There are tons of articles and blogs about the business of writing—the queries, the edits, the marketing, etc. I think I’ve even covered a few of those points in an earlier blog of my very own. Today, I read an article written by a soon-to-be-published friend who discussed that very topic. She brought up an interesting point I’d never considered: When the word-flow tapers to a trickle (or stops altogether) it might not be writers block. Sometimes it’s just life.

Life happens. Sometimes life’s happenings get in the way of writing.

I’ve struggled with my writing over the past two or three months. I’ve blamed writers block…always writers block. I sit and stare at the computer, but the words won’t come out. I can’t get my brain to focus for more than a minute or two. In an attempt to get back on track, I gave myself a strict per-day word count to achieve and started tracking my progress on a spreadsheet.

Thanks to my shamefully nerdy spreadsheet, I noticed something…well a couple of things:

On the days I have writers block, I suffer from a lack of concentration in general. In other words, my writing isn’t the only thing that suffers; I can’t focus on reading, or any other task.

I do not have this problem on the weekends.

So what is happening during the week that prevents me from making progress with my writing? The answer: Life. Or, more specifically: My Dreaded Day Job.

That’s right; I’m blaming my day job. And why shouldn’t I? I blame my job for everything else. If I’m tired? Blame the day job. Stressed? Day job. Cranky? Well, you get the idea.

It’s reassuring to believe I don’t suffer from real writers block. Reassuring and relaxing. So relaxing, in fact, that I might be able to get a little writing done tonight before I go to sleep. But, I’m not worried because if I don’t get any writing done, I know what to do: I’ll just blame the day job.