Nothing quite stops my creative juices like a house full of visitors. Particularly at our house, where the office is open to the rest of our house.

I love our open office. It’s a separate room in the centre of the building, with two doorways but no doors. You can’t close it off.  It’s also the only room with computers, and the only one with internet access.

At this time of the year our house is an open house, with lots of friends and family passing through. I love that, but it makes it easy to procrastinate about writing. There’s always someone wanting to use the internet, or playing games. If you sit down to write there’s always a child or two peering over your shoulder to see what you are doing. Sometimes I wish I could just shut the door.

Instead, I am using it as an excuse not to write.

Before Christmas I had a lot of work deadlines. November and December were total write-offs as far as novel, and even blog, writing was concerned. That’s understandable. The work that pays the bills always takes precedence.

Now, however, I’m just putting it off. I need to get back into the habit, and I’m finding excuses—like visitors—not to do so.

I don’t have to write on the PC. I can write longhand in a notebook if I have to. I have done this often enough when the writing is flowing.

Writing this blog post is a start. Let’s see if I can push myself back into it from here.