Quit futzing around! (or What is your writers’ beano?)

From the OED online:

Futz:

[Origin uncertain; perh. alteration of Yiddish arumfartzen (Amer. Speech (1943) XVIII. 43).]  intr. To loaf, waste time, mess around.

From Merriam-Webster online:

Main Entry: futz
Pronunciation: ˈfəts
Function: intransitive verb
Etymology: perhaps part modification, part translation of Yiddish arumfartsn zikh, literally, to fart around
Date: circa 1930

slang : fool around 1 —often used with around Koegel

Today was one of those days when I futzed more than I wrote. I could blame it on the fact that my husband had a medical procedure this morning that took up my mental space, or that I was having fun finding a new theme and format for this blog (which I’m very happy with), or that I had a mild headache most of the day. The fact is, though, I was simply “futzing around without producing any worthwhile music”… or words. I need writers’ beano to prevent the futzing. For me, writers’ beano often means limiting my access to email and other ways to fart, er, futz around on the internet.

I have an hour between supper and the time when our family is scheduled to watch a movie: I will turn off my email and browser, open a Word document, and write as though my life depended on it. Then I can go to bed happy.

How do you futz around? What is your writers’ beano?

3 thoughts on “Quit futzing around! (or What is your writers’ beano?)”

  1. I futz around with the internet or the TV. Another distraction is sometimes my cat. There are times were you have to turn everything off, just listen to music, and type.

    • Lol about the cat! I agree about the need to turn everything off sometimes. I have started writing more things in longhand for that very reason. I’ve also heard a good tip of taking a laptop to a coffee shop that does not have WiFi. 😉

  2. Coffee shop sounds nice. I find it hard to find a quite spot where there is no WiFi. When I was younger, I wrote in the halls of my high school or in the art studio or outside on a bench. All I had was a journal and pencil, no laptop. I still carry a journal with me everyday, but I hardly have the same kind of time to just sit down and write.

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