Top Six Reasons I Haven't Written

My daughters have been nagging me lately because I haven’t given them anything to read in several months. Ok, ok, it's been since before Christmas. They say they need something to amuse them from time to time. Reminds me of my favorite line in Dances With Wolves that goes "Somebody back home is saying 'Now why don't he write?'" To that end, and to get them off my case, I give you my top six excuses  reasons for my absence.

Lack of Motivational Thoughts…I tend to be a mite lacking in wordage (is that a word? Spell check seems to think so.) unless something truly bites my behind and screams “WRITE ME!” Yes, in capital letters. At least they are in my mind. This usually isn’t a problem for me since I have a pretty imaginative mind. Usually. Haven’t been bitten lately. Not even a small nip.

Drawing a Blank…I always write down my thoughts when they come to me. Most times I get these truly inspirational ideas in the middle of the night (good thing I’m single), which can be aggravating but such is the life of a writer. Lately, however, the screen has been blank, the pages empty. This is a different reason from the previous one because although I get these thoughts I write down (usually), they are not always motivational or even worthy of being written. On a happy note, I’ve been having quite a few hours of uninterrupted sleep for the first time since I became a mother many moons ago.

Guilt…I spend a lot of my waking hours, like most people, at my real job. When I get home, there is this handsome four-year-old who wants to be with me. To talk, shoot some hoops or just to watch his favorite show on TV. Locking myself in my bedroom to write takes away from that and makes my stomach hurt. Especially when I hear a small voice calling at the bottom of my door “Yaya, are you done working yet?”

Lack of Motivation (which is different from motivational thoughts)…This can also be termed laziness. I prefer to call it focus challenged. I’ve been known to sit at my computer, prepared to write, when something calls to me. Twitter. Facebook. A stupid show on the television. At that time, all ideas/thoughts/words, other than the meaningless ones I tweet or post, ooze out of my mind. I’m not sure if they spatter on the ceiling (looking up would require movement) or just disappear into thin air. But they are gone.

Inappropriateness…(I don’t know if this is a word either but it fits.) I’m currently working on a serious article for a friend, a very sensitive issue involving her life, and I thought that it might be offensive to her to if I wrote something funny…ok, ok, mildly amusing. She assures me that is not the case so I’m not excused on her behalf.

Lack of Readership…Like most writers, at least the honest ones, I always wonder if anyone will even read what I’ve posted. I know my daughters do but that’s only because I threaten them with bodily harm if they don’t. My family? I don’t even think the majority of them realize that I write. But then again, we’re not really a Leave It To Beaver kind of family. Hell, I don’t think we’re even an All In The Family type of group. We share DNA and meet up at a funeral every once in a while to say hello. And so I rely on the world wide web to send my ramblings along, hoping that someone will find it interesting. At least I have the opportunity. That’s all I need.

And so, my nagging daughters, I have written something for you to read. Something to ward off the boredom that has entered your sphere. I have fulfilled my vow and now I suggest that you go out and find a more worthwhile way to fill your lives. You could die from holding your breath waiting for me to write a blog lately and it’s really not a good way to go. But thanks, anyway, for giving me a boost off my literary butt. I guess I needed it.