More Author Insight: Novel Avoidance

What lengths have you gone to to avoid your novel?

"Simple: I played Batman: Arkham City, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Skyrim back-to-back-to-back on my Xbox. :)" - Barry Lyga, author of I Hunt Killers. 

"My Life Next Door? Hardly any. The one I’m writing now I’ll do laundry or wash dishes to escape from." - Huntley Fitzpatrick, author of My Life Next Door. 

"I once cleaned my shower. That is extreme, yo." - C.J. Redwine, author of Defiance.

"There’s no better inspiration to go to the gym and hop on the elliptical than to get away from the novel. I tell myself it’ll clear my head. And it usually does." - Lissa Price, author of Starters. 

"When I’m willingly doing housework, you know I’m at a problem spot in my novel. I once painted a sky mural in our house’s game room—complete with glittering clouds—because I didn’t want to write." - Janette Rallison (AKA C.J. Hill), author of Erasing Time. 

"Ha! Cleaned the whole house. Done the laundry. Folded the laundry. Dusted everything. Reorganized my bookshelves. I think you get the picture." - Sarah Maas, author of Throne of Glass. 

"I watched the entirety of Burlesque." - Leigh Bardugo, author of Shadow and Bone. 

"Disneyland. Matinees. Weeding. I think of the weeds in our little Seattle lawn as the nagging thoughts in my brain, especially the dandelions. Damn dandelions! They keep coming back."  - Kevin Emerson, author of The Lost Code. 

"Haha! I think there's a saying about that--something about resorting to vaccuuming the cat?  I don't have a cat, but I do have a family that makes a very messy house, so my most justifiable form of avoiding writing is cleaning.  Like you know, some days, I simply MUST clean out the coils in the back of the refrigerator instead of write." - Jessi Kirby, author of In Honor. 

"I have so many other claims on my time, so many obligations—most of which I enjoy less than writing—that I’m more likely to use writing to procrastinate from doing other things, rather than the other way around!" - Jennifer Hubbard, author of Try Not to Breathe.

"I’ve cleaned, gone to the gym twice in one day, went to Ireland for a month. But at the end of the day, I’m a fairly disciplined person. Deadlines help. So if I’m really avoiding it, I try to figure out the reason why and solve the problem. Books do not write themselves." - Elizabeth Eulberg, author of Take a Bow.

"If I'm blocked, I will do anything to avoid it. Oh, you want me to go with you to the dry cleaner? Sure! Sometimes I need time away from the manuscript. But it's always on my mind. I'm always writing dialogue in my head." - Cara Lynn Shultz, author of Spellcaster. 

Find out Tuesday if the authors bounce their ideas off others or play it close to the chest. 

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