Thursday, November 18, 2010

Things I do when I should be doing something else

This is how an evening of writing usually works for me.


  • Open Word program
  • Wonder why it has reformatted itself to do something completely different
  • Try to figure it out, give up on figuring out why em-dash won't appear and work around it
  • Get mad and google how to do em-dash without hitting "--" twice. Learn new way
  • Check out other people's tweets
  • Get irritated with the person who updates 10 times in a row. Seriously?
  • Type a sentence or two. Maybe three if I'm feeling froggy.
  • Check out Facebook
  • Then check out my blog
  • Now have to look at other people's blog
  • Tell myself to focus, write a paragraph this time
  • Play with my dog, take her outside. Refuse to take the K-9 outside because he chases squirrels and there is nothing like a trained $9000 + dog running down the street
  • Sit back down, stare at Word and try to remember all the good ideas I just had while walking my dog. 
  • Find myself on Amazon discussion forum, lurking and reading people's comments
  • Then go lurk on QT for awhile
  • Back to facebook
  • Yell at myself for being on facebook
  • Commit to writing at least 1-2k words without clicking on a webpage
  • Halfway through prior commitment, see something interesting on tv. 
  • Laugh my butt off at the "Hey you, wood chucks. Stop chucking my wood!"
  • Must facebook comment someone with, "Hey you, wood chucks. Stop chucking my wood!"
  • Lurk on various websites, then stop when I realize I'm being a lurker. 
  • Just realize I haven't checked my email in awhile
  • Ohh email time - respond to email, giggle at beta comments, see editor email and get excited
  • Then realize I needed to actually write some more. Do that. 
  • Get a new scene in my head. Stop writing what I'm writing and skip ahead to new scene
  • End night
Can you believe that in two months of this there is usually a rough 1st draft of a book? Me neither.  What are your writing habits like?

4 comments:

  1. Wow.... No, I can't believe you get a first draft done so quickly! Umm, I have horrible writing habits and procrastination wins out 9 times out of 10.

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  2. lol- SO TRUE! My writing habits are very eerily similar to yours. Just throw in there some toddler distractions and you get the picture. =)

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  3. haha. you and me both, jennifer.

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  4. Funny!

    If I try to write at home, my writing habits are similar: check blog, play a quick game of Scramble on facebook, referee a couple of arguments between the kids, let the dogs out, holler at the dogs (as they bark incessantly), make myself some tea, open my WIP, etc....

    But when I go OUT to a coffee shop, I find my focus and work straight through!

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