Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Sequestered in Memphis Kentucky





So last weekend I attended my husband's family reunion where I learned something very important:

My penchant for time wasting is far worse than I thought.

Seriously.

You see, last year I didn't attend the reunion because I was on deadline for CRUEL SUMMER. So while my husband jetted off, I stayed home and worked on my manuscript. Well this year, it was pretty much the same scenario, and I realized that if my career continues to go in the way that I hope, I will pretty much always be on deadline. And so I packed up my laptop and headed to Kentucky (the half-way meeting spot between the Nashville relatives and the Chicago ones), with a goal of writing 2000 words a day.

But what I ended up with was 3000 words a day--3000 words in the same amount of time that it usually takes me to write half of that.

And the reason for this sudden burst of speed typing?

There was no internet access.

None. Nada. Zilch.

Which also meant, there was no obsessive checking of my e-mail accounts, no blog hopping, no screen shopping, no staying "up to the minute" informed on all manner of late breaking celebrity news.

Instead it was just me and my story, and I made so much progress I was forced to realize just how much time I usually waste tooling around the internet under the guise of "research."

Or is it a waste?

Because by the time I returned home and logged in, I was greeted with hundreds of e-mails, and I'm now so backlogged it'll take days to catch up. And while I can't guarantee I'd ever willingly go cold turkey like that again, it's nice to know what I'm capable of when there's nothing around to distract me.

What about you? What's your favorite time waster?

5 comments:

Keri Mikulski said...

I'm as guilty as you are. In fact, I'm kind of nervous because I'm teaching a summer session starting Monday and I'm also on a ms deadline. Now, this should be no problem, but I'm wondering, how and when will I fit in blog surfing, googling, emails, MySpace, and Perez. :) But, it's research, right? :)

Anonymous said...

Electronic Sudoku. Can totally kill an entire afternoon playing that.

Alyson Noel said...

Keri- Absolutely,it's research! Especially Perez!

Hey Amy- That sounds like it has the potential for tremendous time wasting, which means I'm very intrigued!

Unknown said...

I'm with you. I've spent the entire day responding to emails, blogging, commenting on blogs, making new MySpace friends and,um...that's about it. OY. I'm just glad I gave up on Facebook Scramble. That was pretty much sucking up any remaining dregs of time I had left. MUST. GO. WRITE. (But this IS writing, right?) xo

Alyson Noel said...

Alexa- Oh yes, it definitely counts as writing!