Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Totally Grounded

In case it isn't clear from my previous posts, I have a tendency to obsess about things. And that’s what my book has been to me, an obsession.

For the last ten months or so, my husband has been very supportive and understanding of the neurotic behavior that accompanies most of my creative endeavors. He’s listened to me ramble on and on about my characters and plot changes, and read countless first chapter revisions. He’s the first one to tell me how ridiculous I’m being when I start to get down on myself and my writing. Although, I still think his opinion might be a little biased. :) He’s tolerated dirty dishes and taken care of the kids when I’ve been obsessing over some scene. The man is definitely worth his weight in gold. However, even golden men can only take so much of the crazy lady writer wife.

My kids have been out of school for a month now, and all the things I promised to do once school was out are still sitting undone. And now that I’m pretty sure my manuscript is all shiny and ready for submissions, there really are no more excuses.

Nevertheless, my house is still a mess, and I can’t seem to stay away from the computer. I find myself obsessively checking my email every five minutes, because of course I might die if I don’t see that response from an agent as soon as it pops into my inbox. So, if I’m on the computer already, I might as well check out some blogs and go lurk over at QueryTracker. And it’s all downhill from there.

So now I’m grounded. The only writing related contact I’m allowed to have with my computer for the next week is this blog entry and checking my email. He swears he’ll take the power cord with him to work if I don’t comply, but I don’t see that happening. I usually get my way. But I will do my best to “be good” because I know he’s right. I need to get some structure back in my life, so maybe I can feel just a tiny bit saner. Don’t know if I could ever feel completely sane. :)

I’ll be back next Tuesday to report that I’ve gutted my kids’ rooms and sent the majority of their contents to Goodwill. My office will be completely de-cluttered and all my scrapbooking tools that have been neglected for the last year and a half will be on ebay making me lots of money. :) Well, that’s the plan anyway. Thanks all for stopping by. I’ll see you next week.

Quick side note: Holy crap, Hunger Games was so good! I stayed up until 3:00 last night reading it and finally had to make myself go to bed so I could get three hours of sleep for work. I couldn’t wait to get home today to read the last forty pages. As for the sequel… I may go crazy waiting.

11 comments:

  1. Good luck with the semi-unplugging! I totally hear you with the house-cleaning, vacuuming the house has been on my to-do list without actually being done for many many weeks now.

    I also had the same obsession problems with Hunger Games - I actually lost a full nights sleep over it, and I am also dying for the sequel!

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  2. It's so nice to hear that I'm not the only one who feels like they neglect things because of writing and all that goes with querying, blogging etc. I too am obsessed and feel your pain!

    I'm loving how your husband is making you unplug aside from the neccessary stuff. Good for you and good luck with the queries!

    I feel madly in love with The Hunger Games this month too...SO amazing!! One good thing about taking time away from the computer is the free time to read more.

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  3. Can your husband put me on a restriction, too? Seriously, I need one.

    So here it is: blogging = only during morning/afternoon hours. Evenings = other stuff. I'll tweak that later, maybe get more specific. I'm stressed out enough as it is by the kinda-sorta-not-really grounding I just gave myself. Eek!

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  4. My WIP isn't polished and pretty yet, but I'm grounding myself this weekend and taking a break from the obsession.

    Oh, and I keep hearing how great Hunger Games is and how much people want the sequel, so I'm putting off reading until the sequel is out in September. :)

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  5. That is awesome that you're doing that, Abby! I'll miss you on QT, but if you can still check your email, I'll survive ;). Lol.

    I've become a blog-reading crackhead, so I think I need to set some limits, too. We writers do tend to get a *bit* obsessive... yeah.

    I'm so glad Hunger Games kept you up, too!! Now we can all suffer together until Sept 1st, waiting for the sequel. Maybe we should start Hunger Games Anonymous to help cope? ;)

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  6. LOL, just wait until the next big game for Xbox comes out. Then we'll see who needs to be unplugged. ;)

    Should we form a Hunger Games support group?

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  7. ACK! Well, come back soon please. This is so sad. I hate housework!

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  8. Good luck with your grounding! I hope you get all your house stuff done so you can shorten your sentence.

    I'm with you on the Hunger Games. I was the same way! I just read The Mortal Instruments series this weekend... that's right... in a weekend! It was great and I couldn't put it down. You should think of using that for a distraction from the computer. I realized I hadn't checked my email in like 2 days when I was reading it... that is really saying something for me. I'm more of a 4-5 times a day person!

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  9. Good luck with getting all caught up. And wasn't The Hunger Games amazing? Yes, yes it was.

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  10. Sounds good to step back and recharge. Hopefully, balance will return!

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  11. Thanks all for your thoughts and support. I didn't get near as much done as I'd hoped I would, but I am officially back. Woo hoo!

    And TereLiz--don't knock the Xbox. It's allows me to write for hours, guilt-free. We LOVE the Xbox. :)

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