“The archers on the tower shrank back, their nerve broken. They fled, and the beleaguered councilmen sallied from the palace and hewed into them with joyous abandon. Pellian knights and men-at-arms sought safety in the streets, and the crowd tore them to pieces. In the streets the fighting milled and eddied, plumed helmets and steel caps tossed among the tousled heads and then vanished; swords hacked madly in a heaving forest of pikes, and over all rose the roar of the mob, shouts of acclaim mingling with screams of blood-lust and howls of agony. And high above all, the naked figure of the king rocked and swayed on the dizzy battlements, mighty arms brandished, roaring with gargantuan laughter that mocked all mobs and princes, even himself.”
— (Excerpt from The Scarlet Citadel, by Robert E. Howard)
There and Back Again
I just got back from vacation a few days ago. I’ve been on the road, traveling and visiting with my folks for the past couple of weeks. Since the Internet services at my Mom’s house was questionable at best (and nonexistent at my Grandmother’s house), my ability to blog was very limited. I tried blogging from my mobile device, and did manage to fire-off a short update, but it was awkward and cumbersome, even in the Blogger app. I’m sure many of you blog that way, but it’s not ideal for me. Generally, I write my blogs in Scrivener and then cut-and-paste them into my Blogger account on my PC. I brought my laptop and notebook with me during the trip because I knew I would have a lot of downtime and I wanted to stay in the habit of writing daily. I did manage to do some story-writing during the first couple of days, but my laptop started acting-up and crashing often; the dreaded “blue screen of death”. It got to the point where it was crashing every fifteen minutes or so — very frustrating! I had my notebook, and tried to continue writing in it, but I was too frustrated over my laptop failure to write. My Grandmother, bless her heart, offered me a solution and surprised me. She drove me to the computer store and told me to pick out a laptop and that she would buy it for me. Wow, completely unexpected. Thank you, Grandma — you’re the best! I now have an awesome laptop that I will strictly use only for writing. Scrivener is the only program I have loaded on it, so when I sit in front of it I can focus on writing (and nothing else) with minimal distractions. Fortunately, I have all my Scrivener files backed-up on a flash-drive attached to my car-keys. I always have my files backed-up and with me (and you should too). I enjoyed typing on my new laptop for the remainder of the trip. Now that I’m back, it’s just a matter of maintaining the habit of daily writing again. Writing these blog posts on a regular basis again will also help toward that goal. Here we are, Day 42 of 80; more than half way through the Second Round of ROW80. Are you halfway through your writing goal? Or are you a little behind, like me? The finish-line is closer than the starting-gate, so keep up the pace, everyone. We can all make up for lost time if we pace ourselves properly.
That’s all for now. Keep the Fire Burning!
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A new laptop is a lovely gift - but I'd want internet access on mine for all those searches I need to do without a lot of warning...in the last few months alone: absinthe, absinthe preparation, and those gorgeous, swoon-worthy absinthe spoons; opium use and overdose symptoms; congestive heart failure; transgender assignment surgery; Parkinson's disease, English to Japanese; cottonmouth moccasin and coral snake bites, the Kama Sutra, and, just a few hours ago, the name of that Orion woman Captain Archer took a shine to (her name is Navaar). And those are just the ones I remember!
ReplyDeleteI usually write my posts in LibreOffice, adding the links behind, then pretty things up and add my images and other bits in WordPress before posting. At some point, I could see setting up a Scrivener file to organize my many posts, but I generally don't type in Scrivener- it doesn't feel right, for reasons I don't know - I don't have any trouble editing in it...
As for goals, I'm pleased with where I am. Some things aren't where I'd like them to be; others are ahead, and that's pretty par for me. I focus less on the 80 day timeframe, and more on moving purposefully toward my goals, so no huge push for me to gather steam.
I do all my Internet research on my desktop PC, which has pretty-good anti-virus software installed on it. The "blue screen of death" has made me gun-shy about web-surfing on my new laptop right now. Maybe that will all change later in the year when my laptop isn't as "new" to me. It's kinda like driving a brand new car; you swear that you will never eat or drink inside it and that you'll wash and wax it every weekend. Six months later, you're driving your muddy "new car" through the junk-food drive-through, stuffing a super-burrito in your face. Familiarity changes our perceptions over time. For now though, I'm going to "baby" my new laptop.
DeleteSometimes laptops (and desktops) just go; sometimes it's a small flaw in the code that keeps them down and you need to uninstall some things to dig out the problem (sorry... years of doing PC support and working as an unofficial sys-admin at my son's school have worn off on me).
DeleteThe Blue Screen of Death rarely means the machine is truly "dead". It's usually an issue of something accessing a bit of memory that is starting to go bad. Laptop memory isn't that expensive either.
It's almost never a result of viruses. It can be, but that's the last thing I'd worry about causing it.
As long as you:
1) don't use Internet Explorer for your main browser
2) have your browser buffed up with a few basic things (Ad-Block Plus, WOT, etc. Spybot S&D's immunize feature is good, but don't have it scanning all the time)
3) have an one adequate real-time program running (Microsoft's Security Essentials, or Malwarebytes' Live Protection.... just one! Too many can slow your machine to a crawl)
You should be fine. My laptop just turned 9.5 years old yesterday. It's starting to show its age, but electronics do. I've had one virus on it in all that time, and I use it for everything.
The joys of computer issues.... Sorry you had to go through that, John. Getting through a few weeks without the familiar can be hard, but... it's actually probably the best thing that happened to your writing. We thrive on change as much as we desire pattern. As much as I love Scrivener... I would go mad with a laptop that had just that installed. You're a brave man.
ReplyDeleteYeah, computer issues are never fun. My last laptop has been pretty reliable up until a few months ago. I used it all during NaNoWriMo last November, mostly because I was traveling during Thanksgiving. I usually do most of my writing on my desktop PC, which is loaded with all sorts of programs. When I need to concentrate on writing, having too many "toys" in front of me can become an "attractive nuisance", especially when I'm resisting writing. A distraction-free laptop dedicated to writing forces me to be more disciplined. That's the idea, anyway. We'll see how it goes. I'm already considering installing Photoshop on my new laptop, so my strict stance may not last. Your right, getting out of my familiar comfort-zone has been good for me. Being a creature of habit, I felt I could only write effectively in front of my PC, but I discovered that writing while on the road has given me new ideas and a different perspective on my story-craft. I can write anywhere, especially now that I have a dedicated new laptop...
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