There are a lot of things you can kill while writing a novel--the main character, his wife, her mother, yourself... But what I want to talk about is killing time.  I guess you could call it procrastination.  I haven't gotten much work done lately.  I sit down to write and then I blank.  After sitting, fingers poised over the keys, for 5 minutes I get bored and find something else to do.

Some of the ways I kill time when I should be writing (in no particular order)

1. Visit other people's blogs about writing.  Ahhh, what a way to make a Wannabe feel, well, like a Wannabe.  These people actually get things done.  They have books published to show for it, or at leat, word counts that matter.  But they can be very entertaining and give me hope that I will one day be out of the Wannabe category and into the Real Writer one.

2. Hang out at FanForum.com to see what all the little zennies and other shippers are up to.  This can be a lot of fun, and time consuming when the boards are active.  If my favorite board is having a lull I wander over to the Veronica Mars board or to the spoliers board for a peak.  I say peak because I don't actually want any spoilers, I just want to see what they are talking about.

3. Play games online.  I play pyramid solitaire at GameHouse.com.  Or there are a lot of games at MSN.com.  I do these picture puzzles called "Paint by Numbers" or I play a little Kingdom of Loathing.  If you have a warped sense of humor you just have to check out Kingdom of Loathing.  It is a riot.  All of these sites are free and can kill excessive amounts of time.

4. I check the fan fic sites I post at which are listed at the side over there <--.  I look for reviews to my stories and marvel at the ammount of hits I get on each chapter.  I then browse the stories and try to find one that doesnt either make me ill at all of the grammer mistakes or doesn't make me feel like I should just tear up my manuscript and burn it.

5. Sims 2.  Need I really say more.  Oh, you don't know what Sims2 is.  What is wrong with you?  Sims2 is only the greatest (if not most bugged) game over made.  What can be better then playing God and controlling hundreds of horribly dressed little people.  Make them rich and fullfill every little want they have or bring a plague of untimely deaths onto their family.  Ahhh, what could be better.  Oh, and it can also be a tool.  Use it to plot out your story and see what works.  (yeah, like I actually do that).

6.  Watch hours of Discovery TV.  What is better then seeing your favorite shows over and over and over again.  I do love all of the discovery channels and they are educational.  At least putting on Animal Planet for my kids is better then watching mind-numbing educational preschool shows over and over. 

7.  Mess around with my photo editing software to create webpages I will never actually use or icons/avies for no real reason.

8. Take a nap.  Wait, what the hell am I talking about.  I never get to take naps.  I have three kids.  But I sit and dream of taking a nap.  Does that  count.

There are a hundred other ways I kill time during the day.  Some are unavoidable--like making dinner or taking my daughter to school but mostly I just goof off and then wait until after everyone is in bed and try to force out a few thousand words.  But hey it works.  I'm up to 10,000 now. 

So how does everyone else kill time?  If you check out Kingdom of Loathing tell me what you think.  I've been playing that game off and on for a year and I love it every time I log on.  I wish I could write half as well as those guys who create the little scenes.