Category: Miscellaneous

I kind of like the stats posts, but I think I might make them weekly. I’ll just keep a running draft until the end of the week and then post all 7 days at once. That’ll keep the blog from becoming overrun with them. :)

I really liked the other theme, but it wasn’t easy to read on my phone and I prefer a white background for text so I’ve changed things up.

Now, it’s time for lunch! I still have a lot of writing to do when I’m done.

I’m going to see The Maze Runner movie tomorrow, if nothing happens to make me change my mind between now and then. I haven’t read any of the books of the series, although I have The Maze Runner on my Kindle and I’ve been meaning to read it. We know how that goes! Coulda, shoulda, woulda, as they say.

Why am I going to see this movie? Because I like the star. Dylan O’Brien is a stand-out actor in Teen Wolf (yeah, I know, but I love it) and I like science fiction and dystopian fiction. My daughter has been asking to go since we heard about the movie being made.

What I’m worried about? In the description of the movie on Amazon, there’s a quote from EW.com that compares The Maze Runnerto Lord of the Flies, The Hunger Games, and Lost.

There’s not a book or show in that list that I like.

In fact, I despise Lord of the Flies, and I really didn’t like the bit of The Hunger Games I read and I thought the movie was only so-so. I watched one and a half episodes of Lost before giving up. I might get back to it, but after what I’ve heard about the ending of the series, I don’t know if I’ll ever overcome my reluctance to put that much time into the series for very little payoff. Seems unlikely.

Here’s hoping that The Maze Runner is interesting enough that I don’t regret the wasted reading time. I read 25% and 5% of two books today that I’d like to finish quickly. Considering how far I have to drive to get to the theater (over fifty miles), that’s a lot of potential reading time! :D

UPDATE: I actually did like this movie. I don’t think I want to wait a year or more just to get the answers to all those unanswered questions though, so I’ve added the books to my TBR pile.

Work is only drudgery when you’re doing something you don’t want to be doing. Working hard for your money … doesn’t have to suck.

—Me

Yes, I’m quoting myself. :) I ran across one of my older posts (from back when I was building websites) and when I got to this part of it, I knew I needed to put it somewhere I’d remember it.

New look. Love it! I needed something different. Although the other theme was fine, this one is so much livelier.

How do I convince myself that surfing the internet is a terrible waste of time? I always seem to do most of it when I should be writing.

But then I run across posts like this and I can’t help but read them. I wasn’t so interested in the stuff about the editing process, but there was a good bit in there about word counts and being prolific that made me happy to have read the post.

I’ve watched more of Garrett Robinson’s vloganovel videos. Yes, I know, it’s weird to just watch someone typing but those are the bits I watch. I turn up the volume so I can hear the tapping of the keys and I listen to get a sense of his speed. It is weird. I know it. But it helps me write faster after the fact. Watching him write makes me hyper aware of how much deleting, editing, backspacing, and jumping around I do as I write, so that I do less of it.

I’m not sure what’s up with that, tbh, except that—and this is strange too, I know it—I’ll often type half a sentence started from somewhere in the middle and then hop to the beginning and type the beginning of the sentence. I didn’t realize how often my thoughts do that to me until I watched how linearly Garrett writes. I’m not sure if the starting of sentences in the middle is my brain outpacing my fingers (I only type about 60-65 words per minute), or if it’s a result of the way my thoughts jump around constantly—even when I’m trying to focus and concentrate. As a general rule, I’ve always thought I wrote linearly, and I do when it comes to scenes and chapters, but when it comes to paragraphs and sentences, I’m all over the place. :)

Also, I was 58% done reading a book I’d checked out from the library when it expired yesterday. I’m 42% through another that’s also about to expire. Don’t think I’ll finish it because I just don’t see myself having the time. I’m 12% into another, and 10% into another. These are all fiction, and this is why I’m probably not going to make my 60 book goal before year end. I start reading too many books that I don’t finish. :P These aren’t even the books I was supposed to be reading (my backlog of books)!

 

Boisterous goings-on in forum-land have distracted me from my goal this morning! I am supposed to be writing, and yet I continually find myself refreshing the danged pages. Also, when you have people on your ignore list it’s not helpful when everyone else keeps quoting them. :D I have resisted the siren call of the “You are ignoring this user. Show me the post.” link. Quite proud of myself.

However, that doesn’t change the fact that I really should be taking a break from reading these posts and visiting forums.

Self-control, I need you. Please come back to me. :D

Stop reading forums.

I cannot even comprehend how much time I’ve wasted as I procrastinate my way out of meeting my latest deadline.

I started out weak today, writing only 1,601 words in about 3 hours. Hit a wall, and reacted by taking lunch and watching television. One quick episode of Bitten turned into the rest of the season, and when that was over, I migrated to catching up with season 3 of Revenge.

I have to say, I like Bitten, except when I don’t. I kinda hate the female lead. She kind of sounds like someone’s holding her nose while she talks. And I feel mean for mentioning that, but it truly is the reason that character annoys me. The voice. It’s all about the voice.

Logan is my darling on that show, although I admit to a certain appreciation of Jeremy, Nick, and Clay, in that order. Although let me be honest, I kind of thought Nick was going to turn out to be a gay werewolf and then that never happened. :D Philip was a cutie, but honestly, that story line was played up way too much for what happened in the end. I know cliffhangers and shock value are important for these kinds of shows, but yuck. I was just disappointed.

Now, the other shocking revelation? I’m sorry to say that reveal wasn’t that shocking. I have no idea what gave it away, but three episodes from the end, I started to have a strong suspicion that what was going to turn out to be true, would turn out to be true, and oh, boy, I was exactly right.

Back to Philip though. What a waste. There were so many other chances for something to have happened to make an impact and yet… there you go. Throw it in at the end to fulfill the gore quotient. I mean, she’d already made her choice! How did that accomplish anything? Here’s hoping they do a Bobby Ewing or something and have those last thirty seconds be nothing but a bad dream. Doubt I’ll get my wish, but I’m making it anyway. :)

As for Revenge, well, Emily has become quite unsympathetic to me and I often find myself rooting for Victoria as often as Emily these days. If not for Nolan and Aiden, I might be tempted to jump ship (lol) but I do like some of the characters on that show and they keep me watching even though the underlying premise is starting to wear. I want to see someone important go down! Soon! And I just googled spoilers for the rest of the season I’m watching and it looks like I might not be disappointed. Then again, I’ve now lost all interest in watching the remaining episodes, so there ya go.

I love spoilers but they do sometimes make me less interested in a show, especially if the only thing keeping me watching is my desire to know what happens next. These are the probably won’t watch these episodes a second time shows. When there’s more going for a show for me than the simple desire to just know what happens, those are the shows that I rewatch. Sometimes so many times I even lose track. The sad news is that these shows are much rarer these days. I don’t know if it’s a change in me, or a change in the shows. But I’ve seen the episodes of SGA, SG-1, Voyager, ST:TNG, Grimm, and a few others many more than once. What is it about those shows that makes them rewatchable? I have no idea. Wish I did, because then I’d write all my books that way. :D

Gah. I clearly watched entirely too much television today.

But back to the real business here and that’d be my writing. I need some good ideas to get this story moving again. Boo hoo. Why can’t I think of anything fun to throw in? This deadline is going to kill me if I don’t get moving again.

Ah well. It’s 11:51 12:28 am (where’d the time go?!) and I’ve got to come up with something or I’m decidedly not going to make my quota the next few days. That would be really, really bad news for me. :o

If you’re looking for a way to make yourself feel hopeless, I don’t know of a better way than to compare yourself with another writer.

—Lawrence Block, Spider, Spin Me a Web: A Handbook for Fiction Writers

 

I do not like drama of the personal kind. But of course, drama is impossible to get away from completely, and this afternoon I completely failed to escape a diabolical attempt to interrupt my ridiculously tight schedule.

Because of that, I lost a few hours of writing time, and, yeah, this is where I admit I didn’t finish the book yesterday even though yesterday was my seriously serious deadline. Now I’m going to be up tonight later than planned trying to finish, and will probably get a late start tomorrow as a result, and … this is why I hate drama!

But I also had a sick kid home from school today and that weighed on my mind, making it a bit hard to concentrate in my earlier sessions.

After giving it a few minutes thought, I actually think I’m going to get some extra rest tonight and give this a fresh go in the morning. I don’t want a lack of rest to make me more susceptible to catching the cold my kid has. I do not have time for a cold right now, so I’d appreciate it if it would stay away until at least September 19th. ;)

Also, I’m not sure where the ending it going. I’ve stalled out and I don’t really like what I have, so it could be that I need some additional thinking time on this. I’m going to use my beloved “send to Kindle” app to send this book to me for a quick perusal before I drift off to dreamland. I doubt it can hurt! :D

It’s time I started making more of an effort to nap. My naps were really working to refresh my creativity and generate story ideas when I was taking them regularly.

Starting tomorrow I’m going to try not to miss my nap, same as I try not to miss exercising. :)

Hey, it’s the beauty of this career. I should appreciate it more. ;)

I try really hard not to push my beliefs at other people, but today I came really close to sharing something on Google+ that would have made some of my beliefs very obvious to the world. Since I have so many family members and friends who absolutely don’t share many of my beliefs, I didn’t. But it’s made me wonder just how much of myself I hide from others, even those who are closest to me. Why is it so difficult to be myself and not feel apologetic for who I am? Why can’t I just say, hey this is what I think and if you don’t agree, that’s okay, because I’ll still love you? And as I’m typing this, I think I just asked the wrong question. Why can’t I say, hey this is what I think and if you don’t agree, that’s okay, I know you’ll still love me? But the answer to that scares me. I think I’m afraid that while I’m the type of person to understand and love people who believe differently than me, I’m not convinced that most people are the same. And there’s two ways that can go. My loved ones will be hurt that I didn’t believe in them, or I’ll be proved true. I can’t win this one. So I don’t play.

It’s apparent after typing this that I don’t believe love is unconditional.

Now I’m sad. I think I just broke my own heart.

It’s also obvious that I need to meet more people in real life who think more like me.

In the world of my books, I’m free to write what I want, and I think that’s what I’ll go do now.

Time to activate Strict Workflow in Chrome and write. It’s a beautiful day outside, so I have my blinds closed. :D It’s amazing how much vacuuming of dead skin I’ve been doing, because I’m shedding. If only it was as neat as a snake skin, but no, it’s like ash, fluttering around and getting into everything.

Sorry about that visual. :D

I am at a bit of a crossroads here. It’s too messed up in my head to explain, but I can feel it. Something’s about to snap, and I know I’m going to be back on track with my writing, soon.

I feel really good today, and I want to do some writing this morning while I feel this way.

Strict Workflow blocks only three sites: two forums and a blog.

I’ve already pushed the button (a cute little tomato icon) to block them for an hour. If I close my browser, Strict Workflow stops blocking sites, but if I’ve managed to close my browser, I’m usually okay. :)

For some reason, when I feel the least bit like I don’t know what to do, I pull those sites up. The thing is, I thought it was when I was bored, but that’s really not it. I’m not bored when I’m writing—I’m having to make decisions about what happens next, and I have trouble with that. A lot of trouble. I don’t like making decisions. So I try lots of things and honestly, writing wears me out, not physically, but mentally. All those decisions! It wears me out and I get to a point where I just can’t make another decision right then, and wham, I’m looking for an easy way to distract myself.

And for a quick example of how easily distracted I am, I started writing this just before 11 a.m., did some stuff—I don’t even know what, but somehow I ended up on 4 different websites looking at infographics, and now I’m finishing this at 12:08 p.m.

So, off to write before it happens again!

Oh, one more thing. There’s been a lot of reconsidering of things previously considered going on last night and this morning. Ain’t that always fun! I’m sure I’ll have lots of useless posts today and tomorrow as a result. Avoid my blog for the next few days if you’re smart. :D

Holy crap. 5 minute writing sessions sound like a joke. This is no joke. It’s awesome! #amwriting

I think I undersold the sunburn. I hurt so bad last night that I have no idea how I’m going to write today. Every time I move, my skin feels like it’s trying to tear free from my body.

I’m trying to see the bright side of this. About the only thing I can come up with is that at least it’s only on one side of my body. Meaning at least I can still sit on my bottom!

UPDATE: I don’t like it so much after all. For reasons that probably have more to do with me than with it.

The StayFocusd extension for Chrome is fantastic. I’ve thought about installing it several times and talked myself out of it every time. This time I didn’t. I really like it.

I set my ACTIVE hours between 7:30 am and 4 pm, 7 days a week, and blocked all the sites I visit when I should be concentrating on writing. I also turned on STEALTH MODE. I gave myself 15 minutes of time each day to browse my BLOCKED sites, after which the extension blocks all the sites until 4 pm.

I totally used up all my time before lunch today and had to cheat by using my phone when I was taking a break. I don’t want that to become a habit, but today was a different kind of day, so I forgive myself for that. Tomorrow I won’t be so lenient. The phone will stay upstairs, I think, until I’ve done my writing for the day—as will my Kindle.

I set up the NUCLEAR option for .45 hours (about 25 minutes) for use outside of those active hours, for days when I still need to write after 4 pm…

What I most like about this extension is that I don’t have to turn anything on, on a daily basis. It remembers those ACTIVE times and just works when it’s supposed to. I don’t have to think about whether or not I need it, or if I want to use it. It’s there, and I have 15 minutes I can use for breaks during the day.

My hope is that it will keep me from wasting away all my time online, on sites I really shouldn’t spend too much time on, and give me time to just let my mind rest. A week or so ago, I made a decision to stop reading so much junk online. I also want to read more fiction. It’s been hard to do that. I’m trying to make it easier. :)

*Had to block www.amazon.com, but allow kdp.amazon.com so that I can still publish my books during the daytime hours. :) Got that wrong the first day.

 

It’s been a strange day. I had plans to write a lot more than I’ve actually written today.

I got 400+ words, then deleted a few notes I’d left myself and dropped back down to 304, which is where I sit now. I was there at 5 p.m. and at 6, then at 7 and at 8. Now it’s 8:38 p.m. and I still haven’t made any additional progress. I wanted to, but obviously not bad enough.

I got up excited, then got some bad news about a family member, and although I’ve tried not to dwell on the issue, I don’t think I’ve let it go either. Suicide is one of those things I just don’t understand. I’ve battled depression before, but the one thing I’ve never battled is the urge to hurt myself. But maybe because I don’t understand it, I’ve found myself thinking of it off and on today, and feeling a lot of feelings about it, and a great deal of empathy for my dead relative.

I guess you could say I’ve spent the day in a more contemplative than creative mood and my numbers show it.