3605 words left to write today for NaNoWriMo, when I shall reach the 50,000 word goal.
Last night, to avoid the distractions that attempting to write at home can result in, I went to a nearby mall. This mall has a huge food court, and one section is tucked out of the way of most foot traffic.
It was in this section that I parked myself and got to writing with my laptop. Sure, it's a bit close to the Christmas Train, but it's still a good spot.
Even with the two (likely) drug dealers sitting near me and jumping up and down every 1.5 minutes to use the pay phones, it's still a good spot.
I was getting some good flow going, I was into it, my muse was whispering a steady rapid-fire stream of passable prose directly into my ear as fast as I could type it...
And this happened:
Last night, to avoid the distractions that attempting to write at home can result in, I went to a nearby mall. This mall has a huge food court, and one section is tucked out of the way of most foot traffic.
It was in this section that I parked myself and got to writing with my laptop. Sure, it's a bit close to the Christmas Train, but it's still a good spot.
Even with the two (likely) drug dealers sitting near me and jumping up and down every 1.5 minutes to use the pay phones, it's still a good spot.
I was getting some good flow going, I was into it, my muse was whispering a steady rapid-fire stream of passable prose directly into my ear as fast as I could type it...
And this happened:
In case you don't see the pic, it's the Blue Screen of SNAFU. Like the Blue Screen of Death but different. This one is darker and more malevolent.
If I was any less of a man, I woulda cried.
If I was any more of a man, I woulda kicked someone. Anyone.
The laptop was completely unresponsive. So I grabbed my stuff and I left.
Damn damn damn.
I forgot in the food court the comfy seating cushion I'd brought with me from home (don't snicker, them chairs is hard metal) and didn't realize it until I was in the car. Ugh. I didn't go back for it.
I got the laptop home and performed some triage. I persuaded it to reboot, and it turns out I lost virtually nothing. Perhaps two words and a quotation mark. I was fearing everything from a forever dead laptop to a corrupted and unreadable Word doc.
Since Nov 1st, I've been obsessively backing up the NaNoWriMo novel every few hours (no, not while sleeping) so at worst, I would lose a couple hours worth of work. I lost nothing!
Big sigh of relief!
So yeah, 3605 words left... Tired though.. So....Very....Tired....I wonder how many words I would gain if I did a Find/Replace for all contractions, converting them all two their full two-word form. Hmn...
Tempting, but no. I'd have to go back and fix it later.
You're one of those people who can concentrate in the noisy confusion. I should be so lucky.
ReplyDeleteI did the same thing when my laptop died (and I mean died, completely). My book was on it, and I'd lost all of it (about 125,000 words).
ReplyDeleteAbout two weeks later, I found a copy on a floppy I forgot I'd made. I'd lost about 20,000 words, but it was better than losing 125,000
You did not bring a cushion.
ReplyDeleteNo.
This is not the man I imagine (ok, well, it is kindof). :-)
I would have FREAKED. That my friend is one whacked out snippet of what it means to be an American writer I'm sure . . .
what am I saying? what am I saying? i dunno if the new drugs are helping or not . . .
hope you made it--let us all know!
a cushion?
ReplyDeleteDamn right, a cushion. That's what these here opposable thumbs are for, modifying my environment to suit my whim.
ReplyDeleteI got something like that TWICE the other day when I tried to install a crappy Belkin USB 2 card. The bloody thing just didn't want to play and ended up being sent back to Amazon. (Got a D-link one that works like a dream instead).
ReplyDeleteAt least I knew what the cause of my blue screens of death was and I could do something about. Importantly, apart from my photos (that are backed up onto a second hard drive), I don't have much of any importance on my machine here anyway.
I bet you crapped yourself!