Subdivided time
Aug. 7th, 2003 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
The trouble with the half-hour lunch breaks I take now is that the time is parcelled up into such small units it's hard for me to motivate myself to use them effectively. I spend about twelve minutes eating lunch, another few minutes logging into LiveJournal and looking at comments I've received, or reading an entry or two from my friends list -- and then I only have ten minutes left.
I am not, thank goodness, one of those writers who needs absolute silence and several hours of uninterrupted concentration in order to get anything useful written. But I find that, unless I'm really inspired, I won't just launch into writing a story in an available ten-minute interval. I want to be able to sit down and see some time stretching out before me, and unhurriedly start writing. Half an hour is usually enough time for me to feel mildly producive. Ten minutes isn't enough time for me to even psyche myself up to doing some writing. I look at the clock and think, "By the time I'm mentally prepared for this, I'll have to go back to work."
I don't know if that's really true or not, though. When I was inspired by Silver Scales, I used to jot down three or four paragraphs in that ten or fifteen minute interval. It's almost like there's some Can't-Do force standing between me and my muse, telling me "Don't bother, don't try, don't even think about it." Hmph.
Back to work.
I am not, thank goodness, one of those writers who needs absolute silence and several hours of uninterrupted concentration in order to get anything useful written. But I find that, unless I'm really inspired, I won't just launch into writing a story in an available ten-minute interval. I want to be able to sit down and see some time stretching out before me, and unhurriedly start writing. Half an hour is usually enough time for me to feel mildly producive. Ten minutes isn't enough time for me to even psyche myself up to doing some writing. I look at the clock and think, "By the time I'm mentally prepared for this, I'll have to go back to work."
I don't know if that's really true or not, though. When I was inspired by Silver Scales, I used to jot down three or four paragraphs in that ten or fifteen minute interval. It's almost like there's some Can't-Do force standing between me and my muse, telling me "Don't bother, don't try, don't even think about it." Hmph.
Back to work.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-07 09:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-07 11:38 am (UTC)I'm a bit behind on my journal-reading overall, though, so I expect I'll wait until I get home.
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Date: 2003-08-07 11:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-07 09:55 am (UTC)Look at getting a cheap laptop for writing - a P133 Thinkpad 760EL can be had for ~120$ and is just fine for wordprocessing.
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Date: 2003-08-07 10:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-07 11:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-07 11:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-07 11:34 am (UTC)On the other hand, Thinkpads *do* have good keyboards, so maybe I should look into it again. Are there reputable stores online to order old laptops from, or would I be better off scouring ebay or local computer shops?
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Date: 2003-08-07 12:03 pm (UTC)I've bought one from Ebay though. Make sure it has a CD, 2 gig drive, battery, charger, no cracks on display and 64Meg of Ram. You can get any of these components on Ebay if you want to build a box though. 760EL/ED is a P133 machine with 800x600 display. 760XD/XL is a P166 machine with 1024x768 display. All the components in all the 760 family are interchangible with the exception of the screens. XD and ED have optional video out for using large screen tvs as displays, though I've never used it.
for example, I run a thinkpad 760XD running win98se, winamp and Word2000. Plenty of processor power for that and my starmaps besides.
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Date: 2003-08-07 01:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-07 10:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-07 11:37 am (UTC)