Time Suckers

Because that novel isn't going to delay itself
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christi
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Time Suckers

Post by christi » February 4th, 2010, 12:48 pm

What is your greatest time sucker? Example: You really want to work on your story (ahem) but emails pop in.

Or Youtube distracts you.
Or the kids start fighting.
Or that Bubble Town game on MSN is screaming your name.

Lately, to be honest, a lot of my time has been spent here, but that's been very productive for me. Normally, I hit a wall when writing and go flake out to a freebie game online somewhere for a while.
Would you sign my story for a Klondike bar?

http://christigoddard.blogspot.com/

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Seamus
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Re: Time Suckers

Post by Seamus » February 4th, 2010, 1:26 pm

My first manuscript, finished more than a year ago, was accomplished through strict nightly time allocation that was motivated by a writers' group deadline every month. The group disbanned and now my WIP is languishing with only 20,000 sorry words in the can. When I look at what I'm doing instead, I am hard pressed to come up with what is absorbing my time. Oddly, I think I'm just relaxing more, sitting with the kids more, reading more, all good things and all in very small increments. My point is that I either decide I'm going to fit writing in or not, and when I do, the other things nudge almost indiscernably to the side to make room.
J. Seamus Welsh
welsh.john.seamus@gmail.com
Blog (a playful place to experiment with character voices): http://oh-thereyouare.blogspot.com/
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Tycoon
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Re: Time Suckers

Post by Tycoon » February 4th, 2010, 2:33 pm

LIFE!!!

Okay ill expand just a little. The Whole Famn Damily!!!

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jmcooper
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Re: Time Suckers

Post by jmcooper » February 4th, 2010, 3:30 pm

OH it's so pathetic, but FACEBOOK. Currently I am a SAHM and a normal day for my husband right now is about 6am-10pm. He's working 3 jobs to make up for me losing mine. :-( I have NO ONE TO TALK TO! Unfortunately, it's so addictive it also sucks up my writing time, my cleaning time, my reading time, my...yeah, you get the point. It's a good thing my kids are all in school....

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Terry Towery
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Re: Time Suckers

Post by Terry Towery » February 4th, 2010, 8:06 pm

Here's my top time suckers, in order:

Family
Music on YouTube (I cannot stop myself from watching/listening)
Facebook
Twitter
Reading fave blogs
Writing my own blog
This forum
Video games (although not as much these days; not sure why)

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aspiring_x
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Re: Time Suckers

Post by aspiring_x » February 5th, 2010, 10:22 am

My 7, 5, and 3 year old sons (time well spent!), music on youtube, and honestly these forums (I learn alot from the posts here, so I use that to justify procrastinating working on my story).

Nick
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Re: Time Suckers

Post by Nick » February 5th, 2010, 7:52 pm

School. It's always school. Over the summer I tend to breeze through writing. Not saying I write every day or with any other degree of consistency, but I get a lot done when I do write, and I write more often. Sure, other things do distract me, but at the end of the day school is what detracts most often from writing. And unfortunately it's why I'm hesitant to start seeking a job next fall, because even though I can schedule around hours that work for me...which unfortunately is actually kind of part of why I can't find work. Hard enough as is with the economy the way it is, and with the whole "can't get a job without experience, need experience to get a job" paradigm, but goddamn scheduling around my hours sucks. So, yeah, where was I going with this? Right, time sucker. School. Definitely school. And eventually work, if I ever find a flipping job.

And actually I find it interesting as I get older I spend less time working on my novel. First novel I wrote, which I still have the MS of tucked away in a bin, was done way way way way way back in 8th grade (okay, it wasn't that long ago, I am only a senior). Had a week and a half off from school in the middle of February for...some reason. Started it the day I got my typewriter, which was three days into the break, on Sunday night. Finished it the following Tuesday morning. About a week of solid type type typing and she was done. She was utter crap, and I delayed editing her for a long time, but she was done in a week and a half. Also she was short. Only 157 pages in the first draft, and that's pages on a typewriter. Probably a much smaller count when you print it. Honestly though, I couldn't write that many pages, typewriter or computer, in a week anymore. Somewhere around the 50s I'd just get burned out and ignore writing for a couple of weeks in favor of friends and Assassin's Creed II (so many nights spent poisoning innocents and slaughtering Venetian guards when I could, and probably should, have been writing, and yet every one of those nights was totally worth it)

So, school mostly, and video games and friends to a lesser extent? Sounds about right. *sigh* I miss the days when I had no friends and had learned to balance my video game addiction with my writing. 8th grade where have you gone?

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