Saturday, December 21, 2013

A Day in the Life of a (Scattered) Smut Writer

I have been working on a new book, for a while now actually. But the problem is, I get a little distracted sometimes. It's actually gotten worse in the last week (I am blaming the holidays, but who knows really).

It's a historical novella, so I also find that I need to stop from time to time to look things up- that's when I get really distracted. This is a typical day trying to write for me:

Sign offline- open word document. Begin writing next chapter. My characters are moving from England to America.

Wait, how long are they going to be on this boat? This could potentially wreck the flow of my story.

Googles- travelling by ship in the 1890's. Get's lost in various links.

Oh, good, 12-15 days, that's way better than months! Oh, I have a new email, let me just click this and make sure it is not important.

45 minutes later.

Ack! What have I been doing for the past hour? I only wrote 10 words. Grrr...

Gets back to writing.

She was laying on the bed? Or she was lying on the bed?

Googles- lay vs. lie word usage. Chastises self for not saving as favorite.

Another 30 minutes later...

I'm hungry, what time is it? What do we have to eat?

Goes to kitchen. Eats a brownie. So many dishes! Does some dishes.

I should stop washing these dishes and take a shower before I use up all the hot water.

Makes way upstairs. Examines self in mirror while brushing teeth.



Is that a blackhead?

Digs out magnifying mirror.

Ew! Magnifying mirrors should be outlawed, no one should be able to see their pores this close up. 

Begins plucking and tweezing all the stray hairs one cannot see without the aid of the evil magnifying mirror. Phone starts ringing. Runs to get phone, stubs toe in process.

Tries to explain to concerned mom on the other end why I am out of breath and yelling in pain.

Eats another brownie, does more dishes. Inserts lots of "oh yeahs?" and "that's nices" to mother on phone.

Finally hangs up.

What was I doing?

Eyes laptop. Remembers notes that were jotted down in backroom at work. Digs out notes, tries to make sense of it.

Gets engrossed in writing, finally! Stomach is grumbling, has to switch on light because it is getting dark.

Front door opens.

Oh hey, you home early?

Husband thinks I had awesome writing day because I am unshowered, unfed, and engrossed in writing.

I check word count. 250 words head-desk.

Well tomorrow is another day...


11 comments:

  1. Casey, I hope you're planning to put together your autobiographical posts into a book!

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  2. Haha! I hadn't ever really thought about it before.

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  3. Tee hee, just know that you're not alone: that could be me except it's missing the "fecked about on facebook for 2 hours."

    Where in the name of god do you get your avatars or whatever they're called? They are always brilliant.

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  4. LOL, that's me too!
    ;)

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  5. That's funny! 250 words at the end of all that...I know those days. It's ok. Plus we can enjoy them...

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  6. Thank you for writing this, now I know I'm not alone :-)

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  7. This is so funny, so familiar. It could be me except for the dishes, I could never get distracted enough to do dishes.

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  8. Oh no! I can empathize with the distractions but only 250 words? Oh no!

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  9. So are we all a bunch of scatterbrained smut writers or what?

    Cara- the distractedness is par for the course, the 250 words was new, I almost cried, I felt so defeated!!

    PK- the dishes were a necessity to find the counter, in order to make myself something to eat. Obviously I have an aversion to dishes too.

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