Today's excuse for procrastinating is...

Because that novel isn't going to delay itself
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ElisabethMoore
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Today's excuse for procrastinating is...

Post by ElisabethMoore » December 11th, 2009, 2:59 pm

Today I am procrastinating because my hard drive is dying. There is a new one sitting on the coffee table in front of me waiting for my husband to stick in my laptop, install stuff, and restore my documents onto. My hard drive has been losing blocks randomly for a while, most spectacularly when it lost part of the operating system and wouldn't boot. Since then it lost access to my entire "Documents" directory. So far, it's been fixable, at least by hooking it up to another computer to run the repair program. However, it fails Dell's nifty built in diagnostics consistently. So, I haven't really written anything new since the first major crash on the last day of November.

I could write in Google docs, or obsessively save to a thumb drive, but instead I am just waiting for a shiny new hard drive. Clearly I need a kick in the pants as much as a new hard drive.

What's your excuse for procrastinating right now?

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marilyn peake
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Re: Today's excuse for procrastinating is...

Post by marilyn peake » December 11th, 2009, 3:27 pm

Elisabeth – Ouch! That’s terrible! I would definitely wait for a new hard drive, too, if I were you.

I’m taking a couple of months off from writing (until January), so I’m pretty much in full-time procrastination mode right now. :) I’ve been framing photographs – had something like 30 photographs enlarged and then framed them. Am going to a Christmas Bunco tonight. Have LOTS of Christmas stuff to do – although that doesn’t exactly feel like procrastination 'cause there’s SO much to do, including putting up lights and decorations outside. I love Christmas, though, so it’s all good.
Marilyn Peake

Novels: THE FISHERMAN’S SON TRILOGY and GODS IN THE MACHINE. Numerous short stories. Contributor to BOOK: THE SEQUEL. Editor of several additional books. Awards include Silver Award, 2007 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards.

Nick
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Re: Today's excuse for procrastinating is...

Post by Nick » December 11th, 2009, 7:00 pm

Ouch. I got hit by a hacker over the summer and thought I got rid of him, but he managed to infect too many critical regions of that account's operation for me to get rid of him without permanently killing my computer, and I got very little peace on that account because the hacker liked doing little acts of mischief, like randomly opening new windows, opening iTunes, closing things, etc. So I sort of know how that goes, having your system fragged to the point you can't write. You might want to try what I did -- manually CP your work to GoogleDocs and an e-mail account or two. I mean obviously for you it'll probably have to wait until you get that new drive, but at least you won't lose things. In my case I just generated a new user account from Safe Mode and de-fragged the old account before wiping it for good, and then for good measure I had it checked out by folks who know exactly what they're doing, and then I just copied the story out of e-mail into Word, fixed a couple of small formatting mistakes that arose, and bingo! back to writing.

I'm not writing right at the moment because 1. 99% of my ideas come to me in the morning, and most of what comes later is just a vague idea, and nothing I can write yet, 2. I'm going to be heading back outside in a few and go back to fixing up the car, 3. why write when you can call your friends while they're busy working and leave a voicemail of yourself singing some bad old song? and 4. I just kind of feel like mucking about online right now.

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Re: Today's excuse for procrastinating is...

Post by Heather Bahnard » December 11th, 2009, 8:38 pm

too many to mention. I have managed to surf the internet for three hours in order to avoid editing my current WIP. On the bright side, I now know where they get cinnamon from. (I wouldn't recommend looking it up, it's not that interesting a story) Hey Marilyn Christmas bunco sounds fun. I love the Christmas season too, but am currently lacking the motivation to brave the cold and go Christmas shopping (everyone on my list just might be getting gift cards this year)

BlancheKing
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Re: Today's excuse for procrastinating is...

Post by BlancheKing » December 15th, 2009, 9:45 pm

Got stuck editing chapter i didn't like very much. X) I need more reading; any suggestions?
One manuscript, One dream, One stack of stamps that needs to be bought...
Writing Process: http://blancheking.blogspot.com/

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polymath
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Re: Today's excuse for procrastinating is...

Post by polymath » December 19th, 2009, 1:37 pm

. . . fermentation and assimilation. Let it stew and simmer awhile, the cream rise to the surface. The subconscious mind is working overtime, even when asleep. Once it's completed analyzing and compiling and parsing input, it will call for attention. Procrastination is an invaluable time for inputting data, meditating, and organizing.
Spread the love of written word.

Nick
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Re: Today's excuse for procrastinating is...

Post by Nick » December 19th, 2009, 5:45 pm

Earlier it was because I lost my flash drive that had the most up-to-date copy of my story and I didn't feel like re-writing several chapters from memory as I knew I couldn't remember it all. Temporarily postponing that project and as of twenty minutes ago am working on a new project with the same character. Works a bit better as a first book, too. Last book is told from the POV of the protagonist's assistant, which is a bit more useful for writing a mystery as it lets me deliberately avoid things or work out an incorrect theory to throw the reader off the trail and hopefully surprise them, but as the assistant and the hero had met three years prior, I kept making throwaway references to past adventures (which I'd hoped to write someday). So now I'm doing this as something that works better as a standalone, though I'm still hoping to make a series out of it.

My reason for procrastinating now? I remembered 221b.ru has the theme to the Soviet series in their audio section, and I've always loved that theme. Been looping it since a few minutes before I started writing, and now I'm too busy resting at my desk watching the blizzard-esque snowfall (apparently the TV Box is calling it a blizzard, though everything I've seen doesn't meet the requirements for a blizzard, so at least Philadelphia is being spared the worst of it) and listening to the beautiful music on loop. It's here if anyone wants to give it a listen.

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