How to Come up With an Excuse

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Caught in a sticky situation and need to come up with an excuse? This guide will tell you how to come up with an excuse that anyone would believe.

Steps

1. Tell yourself what the situation is. This will help with coming up with the excuse. Let's say you forgot your homework or important documents. You don't want to use the old dog-ate-my-homework excuse of course, but think of something more natural. Something that could really happen, something reasonable.
   
2. Build up the excuse. If possible, blame it lightly on someone else. "My parents were invited to a family party and I had to go." is a good example. Or "When I came home from school yesterday, I found out my dog was sick, and we had to take him to the vet."
   
3. Play it cool and stay calm. Speak naturally and calmly, but still with expression. Whoever you're speaking to will think this is really true only if you pretend it actually happened.
   

Tips

• Stay calm.
  
• Make sure your excuse isn't too far-fetched.
  
• Don't stray too far from the real reason.
  
• Come up with some good reasons beforehand and pratice saying them to yourself in the mirror. You have to look natural!
  

Warnings

• Avoid using this on someone too powerful.
  
• Try not to say 'um' too much.
  
• Don't use the same one too often. People will start to realize it's fake when you use it over and over again.
  

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