I admit up front that I started this topic because I wanted to tell a story.
So, what's distracting you right now? Kids, pets, great TV show, phone calls, work, homework, etc.? (Note: 'the forums' is a given if you're reading this!) Funny story? Want to complain? Share below.
So here's the story that was the inspiration for this oh-so-important thread. I mentioned this in the chat a few minutes ago, before it became hilarious, but I'm on the couch at home and my puppy was sitting in my lap and playing with a toy. Let me introduce you more thoroughly to my pup: she's almost six months old and is named Pooka (Irish "mischievious sprite"). She's a mix between a poodle and a soft-coated Wheaton terrier that apparently goes by the amusing name of 'Woodle." Here's a pic if you're interested. Pic is about four months old, so she's three times as large and a lot floofier now. Yeah, she's adorable and yeah I'm showing her off.
So, she was chewing on a toy and I was trying to reach around her to my laptop on a side table and all was good with the world, if not with my typing speed. Then she started drifting off to sleep and wiggling around, and then BAM she rolled off onto the floor. She was pretty startled but not hurt, but I was badly distracted by needing to point and laugh at her for the next several minutes. Just when I got settled back into my writing, she indicated she wanted to go out. Sigh . . . shuffle shuffle . . . brr, cold outside now . . . shuffle shuffle . . . back to writing. Oh wait, I'm still cold . . . need a blanket. Oh hey, Pooka went into the kitchen and made a crashing noise - I should probably go check that out.
And now that she finally passed out on the floor and I'm free to get back to my novel? Naturally, I feel compelled to share this on the forum.
Happy writing and good luck staying focused!
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41,114 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 08 25
That is funny. We laugh like idiots when our cats do the same thing, as long as it's not us they are clawing in desparation as they wake up halfway down!
My distraction - lack of energy. Must be the early nights and short sunshiney days. Maybe I should take stock in a few Monsters!
----------Dana
"This is a lot more fun when they're not shooting back!"
Spokane, WA - Municipal Liaison
46,700 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 11 56
My biggest distraction is my husband. He seems to know when I need to focus and chooses then to pick a fight. Rawr.
52,555 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 12 11
My biggest distraction will be my granddaughter. She just doesn't understand why I don't have as much time to play with her.
Myra is also doing the Young Writers version of NaNo, but at not-quite 4, "writing" means that she tells me her story and I transcribe it for her. She has, however, instructed me to use specific letters in her story. "Put an R there, Grandma, right by where I told you about the frog."
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Samantha
Spokane, WA - Municipal Liaison (2003-2009)
Age Group: 50-Plus - Moderator
36,649 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 16 28
My distraction might not be as cute as a puppy or a kitten or a child, but I'm pretty fond of him. ;)
As I've mention off hand, Zach and I started dated very shortly before NaNo (our first date was Oct 20th actually!). So needless to say, this newly forming zygote of a relationship-shaped thing can be a little distracting while I'm trying to write!
Last night, after the Rocket write-in, he talked me into coming over and hanging out. We went for a night walk around the neighborhood and it was both sweet and oddly inspiring for my novel.
So yeah, at the moment, a boy is highly distracting to me. :P
----------41,114 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 16 41
I've got two of 'em. Boys that is (my husband counts as one), so I completely understand. Somehow I thought getting them involved would help with that issue, but guess not! =) Soldier on!
Can I add? This website is distracting me. All these threads begging to be answered, NaNoMails waiting for my response, new and nifty Front Page items! =) Oh! and work! Work is distracting me too! ::sigh:: I'm sure I can think of a few more things...
----------Dana
"This is a lot more fun when they're not shooting back!"
Spokane, WA - Municipal Liaison
39,039 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 22 07
My lack of bubblegum is distracting me...have discovered I write best when continuously chomping on cheap bubblegum. But we ran out of leftover Halloween candy...wah...
My husband's brother calling...(I ignored the phone)...
My sudden need for naps...
Having to go back to work tomorrow--would much rather stay home and Nano!
39,039 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 22 07
My lack of bubblegum is distracting me...have discovered I write best when continuously chomping on cheap bubblegum. But we ran out of leftover Halloween candy...wah...
My husband's brother calling...(I ignored the phone)...
My sudden need for naps...
Having to go back to work tomorrow--would much rather stay home and Nano!
24,412 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 22 56
Its just so cold.
----------SWIMMING TO COLORADO 2008
INCOHERENT FEET 2007 (won)
MORONIC HANDS 2006 (won)
RUDE HAIR 2005 (won)
24,412 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 23 18
Oh mine too - maybe we should tie their tails together.
----------SWIMMING TO COLORADO 2008
INCOHERENT FEET 2007 (won)
MORONIC HANDS 2006 (won)
RUDE HAIR 2005 (won)
33,334 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 10 56
Right now, food is distracting me. Good thing I stocked up on ramen yesterday! Later, spanish homework will beg to be completed (and I have a test friday morning, ugh!), and even later I need to make phone calls to family to let them know that yes, I'm still alive and no, I haven't been avoiding them and YES I REALLY DON'T HAVE TIME TO DO ANYTHING RIGHT NOW. Geez.
I wish I had my puppy to distract me (she's seven but I still call her my puppy), but she's at home harassing my parents. I could use a chubby chihuahua on my lap right now, begging for attention instead of me being glued to the computer.
----------Nano 06: Butterfly (Incomplete)
Nano 07: The Doppelgangers (won!)
Nano 08: The Assistant (Incomplete)
Nano 09: Chasing Horizons (?)
6,133 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 19 20
My inner editor is distracting me. After that: Life in general. But I'll get my novel written this month... even if I still do'nt know what I'm writing.
----------Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn’t look up. Well, maybe once.
- Isaac Asimov
13,257 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 19 55
I really fee you about that inner editor. I've decided not to even spell check until I'm past 25,000 words because everytime I go back to correct a spelling error, I end up rewriting a whole sentence.
6,674 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 04 12
Work! Evil, evil work! And society, for making us have to work so we can have money so we can afford stuff like housing and food and computers etc etc etc.!
It really went beyond the norm Tuesday night/ Wednesday morning though. I work a swing shift, where I start at 4pm and get off when the morning person gets in to take over, usually around 2:30am (The bright side to this crazy schedule is that, working 4 tens, I do get three day weekend every week. Huzzah!) Except for the aforementioned time, though, as he called in sick, and I found myself stuck at work unti a little past 5am... which killed by window for writing that night too. Sigh. Ah well, gotta shake it off and work my way back to being on pace. Thank goodness there's still plenty of time to make it back up.
41,114 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 09 32
Lots and lots of time to catchup! As I keep reminding folks, if you find you are not quite where you want to be wordcount-wise, there is the All-Nighter to look forward to! It's been known to spawn 10,000 words before. =) That doesn't mean you can slack off though. Keep at it, bit by bit, and you'll reach your goal. =)
----------Dana
"This is a lot more fun when they're not shooting back!"
Spokane, WA - Municipal Liaison
24,412 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 10 09
Don't be afraid of spelkl check - word count comes from the durnedest places.
----------SWIMMING TO COLORADO 2008
INCOHERENT FEET 2007 (won)
MORONIC HANDS 2006 (won)
RUDE HAIR 2005 (won)
46,700 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 11 12
I find that if I make a spelling error I simply cross out that word and write it correctly. Then it counts as two words (but it has to be a genuine mistake! You can't go around writing the wrong word and just crossing it out until you've upped your word count enough). And I hand-write, so that makes it a bit easier to do that.
20,721 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 20 06
The only thing that seems to distract me is homework. If I didn't have to do homework, I'd be typing the majority of the day.
----------“A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.”---Denis Waitley
30,324 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 09 37
Today my distraction is my puppy, Pooka, again, but for a different reason. She got spayed and microchipped yesterday and she's still dopey on painkillers. I have to keep telling her to leave her stitches alone about every 5 minutes. Poor thing! I bought her a really soft teddy bear toy because I felt bad for her, and she's snuggling it right now. :)
Also, I took yesterday off from writing because when I woke up, my eyes hurt so bad. It felt the same way as after I've been pulling a couple all-nighters in a row or something like that. I wear contacts normally and I kept them out for most of yesterday and stayed away from electronic screens. Today I'm just wearing my glasses for now, but I've got to get back to my novel and make up for yesterday! C'mon eyes, cooperate!
----------36,649 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 09 49
My sudden creation of a life seems to be distracting me. I swear, 11 months out of the year I'm like a hermit, and then suddenly I need to put my nose to the keyboard and work and my friends start wanting to hang out and do things! Craziness.
Last night while you guys were at the write-in I was at a friend's house doing it virtually. That was my way of multitasking. It sort of worked, because I was hanging out talking to her and catching up on stuff, and getting some wordcount in as well. But I would have been more on task if I'd been at the write-in in person. Gah.
There is also the fact that I'm working on two computers at the moment, the Desktop of Doom and my sweet lil Netbook of Love. I've been doing all of my writing on the netbook, but the desktop has permanent internet access, whereas the netbook only gets wifi where it's available so.... yeah. Sometimes I get on the desktop to get on here and want to post an excerpt but I can't because it's not on this computer! *headdesk*
----------41,114 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 09 52
Two words for you Roselyn - Thumb Drive! =) Keep your work saved on the thumb drive and then it won't matter which computer you are on, you'll always have your excert when you need it! Oh, and back up that Thumb Drive too!
----------Dana
"This is a lot more fun when they're not shooting back!"
Spokane, WA - Municipal Liaison
52,555 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 10 34
And I'll add my own two words to Dana's -- Google Docs! Admittedly, those docs aren't available unless you have internet access, but all of our write-ins offer free wifi.
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Samantha
Spokane, WA - Municipal Liaison (2003-2009)
Age Group: 50-Plus - Moderator
600 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 14 04
I tried my very best to buy a condo and get settled before November, but four deals fell through. Now that it's time to write, I'm closing on deal number five and moving. Ugh. I hope to get started sometime next week and write like crazy to catch up.
52,555 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 14 07
Welcome back! We missed you at the Service Station last night, and I was afraid you'd decided to sit this November out. Too bad about the move in mid-November. I'd offer to help but ... um ... I think I'm busy that day. :-)
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Samantha
Spokane, WA - Municipal Liaison (2003-2009)
Age Group: 50-Plus - Moderator
42,242 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 08 30
Hubby and I adopted a new dog on Monday and have a 5 month old puppy... and my hands are killing me more than usual so it's making it hard to write.
Anyone have any suggestions for voice recognition software that works great on the mac? *grin*
25,134 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 18 42
Wikipedia - it is EVOL! I'm having to look up prayers in Latin for my story, and when I do my searches, Wikipedia usually comes up first. It's given me quite a bit of info and probably saved me time, but then it eats all the time it saved and more with the little links that are everywhere in its articles. I read, think 'oooh, that's interesting, I should use that', click, and repeat. Two or three hours later, I realize that the 'quick research' I wanted to get done has just taken up a HUGE CHUNK of my writing time!
Add in the kidlet wanting his word count updated every 10 minutes, the sudden calls from friends who don't seem to know what 'no social life in the month of November' means, and the stress factor of starting a new job on Monday, and I'm lucky I haven't just curled up in a ball in the corner so far.
33,805 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 19 08
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v610/katerkat/c4cbc2c8.jpg
I find it difficult to write words like, um, difficult. ;-)
And that's not even the #*^$@Q(*^ cat that's constipated and making me follow him to the litterbox 600 times a day. Why on earth are cats considered muses for writers?
6,133 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 20 09
katerkat: I have a keyboard warmer too :) She gets jealous whenever I'm doing something not related to her. Re: type on keyboard: She has to be there, walking or napping. Talk on cell phone? She tries her best to squeeze between my ear and the phone. (and if for some reason she's not *right there*... she's doing something else to get in trouble or drive me nuts or both).
----------Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn’t look up. Well, maybe once.
- Isaac Asimov
41,114 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 12 13
LOL thanks for the pic. I needed a good laugh! He looks so happy about it too!
----------Dana
"This is a lot more fun when they're not shooting back!"
Spokane, WA - Municipal Liaison
33,805 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2009 - 12 20
Well, the idiot cat turned out to be having issues with #1, not #2. So now he has some good drugs and I don't have to check the litterbox constantly!
Of course, I lost a full week going to a funeral. I'm catching up...
Got home and my laptop died. Luckily not with any of my actual novel, but with my entire outline. Luckily my husband has a spare laptop, but it runs Word 2007 which I hate!
36,649 / 50,000
Nov 14, 2009 - 18 05
This is distracting me, now it can distract you!
http://speedtest.10-fast-fingers.com/
See how fast you can type the most common words in the English language. Lots of fun. I get between 63-65 nowadays. I used to type much faster when I was all ten fingered. ;)
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