You've read bits on writer's block at your favorite author's website, or superstitiously skimmed the chapter on it in that how-to-write book or magazine, not wanting to catch the cooties and cause your barely-afloat writing tendencies to suddenly acquire lead galoshes. Too often, we writers tend to create our own blocks for doing the work (and it IS work sometimes, isn't it?) that we love.

If you haven't been writing, these are the things you could have (and your significant other may say should have) been doing...

1) Washing dishes! You've successfully avoided jotting a note in your Dream Journal, forgotten the two great ideas that hit you in the shower, read the morning paper without doing the crossword or sudoku puzzle (hey, your mind works and there's a pen in your hand!), and your hands are immersed in the scrubbing bubbles that are assaulting breakfast's remains on the dishes. Are you daydreaming while your hands become spongy? Thinking of things to write? Bah! Get scrubbing! There's more housework to do!

2) Laundry! Sure, you can try and avoid it, too (my wife has successfully for most of the eight years we've been married), but one day you'll need to change out of that tattered old concert t-shirt and put on something that can be worn in the sun beyond the front door. Cleaning clothes is much easier than it looks--put one group of clothes (colors, blacks, or whites) in the machine, add soap, set the cycle (machines do so much for us that we take for granted!) and walk away.

3) Soap Operas! Let's face it: If we were meant to watch soap operas without eating food while watching, architects would have designed houses so the kitchen was on a different floor of our homes than the living room. That would not have prevented us from grabbing the bags of Nutter Butters, Fritos, and the six-pack of Pepsi before we mounted the stairs to televised bliss, but you get my point. Eating snacks while watching Luke and Laura return (again, and again) is such an American pastime, there ought to be a reality show about it.

Whoa. Stuffed. Who has room to think about dinner, after all the cookies and crap we've eaten today? And Oprah isn't even on yet! I guess it's time for...

4) Exercise! Sweet Lord, thank you for putting my exercise equipment right here, in this corner of my living room so I can not only work out, but watch TV and drink my Pepsi while I do so! I'd write a thank you letter, but I'm just too busy concentrating on three things at once. Oops, I spilled my Pepsi! After I clean that up, I'm going to need to-

5) Vacuum! After a strenuous workout on the stationary bike, a little vacuuming will be a cinch! The rhythm of it, back and forth, back and forth, very much like the revery I get when I'm lost in writing...Huh? Wha? Oy, my arm is tired. I'll vacuum the rest of the house later this week, because my mother always taught me that before vacuuming the floor I really should-

6) Dust! The never-ending part of the housecleaning, and probably the easiest to avoid, but I don't like the look of that blank page on the table. How did that get there? Did I grab a sheet of paper after I set aside the vacuum? It's tempting me to think of words to fill it with...must...look...away! Best to swipe this swiffer-clone over my collectibles shelves and books...Augh! I got some dust in my eyes!

7) Organize! I never realized I had eighteen different notebooks that hadn't been written in until I cleaned my desk and the surrounding mounds of receipts and knickknacks that had collapsed onto it--a paper avalanche. If I'm ever going to write more, I should have a clear workspace so I'm not constantly distracted...