Do you have a writing project that you want to avoid? Well the best way to avoid your current project is to work on things that you can rationalize to yourself as contributing to your writing long-term.
You probably won’t even have to be intentional about coming up with these other things to work on, because your brain is already set up to supply them for you. As soon as the going gets rough, you brain will try to convince you that it has had enough and will supply you with all kinds of reasonable alternatives. All you have to do is pick one of those things to spend your time on and you will successfully be avoiding the one thing you think will give your life meaning.
Another surefire way to avoid your writing project is to blog about it. I have found this to be a highly effective mechanism for avoiding whatever writing project you are afraid of. In case you haven’t guessed, that is what I am cranking away on right now.
If your brain doesn’t automatically supply you with some other writing project to distract you, writers are supposed to read a lot. Picking up a book on how to write is another surefire way to kick that writing project on down the curb for future you to deal with.
You can also do all kinds of research. Let’s say you read somewhere that entering writing contests is a good way to get more regular feedback on your writing. Well that is just a plush research opportunity just waiting to be taken advantage of. There are many writing contests out there, and if you really want to win one, you should probably read a bunch of winning submissions to understand what the judges are looking for.
And if all of that fails you, general research is always important for writers. This means that you can read books or even watch movies and still feel good about how you are spending your time. What you are doing is consuming other stories so that when you eventually get back around to writing, you will be better informed about how good stories work. Don’t worry about binge-watching terrible shows either, that will just further inform you about what not to do in your writing.
I hope all of this advice has been helpful to you, as it has served me well over the last week. May you find ever more successful ways to avoid working on what you really want to be working on.