Everytime SCBWI has a new contest, I get sucked in again. I can’t help it. I’m a sucker for a free membership. I should probably just pay the bucks for the membership and be done with it. But that’s too easy. I’d rather win it.

So here’s what you have to do this time around: Write a scene, in 75 words or less, of your character’s excuse for not getting his/her assignment completed. It’s that old “Dog ate my homework” excuse, but with your own special twist.

And if the SCBWI folks like it, you win a year’s free membership! If they don’t like it, well, you’ve spent an hour or so obsessing over 75 words when you could have been working. But you’ve flexed those mental muscles while you were at it.

That’s my excuse for wasting an hour. (Check out the contest details here and come up with your own excuse.)