What stops you from writing?

I'm sitting at the laptop, awash in its pale glow, trying to figure out what to write. The Mets are playing the Giants on ESPN and I should be watching, but I also need to get ahead a little on the blog.

It's late May now, which means school is starting to wind down. Little League is over, and most of my child-transportation duties will involve taking daughter number one to synchronized swimming practice and hanging out at Panera until practice ends.

With all this extra time, writing should rocket forward, right? I'd like to think so, but I'm not holding my breath. In addition to this blog, I also blog for the Florida Writers Conference (awesome conference, you should go), I have a blog I'm posting pieces of short stories to, and I'm experimenting with some other online approaches to story-telling.

On the other hand, this week, I found time to: watch the season finale of Fringe, watch the two-hour season-finale event of LOST, went to a Rays baseball game, attended two Little League games, went to a season-ending party, walked for a collective total of about five hours, and attended a synchro fundraiser. Some of those activities come with parenthood. Some are just part of a balanced life.

But, the only thing stopping me from writing is me. And if I'm not passionate enough about what I write to put other things aside, it's an sign I need to work on the concept a little more.