing office. I'd divide my time between the US and Ireland.
3. When my boys are old enough, we'd white water raft all of the best rafting rivers in the world and scuba dive all of the world's best dive spots.
4. Hire a housekeeper, chef, and life and career manager and assistant to make sure everything gets done.
5. Build a home on the lake - of course with a lake-front writing office. And buy a collection of matching boats (maybe metallic blue with silver racing stripes to match my Mustang) - a houseboat, a ski boat, Jet Skis for the boys.

Doug Johnson

1. I would make a substantial monthly support payment to Steve Hawthorne, a medical missionary in Bolivia.
2. I would set aside funds to educate my five grandchildren covering tuition, room and board and associated expenses at a State University for four years.
3. I would insure my son and daughter-in-law were funded for a moderate monthly income with health insurance for retirement age.
4. I would set aside a certain amount of money to give individuals in the form of cash envelops. I would set aside a day each week to frequent thrift stores and places like Dollar General and Food Lion to scout out these folks. Once I observed them, I would approach them and have the promise to not open the envelope until after they leave the establishment. Then I would disappear and not come back to the place again for at least 6 months.
5. I would purchase property on a lakefront. The lake would be on the western shore, so as to have the sunset over the water. I would want the property to slope gently downhill to the water. The property would not have to be huge, say maybe 5 to 10 acres with substantial forestry on the North and South sides.

I would build a modest size lodge up the slope from the water, so as to have a nice view of the water. The rear of the structure arranged with dining room and bedrooms facing west. I would like a rustic exterior, likely using cedar siding with lots of large windows. The lodge would not have to be all that big, say 6,000 square feet. The three floors of even size would have fireplaces on the North ends and covered screen porches on the South for floors two and three.

Sleeping and living accommodations would be situated on the top and bottom floors. The middle floor would be for formal and informal meetings with lots of leather couches.

I would expect to use the lodge one week each month for special needs ministries. I would allow other qualified ministries to utilize the other ¾ of the time.

I would host selected individuals and small groups of in peer-professional support sessions for those who have lost a love one to suicide. There would be no charge to anyone for food or lodging. Each individual could stay a day or the entire week – depending on what strides they were achieving.

It is hard to find help in this area and I would like to change that.

Why Do You Write? LWC Writers Share Their Top Five

This winter LWC will celebrate five years of LWC. We are starting the celebration a little early by doing a weekly top-five series. Each Wednesday LWC members will post their top-five answers to a specific question. This is week four and LWC writers were asked:

Why do you write?

Dennis Stafford:

1. I write to reveal a little piece of myself that otherwise would never be known. What is most enjoyable is that others don’t know which parts of me are represented in my writing. Am I the fearful man or the aggressive bully? Am I kind or mean? Which parts of me are in which characters? Only those closest to me know and some things nobody but me can see. I am laying my soul bare for the world but it is woven into the story in such a manner that most people never know how much I have shown them.
2. I write to make sense out of life. In my story world I can cause things to turn out as I would like them to. I can punish, promote, reward or tax anyone in any way I choose. It’s my world I am creating. My word is final, at least until revision time.
3. I write to entertain others. When someone reads what I have written and likes it I am pleased. I enjoy their enjoyment.
4. I write because I enjoy it.. Writing takes me away for a while. I can be on a boat in seconds. I can be in another country just as quickly. I can go to the moon if I see fit. I can be in the present, future or the past. It’s my choice.
5. I write because of “the dream”.

Sheryl Griffin:

1. Writing has been therapeutic for me in my journey towards healing and wholeness
2. Writing inspires me
3. Writing encourages me
4. Writing helps me put and keep things in perspective
5. Writing allows me to let others know they are not alone and there is ALWAYS hope!

Karen Phillips:

1. I write to know my feelings. Each morning that I write in my journal, I write out my feelings, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. (I say “each morning.” I wish I could say every morning, but it doesn’t always happen.) It is amazing how things will make so much sense to me a few weeks or months later when I go back and read my “feeling checks.”
2. I write for variety and learning new things. I have finally realized the vast assortment of jobs I’ve had in my life—from a teenager putting together firework packages to sell on the 4th of July, to a typesetter for a weekly newspaper, to retail shoe sales manager, to a warranty administrator for a car dealership, to a reporter for a legislative calendar, to a data collector for retail market research—I don’t like doing the same thing over and over again. Writing fiction involves learning; there’s a lot of variety in that process.
3. I write to organize and analyze my thoughts. My mind actually doesn’t compartmentalize things very well. I have to have time to sort and figure and think. My thinking is usually done with a pen and a notebook.
4. I write for enjoyment. I am having a blast at the moment trying to develop characters for my book. There’s a lot of my own experience that is going into some of these characters.
5. I write to pray and meditate and make gratitude lists. It goes like this:
Dear God,
Thank you for today and all that You have planned for me.
Thank You for the people that you have put in my life, the family I was born into and the friends (and family) who You allowed me to choose.
Thank You for having faith in me when my faith is almost non-existent.
Thank You for giving me a talent to write that I shamelessly disparage by thinking I can’t write.
Thank You loving me, for giving me strength and courage and freedom.
Amen & Awomen

Bryce Martin:

1. I never cared for putting puzzles together as a child. In writing, however, I always look at any long (in words) project as an interesting puzzle. The pieces are all there, somewhere, I just need to put them together.
2. I like it in the end when I am finished and I surprise myself. "Did I do that?"
3. I have thought of myself as a writer for so long, I continue doing it, to prove - perhaps - that I really am.
4. I like the self-satisfaction. Even in praise, I know that no one truly cares or not except myself.
5. I like seeing the cleanness, the neatness of the printed words on white cuts of paper, words and meaning that came from me.

Jesse Cunningham:

1. Because I like it
2. Because I have so many stories in my head screaming to be let out!
3. Because it is fulfilling
4. Because it satisfies my creative need
5. Last but not least, because I must

Heather Clift:

1. I am able to unclog the traffic in my brain.
2. It's form of escapism.
3. I can express my thoughts more easily with written words rather than spoken.
4. It's one creative element I feel like I can do well. I can't literally draw or paint or sew, but with words, I can figuratively do all of those things.
5. There are a group of people that are interested in what I have to write and inspire me to continue to do so.

Alan Hooper:

1. To fill in the time when I'm not playing golf.

2. To keep me busy when it's time to rearrange my sock drawer.

3. To fill in the time between sleeping and napping.

4. To give my brain a workout when I'm not watching Jeopardy.

5. To give my brain a rest when I'm sleeping, if I don't I'm awake all night plotting plots.

Cece Dockins:

No one chooses this profession, I was called. I have to write.

Ed Chinn:

1. That is how I translate my personal mission from Heaven to earth.
2. Writing is a portal to various communities (including the wonderful LWC).
3. That is who I am.
4. Writing is my own personal safe place.
5. That is how I pay our bills and spread food and wine upon our table.

Karen Aldridge:

1. Living in a fantasy world is a lot more fun than living in the real world most of the time. I can do things on paper I can't - or at least shouldn't - do in real life.
2. Hanging out with moody writers is a lot more fun than working in hospital administration with moody, opinionated coworkers who want to unveil the newest employee improvement program and physician satisfaction survey and patient risk-deterrent tool - all in the middle of a hospital accreditation (JCAHO) survey and next year's budget planning deadline. *cough* *gag* - sorry, I think I just hacked up some stomach acid.
3. I want to buy a vacation cabin in the mountains AND a vacation cottage on the beach - great big ones.
4. I don't mind pitching a tent if number three never pans out.
5. I have a really loud brain, and writing releases some of the noise pressure.

Jennifer Ballard:

1. Because I can't NOT write. I have lots of stories and characters in my head and it's a small place. If I don't get them out I can't think of anything else.
2. I love to read and want to share my own stories with others who might enjoy them.
3. For the money and fame.
5. Because I prefer working with words. I'm not good with numbers.

Ron Billmyer:

1. When I was a little boy, I lived in Germany as a dependent of an Army dad. I attended the dependent school with all of the other Army brats. I was in second through fourth grade during the three years we were in Germany. I remember vividly one teacher who spoke with a slight German accent. I was born left-handed and naturally favored that hand when writing school assignments. I don’t know whether it was her mission as a former follower of Hitler, or whether she just wanted to change the world, but she decided that I would not be allowed to write left-handed. I can still remember her standing beside my desk, smacking my hand with a ruler every time I tried to write with my left hand. It did not take long, before I hated writing and everything associated with it. Thank God, when I was 11 years old we moved to California, where as a sixth grader I had a teacher who made us memorize a verse that said: “A little learning is a dangerous thing, drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring?” by Alexander Pope. That verse has stayed with me for all these years, and has convinced me over time to love writing.
2. So now, entering my antiquity of life, I have a computer with Dragon, which allows me to write at about 350 words per minute without getting my left hand smacked with a ruler. Dragon takes the dread out of scribbling or typing on a keyboard.
3. I write because my mind is not the steel trap it used to be. I want to be able to organize and preserve the adventures I had while flying and spending over 30 years with the Air Force.
4. After I retired from the Air Force, I went to work as a government lawyer writing Social Security disability decisions for administrative law judges. The actual writing of these cases was interesting because they involved people of every stripe and situation. The actual technical writing was focused on mass production,” …..crank those cases out.” The silver lining to the job was that I was introduced to Dragon, which increased my capacity to complete the cases by at least 50% and also took the drudgery out of manuscript writing.
5. I also write because I enjoy documenting the awesome beauty of the powerful storms I was blessed to fly (5000 hours and 153 hurricane penetrations) during 10 years in weather reconnaissance.

Trisha Petty:

1. Through the life of writing I can tell my side of a story, my insight of political views, legal issues, controversy - that in a party setting I would never be able to discuss openly. But through the characters in my stories-there are no holds barred. It’s as if people accept my views from a character, they would never agree to, if they spoke to me. In Scryer a book about a woman who can see future events in a pane of glass, a pool of ink – or blood, Renee can see the things to come but she can’t alter them. The killers who are stalking her belong to a cult who transfers psychic powers of their victims to themselves. If you read the book and see the Church of Scientology in the background you get the idea on how I take issue which bothered me, twisting them into a story. At a time in our hometown that if you spoke badly about the Scientologists it would be very risky, I got to say in a book what everyone was thinking and well--- got away with it!
2. To write for me is not only getting my issues on paper, but to tell stories that will be gone when I am gone. My class “Writing for the Generations” is encouraging people - whether they are writers or not - to tell the story of their past. The reason why THAT Christmas ornament must be on the tree and where did I get that ugly thing anyway? The reason we STILL have that chipped coffee cup. How we met our spouse and why did we divorce them?
3. To tell these stories to my daughter and grandchildren - I can’t tell them how I felt when I first held them the day they were born. I can share with them of their parents dating and how it made me feel, and now that they are dating, why their parents are putting down the rules they do. I can broach topics that are uncomfortable to speak of. Through pen to paper (or inkjet ink on paper) I can tell my daughter why her father and I split up. Why we made the choices we did. I can tell my daughter and her children of my rape as a toddler and why I am the way I am.
4. Writing is my therapy. Writing is a safe haven to go visit uncomfortable memories. Writing brings back the joys in my life.
5. Writing lets me tell people off, people I love them, people that I care.
5b. Writing is my life… this is why I write.

How Do You Procrastinate? LWC Writers Share Their Top Five

This winter LWC will celebrate five years of LWC. We are starting the celebration a little early by doing a weekly top-five series. Each Wednesday LWC members will post their top-five answers to a specific question. This is week three and LWC writers were asked:

How do you procrastinate when you should be writing?

Sheryl Griffin:

1. Log on to Facebook
2. Log on to Twitter
3. Call a friend
4. Check email
5. Read blogs

My “fantasy” procrastination list

1. Clean the bathroom
2. Wash the windows
3. Mow the yard
4. Mow the neighbors yard
5. Bake anything: cookies, cupcakes, bread, muffins, pies or cakes!

Karen Phillips:

1. Taking care of chores when they can wait. I guess it’s a toss-up on this one of what to procrastinate on the most, especially freakin’ yard work and bills. Writing, for me, creates a lot of clutter. Sometimes I feel like my environment reflects the clutter in my mind, so I’ll take my focus off my work and put it on chores.
2. Watching TV or playing computer games or facebooking. This doesn’t even need explaining. I honestly hate Angry Birds.
3. Volunteering my time away. I tend to do this because I’m lonely, too.
4. Low self-confidence. I think I can’t….so I don’t.
5. Running down crazy rabbit trails. Like yesterday, I looked up what having low levels of Vitamin D will cause for nearly 30 minutes. Mindless research.

Karen Aldridge:

1. Clean my office. I rationalize it though. I can't possibly think clearly if my office is a mess.
2. Read (for research, of course). Hmm ... I wonder how J. K. Rowling handled viewpoint in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Of course, one hundred pages later, I'm engrossed, and I've completely forgotten I was doing research. Then again, was I ever really doing research?
3. Hang out at Longview Rec. Center. I mean, how can I possibly be creative if I'm not drenched in sweat and on the verge of passing out?
4. Nap, nap, and, oh yeah, nap. I'm pretty sure I was a cat in a past life. And I wonder why I don't sleep at night.
5. Blog, blog hop, and Facebook. More research ... and social networking to advance my writing career. *wink* *wink*

Heather Clift:

5. Do the laundry. Given Mt.Dirty that is currently waiting its destiny, it would appear I do more writing than I thought.
4. Read a book on writing. I have read several, have two I've started, and several more in queue. Best so far? Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
3. Read a fiction (sometimes non-fiction) book. I can't not read. I call it research.
2. Facebook. 'Nuff said.
1. Clean the house. Who can write in all this filth?

Ron Billmyer:

1. I rationalized that I had a lifetime to finish the novel that I started writing in 1978 shortly after I started flying storm missions for the Air Force.
2. I continued to fail to recognize that the time to get the job done on this earth is finite.
3. I continued to write a series of short adventure stories, as opposed to following conventional writing guidelines for writing a novel.
4. I continue to write sporadically what became a monster of words without a beginning, a middle, and an ending.
5. That monster, being done without an outline, character development, conflict consideration, or plot development was so disjointed and confusing that finishing it became easier to put off than to complete.
NOTE: the solution to the above is set forth clearly in the iteration of the above; and knowledge of that is the power and the solution.

Cece Dockins:

1. Searching on the Internet for the "dream home" when I make it big.
4. Perusing other people's blogs, website feeds, and Facebook.
3. Reading
2. Reading
1. Reading

Mary Ann Weakley:

How do I procrastinate? Let me count the ways:
1. I spend too much time reading the morning newspaper. I'm a news junkie, though getting over it lately with disgust of media and political jockeying.
2. Too much time watching Today or Good Morning America (afraid I'll miss some news.)
3. Too much time reading and answering emails, checking Facebook.
4. Too many breaks for lunch, pet the cat, snacks, mail (if a new Writer's Digest arrives, read it from cover to cover), feed the cat, snacks, check emails.
5. Too much time reading good stuff from Rachelle Gardner and other blogs on writing. Need to just write.

Jennifer Ballard:

1. Blogging (or following)
2. Spider Solitaire
3. Web-surfing (research)
4. Housework
5. E-mail

Ross Martin:

1. One I have been doing for more than a year cause a rewrite of a story I started due to the fact I am not sure of how to punish my good main characters, seems terrible to put them in a perilous situation but I suppose I will have to.
2. By going online and social sites etc.
3. By making excuses like I will be more creative tomorrow............tomorrow......
4. By watching this really great t.v. show.
5. By using the thing of being in a bad mood which I may be in again after pushing too hard on the pencil and breaking the lead or chewing the eraser.

Jesse Cunningham:

I procrastinate by reading. I lie to myself and say I'm "researching."