I want to be a writer, but I can't quite get my career off the ground. Life, or something like it, always seems to get in my way. I don't lack the vision: I have tons of ideas, and they come daily, invading the privacy of my mind. I can envision myself at the computer writing away, creating literature for millions of adoring readers. In fact, my first book (when I write it), will be so popular, that children everywhere will leave their Game Boys®, X-Boxes®, and Play Stations® just to read it. It will be quite a phenomenon.

I will write adult literature, too. In fact, after my second volume of adult literature (when I write it), I will be quoted more often than Erma Bombeck, my hero of sarcastic quotes and quips on family life.

Why, then, do I hesitate? What is holding me back? It's for the purpose of universal understanding that I have decided to share some of the roadblocks in writing my famed novels.

• I'm a student; I have no time to write while I'm in the process of learning.
• My house is a mess. How can I be expected to write in the midst of such confusion? I once heard someone say that it's impossible to be creative in a messy house.
• Sometimes I just get ready to sit down and write when I realize that I need to go somewhere in a half hour or so. It wouldn't do me any good to just get started and have to leave. Creative minds like mine need at least an hour to unwind.
• Other times I have made the determination to write after dinner, only to discover that my favorite TV show is about to start. Who can write with such distractions?
• There are walks with my husband. I don't want to ignore him, after all.
• The children need encouragement, too. I want them to go to college and grow up to be good citizens.
• There are e-mails by the score every day and it would be rude not to answer them.
• Family and friends, they all take up time.

I'll write that book someday. I know that I will. I'm feeling so creative that I think I'll start tomorrow.

Sisters, don't subscribe to my procrastinator's almanac. As you can see, my expectations are too high. I want my first effort to be a runaway success, and this is never the case. According to Joel Saltzman, author of If You Can Talk, You Can Write, "Perfectionism leads to paralysis, which leads to procrastination". Because of my desire to have every word be the perfect word, I usually find easier things to do, like clean the scum off my toilet. In order to be good at writing, we need to practice every day, whether we have something to write about or not. Even Bach wasn't brilliant the first time he sat at the piano. Look at all the beautiful music we would have missed out on if he had only practiced once a month, or quarterly. Let's get writing!