Thursday, April 10, 2008

Guilty Treasures

You know what it feels like. Some people call it writer's block, I call it procrastination. The novel has ground to a slow crawl because I have all the time in the world and no definite deadline to meet. I'm spending far too much time playing computer games when I turn on my laptop. Just five minutes, I tell myself, and perhaps it's not such a bad thing. I know of at least one (multi-published) writer who gives herself a half hour of computer solitaire before she begins writing for the day. But she's producing more than one novel a year, so I guess she deserves her solitaire fix.

I know I should just delete 'Treasures Of The Deep' from my computer, but the truth is, I don't want to. I really enjoy having a few games. And when I'm being disciplined, I can stop playing while my brain's still working and get some writing done. Which leads me to another issue. The reason I start playing 'Treasures...' is that my brain is already fried for the day, and I have nothing left. Sure, I've turned on my laptop (brownie point for that), but sometimes I should just admit defeat and give myself a guilt-free evening in front of the telly. At least there I can pick up some writing tips while analysing dialogue and storylines of good TV shows. Ah, guilt... I do wonder whether it's a byproduct of being Catholic or it's just genetic.

Currently, I'm in chapter 8, fast approaching the 'Point Of No Return', in chapter 9. I have some good ideas, options for the story to go, and I think they will work, but I need to pick up pace and move the writing along. Apart from anything, I'm spending far too much time going back over what I wrote the previous day and playing word shuffle. I replace one word with a synonym, only to re-read and change it back the following day. That can be a trap when I read the writing far too many times, and I become de-sensitised to the language. It's then that any changes I make are likely to dilute the impact of the language and make stale the prose.

The RWA conference is not far away, either, and perhaps that is just the motivation I need to get moving again. I need to think characters and plot, not ball strategy and free lives!

2 comments:

Tracey said...

lol. Yes, Age of Empires for me. Or Spider Solitaire on my laptop, or Dots (what we used to call Paddocks when playing it on paper) on my son's, or Freecell or a few others. It's very frustrating. I especially do it when I'm tired.

SCRIBBLY said...

Yay! A kindred spirit!

Funny about being tired... Not!