Too Lazy to Come Up With a Title
Posted by Guest Writer in 
This is like, the symbol of my writing right now
Is there such a thing as a…slacker writer? Meaning, can you call yourself a writer (a real writer) if you find yourself more often than not twiddling your thumbs, feeling strapped for ideas, so you give in to your guilty little time wasters?
I suppose that’s unanswerable, but it’s something I’ve been grappling with ever since I realized I was a slacker. There are time-wasting booby traps all around that ensnare me many times when I sit down to write. My personal pitfalls, ladies and gentlemen:
1. Facebook. Wait, scratch that. I deleted my Facebook account to minimize distractions and so I’d stop feeling bad about my lack of productivity compared to people I knew from high school. Now I have more time to watch my shows. I mean write…haha…ha…
2. Reddit. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t go there. You’ll be writing post after post, checking out new memes and hoping with great shame that your contributions will get upvoted.
3. WoW. I deleted my account, but that just made me turn to pen and paper RPGs and Tetris Friends.
4. My new kitten.
5. Getting up from my writing to eat a snack or play with the kitten and then not going back to work. I get distracted like a toddler with an empty refrigerator box.
Perhaps I’ll make New Year’s resolutions to minimize or completely subdue all these habits of mine. Wait a sec, “perhaps”? When you say “perhaps,” usually nothing gets done. Hell, if I can quit smoking cigarettes, surely I can kick myself myself off the internet and write?
Tell us below about some of your favorite time-wasters.
In addition to writing for WriteByNight’s blog, Jenna Cooper writes for BE Mag and a blog called FemThreads. Aside from writing, Jenna served as an AmeriCorps Member from 2008-2010 and will start her M.S. in Information Studies in Fall 2012. She graduated in 2009 with a B.A. in English from the University of Texas.
You probably don’t want to know about Gawker. So I won’t tell you.
Speaking of Gawker, Emily Gould does a show called “Cooking the Books” in which she and a writer cook a meal based on the writer’s new book. For wastes of time, it’s not bad. At least it’s literary. (Sort of.)
http://www.youtube.com/user/CookingTheBooksShow?feature=watch
Unofficial polling (on my part) shows that Facebook, Twitter, and email are the leading time-wasters among writers. But that’s only among people I asked on Facebook, Twitter, and email.
Sex and the City. I mean, how many times do I need to watch these episodes? I can recite full seasons by heart.