"Just Write"

[mark_asphodel]

So I didn't make my goal of having Chapter 13 of "Starchild" out by tonight.  Oh, well... there are a number of personal goals I didn't meet this weekend.  Like buying a new vacuum cleaner.

Part of the problem is that a couple of weeks back, I followed a piece of writing advice that I normally avoid like it's poison.

"Just write.  Don't worry about it being good-- you can edit it later.   Just sit down and write."

Well, I did, and now I have a block of textual crap entitled "Chapter 13"-- or did until I excised that entire block of text like a tumor, dumped it into the slot labeled "Chapter 14" in case I needed to refer to it, and started over.  And since I did try to convince myself I could work with said textual crap, I wasted a lot of time with it.  I guess I could argue that the delay allowed me to refine the sequencing of certain events in Chapters 13 and 14, but I'd like to think I could have gotten there without writing junk text as a self-installed roadblock.

I'm sure that advice has its utility for professionals writing to deadline.  But in the case of someone writing for fun, it has always caused me more harm than good.  

-x-

Also, I did take an Eliwood/Fiora detour, but the junk-text issue was already ongoing when I wrote that.

-x-

Also, the squirrels have raided and feasted upon my carefully-planted canna lilies.  Evil little rodents.

Comments

[hooves.livejournal.com]

You clearly need cats. I'd be so pissed if my cannas (which...we dug up and the entire bucket of bulbs DISAPPEARED) were eaten by squirrels.

But never fear, squirrels stay the hell away from our property or they uhh end up with their head in the flower bed and the body by the front door. A gift, from my sister's indoor/outdoor cat. How lovely. At least they aren't creepin' 'round in my walls and chewing on wires. Those bastards are as bad as mice.

Also, the just write thing? Yeah, never, ever worked for me. I could BS stuff but if I REALLY couldn't get in the mood to write something? I'd get a bunch of textual crap myself.

[sailorvfan10.livejournal.com]

At least they aren't creepin' 'round in my walls and chewing on wires.
Back when we had the house, we had squirrels and God only knows what else creeping in the walls, scratching away. And then one day it stopped. I like to think ceiling!Wallace killed them and used them as fertilizer for his potato farm.

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

There is an outdoor cat in the neighborhood. He poops on my lawn. My own kitty is indoors-only, for his own sake.

My husband hates cannas. He swears he is not in league with the squirrels, but I think he pays them in walnuts. :/

[hooves.livejournal.com]

LOL

Our indoor/outdoor cat was a housecat that someone abandoned. One day he just strolled on in the house when someone opened the door. Now he's a 20lb fatty who will cry for hours to go in/out/in/out. We keep him in at night because years ago one of our cats was killed by coyotes the one night we didn't let her in. (July 4th so we were out past dark and yeah, we couldn't find her when we came home.)

Cannas are so pretty though. :( He might pay them in walnuts. Or birdseed, even.

Also, what is your kitty's name. You never talk about your kitty (or at least not much).

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

I grew up with cannas and like them. He thinks they're obscene.

My kitty is named LOLO, after the Adventures of LOLO. He is my adorable baby-- I have his picture on my phone, my desktop, etc. He just turned seven and looks a bit like your CiCi except with green eyes.

He likes mirrors.