%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 Well, not so much fun and leisure as...get some damn writing done, you fool! |
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A while ago, I attended a writers' workshop and the lady who hosted it told us all to go away with this bit of advice - to write for just ten minutes a day. I was determined to go ahead with it and I did...for two days. So today I remembered that I'd resolved to do so and I whipped out my journal and wrote for fifteen minutes. I'm typing out pretty much the same thing that I wrote earlier, with some differences. I find I can go a lot more in-depth when I'm typing than when I'm writing by hand. Writing by hand is such a chore! I've struggled with loneliness a lot throughout my twenty-nine years. I struggled with it when I was the only one home with my mum when I was a teen and everybody else had other places to be. I struggled with it after marriage and when we moved into our own house for the first time. I struggled with it after my son was born and I felt torn between pursuing my writing and being a good mum, because my culture seems to indicate that a woman has absolutely no chance of living her own life - or at least, she has no chance of attaining any goals she hasn't already attained - once she has children. I feel it occasionally still, even though I get so little time to myself nowadays that any alone time is simply awesome. I've tried to come to terms with the idea that being alone isn't a bad thing - and a lot of the time, it isn't. My friends don't live nearby so I don't get to see them often, and even when I do, I feel like there isn't much depth to our conversations. I'm surrounded by people who do not think like me, who do not share any of my interests and hobbies. I feel like I've become desensitised to isolation. Loneliness is my preferred way to be. I walked into my college cafeteria at lunch today and it was the usual hubbub of activity. Youngsters walking around, chatting animatedly, shouting across the room, laughing, eating, socialising. I could recall how that clamour wouldn't have bothered me ten-twelve years ago, when I would have been one of the youngsters talking excitedly with her friends. But, as this moment, I just found an out-of-the-way little table and sat down. I watched the crowds for a while, wondering why it was only at moments like these that the sense of isolation became so strong. In the middle of a crowd, I feel most alone. |
| 06:55 I finished the mermaid story! Yay! It was completed sooner than I was expecting. I hadn't realised but it's been just over a month. Not bad, considering it took me about a month to write the original and this version had a lot more thought put into it. I hate Google docs. It's final. I frickin' hate it! I went over my bedtime trying to finish the story off and Google was not helping by lagging like crazy. It takes ages for a lengthy document like a novel to load in GD, whereas you just need to take the page scroll button all the way down and hold it for a moment before it takes you down to the very last page. I tried to check word count and...I couldn't. I let it load for several minutes but the little loady circles were all I could see. I tried again now and same result! Ok, finally got it. 107 pages and 62818 words. Not bad! That's pretty much a standard novel, right? Now let me check the original. I'll probably have to wait ten years before I can see the word count on this too...Why, Google? Why? This is all stuff that's been saved previously so it's not like I'm asking you to pull it out of the ether! T_T Ah, here we go! 89 pages and 52047 words. Whoot! I feel so good about myself right now!  Now to condition my stupid brain to accept the fact that reading my work and making amendments is also part of the writing process... 07:06 ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
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