Getting distracted

[ladyofastolat]

king_pellinor is away all weekend, doing I-know-not-what with rubber swords and beer. I have to dance for a few hours this afternoon, and it's Ars Magica this evening, but I had a completely free Saturday. I'd even thought ahead and done the week's shopping on Friday after work. "I can spent all the day writing!" I thought. But I should have known myself better…

I have just recently started writing fanfic again, after over six years' break. I spent most of those years writing various other things instead, but I've not written much at all since last autumn, when I got very interesting in researching the workhouse inmates of my Cotswold home town, who sang folk songs in 1908 to Percy Grainger and Cecil Sharp. When that fizzled out, I'd got out of the habit of writing, and have been reading, playing games, and watching anime instead.

Anyway, I got hit by an idea out of the blue a while ago, and I've just started posting again (though while I'm easing my way into it again, I'm using a name that has no links to any previous fanfic existence of mine, and I don't even want to say what the fandom is yet.) I've been getting gratifying reviews to the first story, so I was particularly eager to get started on the sequel I'd always intended to write.

So I sat down at the computer at 1.30, after taking Pellinor to the ferry.

By six o'clock, I had surfed through endless sites, taken some photos of the cats, written some emails that really could have waited, had at least eight mugs of coffee, watched fragments of stupid TV shows, flicked through Empire magazine for the third time, played Tetris-style games… and not written a word.

This always happens! When writing is really working well, the whole world ceases to exist, and it can stay this way for hours and hours. I cannot stop. I cannot think of anything else. The characters take over, and it's as if I'm possessed by them, channelling their thoughts (which often end up taking the story in a whole different way from what I intended.)

The thing is, this is pretty huge and scary, and I always do anything and everything to delay the moment of starting.

In the end, I had to get the laptop out. I didn't connect the mouse, so I couldn't play things like Minesweeper. I didn't connect it to the network, so I couldn't check websites. I hid the TV remote control. I brought myself several pints of water, because I knew that if I got up to get coffee, I'd do a few million other things "while I'm up". And I also drank a glass of cider, since a small amount of alcohol often lowers inhibitions enough that I can just go with the flow and write.

And I wrote about 12 pages in the end. However, it still wasn't all good, since they were actually 12 pages on an entirely new story that came out of the blue, and not the one I was supposed to writing after all. Oops.

The strange thing is, I can write quite happily in my lunch break at work, when I get one. I don't waste any time dithering, but just get right down there and write, even though I know I'll have to stop in half an hour. I only ever have this massive reluctance to start writing when I've got a whole day to do it.

*sigh*



Now, I really cannot believe that there isn't a mood icon for "distracted", "wasting time" or "dithering." These three things seem to be to be the definition of the Internet.

Comments

[bunn.livejournal.com]

"distracted", "wasting time" or "dithering."

I would add 'wasting money on stuff you never previously knew existed'... to that list.

Glad to hear the writing (sort of) came together in the end.

[chainmailmaiden]

I second the 'wasting money on stuff you never previously knew existed' Having the Internet and a credit card available is always bad. I tend to keep my bag downstairs at home, so I won't be tempted. Unfortunately that means I tend to buy stuff when I'm at work as my bag is sitting right next to me.

On the other hand I far prefer shopping on the Internet to braving packed shops, so it's not always bad.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I keep my bag downstairs, and am too lazy to go down and get it when I want to order something... but I just ended up learning my card number off by heart, so it didn't actually help. I got a new card on the 1st of this month, and thought that might stop me from buying things online for a while, but the number's only changed by two digits, so I know it off by heart already. Oh dear...

[evilmissbecky.livejournal.com]

How well I know what you're going through! I never seem to write when I have a long weekend, or a day off work, or hours of time stretching ahead. I write when it's already 8:30 at night and I have to be in bed in two hours. I write on scribbled notes at work, hurrying to get it all down before my boss finds out and I can crumple the pages up and toss them in my lunchpail.

I think there's just something about the self-induced pressure of a deadline. Give me a weekend to write and I don't do anything about it until Sunday night when suddenly I've run out of time. I've always been that way. It's rather aggravating, really...

Sorry if this is incoherent. I've had a long, tiring weekend and I need a nap.