30 Things I Have Done to Avoid Working on This Novel

  1. Laundry
  2. Dishes
  3. Taken on new paying projects — not necessarily well-paying, and not necessarily fun, and not necessarily platform-building
  4. Read other people’s novels for inspiration
  5. Read the New Yorker for instruction
  6. Read magazines for distraction
  7. Pondered whether I should use laptop or paper and pen
  8. Pondered rewriting chapter 1 already, though I’m only on chapter 8
  9. Pondered the length of my nails
  10. Cut my nails
  11. Swept the floor
  12. Scooped the cat box
  13. Taken pictures of the cat while he’s sleeping
  14. Taken pictures of the dog while we’re walking
  15. Wrote about the dog for the Active Dog Chronicles
  16. Spent extra time volunteering at the Oregon Humane Society
  17. Harrumphed at my husband for playing video games for hours
  18. Played Guitar Hero with my husband for hours
  19. Worried that I’d never make up for paying clients who dropped off the face of the earth
  20. Worried that I’d never get out from under this stack of deadlines
  21. Watched A River Runs through It for research
  22. Watched Top Gear because it’s work-related
  23. Called my mom
  24. Called my grandmother
  25. Updated my Facebook status
  26. Updated my Twitter status
  27. Looked for mentions of me on Facebook and Twitter
  28. Checked my website stats
  29. Took a nap
  30. Updated my blog with a list of things I have done to avoid working on this novel