How to avoid finishing your book

How to stay stuck creatively

Make coffee.

Make some more notes.

Try to decipher some of the things your editor wrote.

Begin watching a compelling dystopian series on a streaming service.

Meet with people to discuss ideas.

Stay on top of your finances.

Grocery shop.

Cook.

Make up stories about ‘stuff you need’ in order to move forward.

Make some more coffee.

Play with the animals.

Get stuck.

Come up with lots of ideas.

Come up with more ideas than you can possibly explore in a day.

Weigh the relative merits of each.

Don’t leave your computer.

Make a big mess with your notes everywhere.

Make it look like you’re working.

Notice how close you are.

Underestimate the time you need to finish.

Don’t chip away at the last few pages, insist on finishing them in a big final push.

Get back into that dystopian show on the streaming service.

Pay attention to the pets.

Dream up other ideas of things that might work better than the book you’re writing.

Get in touch with someone to talk about those things.

Clean up.

Steam-clean the furniture.

Clean the ove…