Tuesday, July 27, 2010

More off-topic Uselessness

Comic-con has successfully derailed me in every possible way. I spent the entire weekend looking up interviews with Chris Hemsworth, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hiddleston, and so on, along with following liveblogs for all the major panels. Guys, even reading about the Marvel Studios panel and the Thor footage that was shown had me on the edge of my seat. The last two days I focused on scouring the internet for leaked footage-- because I am one of THOSE fans.

What I found was a big fat lot of nothing. The footage they showed at Comic-con, as I well knew, was 3D. And while I had hopes of watching the blurred out impossible to view trailer second hand through the 3D glasses I stole from the movie theater when I went to see Clash of the Titans (mistake, my friends. Mistake.), it seems that the powers that be on the internet have been deleting uploaded-anything faster than I can find it.

However, since I was already bingeing (I totally looked it up and according to Merriam-Webster, both bingeing and binging are correct!) on Thor related hoopla, I just went ahead and opened up my favorite Thor WIP, and started editing. It's important to note that since this WIP is the sequel to a sequel, editing is a completely useless activity at this point. But I could not stop myself.

So here is where I get (kind of) relevant. As a writer it's tempting to lock yourself in a room until a draft is finished, to forbid yourself certain privileges until you've made a measurable amount of progress, but sometimes it's good to just let loose for a weekend. Enjoy something wholly disconnected from the project at hand! Today, as a result of working on something different, I had one of the most productive days in weeks. I had a 3600+ word day without even trying. Sure, it wasn't in Helen, but man did it feel good to let the words flow in an effortless manner! And who knows! Maybe, someday, those 3600 words will be part of something just as great as Helen.

...I really doubt it, but sometimes it's nice to pretend it wasn't ALL totally Gratuitous Crap.

12 comments:

  1. You accomplished a great deal today. I did stop writing the sequel to my first book, since I haven't even tried to sell the first one. Of course, I need to finish editing it and that may take me another few years. Lol

    ReplyDelete
  2. Holy cow! I don't think I've ever had a 3,600 word day, but I blame my daughter for that. It's hard to type when you have a monkey jumping on you. I'm glad you enjoyed your weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very true. After my week at the beach I'm no further in Madame than when I started, but I got lots of inspiration for Madame 2 and rested my aching wrists a bit (before banging them up on a rock). Still I'm relaxed and full of energy. I may not have any more ideas than when I left, but I'm now confident that I can do anything.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Today really means yesterday, in this post. :)

    J.L. I wrote them through, but didn't bother editing. I expect I'll have to do substantial rewrites-- but my first drafts usually end up being thrown out and written again start to finish, which is the part that actually takes work for me :)

    Stephanie: 3,600 is not unheard of for me. I've even had consecutive 5K days. But NEVER when I'm rewriting--only in the first drafts.

    Monica: Yeah, sometimes you just really need to take a break and do something ELSE to get the words flowing!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've been Taking a Break and Doing Something Else rather efficiently lately... now I'm itching to write but the time keeps slipping away.

    Ah, late-October, how I crave you... when I will again have time to write.

    ReplyDelete
  6. haha. Yeah, L.T. I was in the same boat earlier in the summer. Too much of a good thing :P Hopefully this won't be a similar situation, but rather just a nice weekend lapse.

    ReplyDelete
  7. what what?

    editing random wips is useless/timewasting?

    Dangit. There goes most of what I've done this week (along with inventing a new bloghop and a new blog) (Mr Procrastination took over my musing care since Mr Muse is on holiday).

    ARGH

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ahaha. I can't say for you whether editing your random WIPs is timewasting-- but for me to edit a sequel to a sequel which is not sold is definitely not the best use of my time :P

    I don't think the bloghop or the new blog is wasting time either :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow! The only 36K day I ever had was during NaNo. I'm inching forward at about 200 words p/day. To tell you the truth, it's humiliating.

    ReplyDelete
  10. 200 words is better than no words, VR! :) Forward progress is still forward progress!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I envy you - sort of. I wish the family would go back to work so I can get writing. This holiday thing is a killer - as far a the writing goes.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Elaine: I know how that is! When my husband is home I get a LOT less done than when I am left by myself :)

    ReplyDelete

Comments are Love!

(Nota Bene: During #NAMEthatBUTT season, all comments are moderated and your guesses are hidden until after the butt is revealed!)