Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Fooling Myself


Currently: I'm wiping noses...and reworking the partial of the lawyers book...and finishing up the erotica story...and eating too much Halloween candy...
Mood: Snarkilicious...boogers have that effect on me
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This month we're s'posed to be rambling about how we keep our butt in the chair. If you've seen my butt lately, you know it's roughly the shape of a recliner, so that's not a problem for me. Actually working, now see...that's an issue.

As soon as I turn on my computer, I think I have a few moments to do something while it boots up. So I'll read a bit in whatever book is next to me. This probably loses me about 3 minutes since the computer is always ready before I am at a bookmark worthly place in the book.

Email beckons, and I must say it's the worlds best time waster, masked as a productivity device. After all, I passed notes with a bookseller and a conference organizer this morning...plus my editor, CP, brother-in-law, his girlfriend, my neighbor...and there was a wicked sale on at Gymboree...

Eventually I might actually open up the story I promised myself would be finished before NaNoWriMo started. But it seems teh story fairies have left it at the same stuck place it was at when I closed it at midnight last night...hmmm. Spider Solitaire anyone?

Of course as soon as I win a game, giving me the confidence I need to push my characters into the hotel...the baby wakes up. Or the school bus arrives. Or my mother calls. Not to mention the full sized dust bunnies that are talking about unionizing in my hallway...

And then there is art class and grocery shopping and babysitting the neighbor boy...by then there is dinner and a husband who might be worth talking to...

By the end of the day I am so disgusted with my productivity I do what I should have done at 8 am...I slide the wireless function off on the computer and write a load of crap. Which actually worked into a great scene and with a creative scene break managed to almost finish the story. Finally...maybe if I actually manage to start working tomorrow...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can do it, Jenna!

Jessa Slade said...

Okay, that's bad when the dust bunnies have moved out from under the bed into the hall :)

But I've heard if you let them get big enough, they attain their own specific gravity and start attracting other dust bunnies so at least they're all in the same place. (That must be the unionizing you're talking about.) Tragically, the monster dust bunny mass, when hit by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, will form that strangelet micro black hole or whatever and then we're doomed, all doomed, so you might as well write just a few more words before we go.

Hope I helped.

Delle Jacobs said...

I remember the year Amy said she'd gone on a toilet-cleaning spree. That must have been before internal wi-fi cards make it impossible to hide from email. However, I've had a sudden infection of Dust Bunny Chasing Fever. When I resort to housecleaning to avoid the latest strife with my hero, I know the world has become an ugly place.

Has the Stock Market taken its daily fall yet today? Must go see.

Genene Valleau, writing as Genie Gabriel said...

LOL, Jenna!

Here it is midnight and I'm just getting to my modified NaNoWriMo pages. I didn't officially sign up as I'm not working on a story that follows the NaNo rules--I'm rekeying a story that was drafted on a different computer and making edits as I go. However, it's not because I've procastrinated, but after midnight seems to just be where writing/editing fits into my schedule. :)

Glad you really do get to your story even after many interruptions!

Delle Jacobs said...

I can tell you from personal experience, Jessa, the Specific Gravity Dust Bunny theory has ben disproven. My dust bunny collection has been in existence so long, monster dust bunny mass would have occurred by now, but tragically, they remain scattered all over my house.

therese patrick, author said...

Dusty bunnies make me sneeze, if I move them or abuse them.

When I was in this state of life, like you're facing, I whined to my mom who hated writing, even if it was what she made herself do. Her advice was, "Writing is what happens when life isn't."

I'm still seeing some wisdom in this, since life is research for writing... If I ever find an answer I promise to let you know. It's only been a decade or two since I've tried to balance writing with life.

Susan said...

LOL! I love the dust bunnies thing. In fact I need to get rid of mine today. Also, need to put in six hours of revisions and haven't started yet :( I got side tracked by Susan Mallery's SWEET TALK last night, and didn't go to bed until 1:30 this morning. It had a snow ball effect...didn't get up until 8:30, and now have spent an inordinate amount of time playing on the web while I slowly sipped my tea :)

Off to work I go...