T is for... Time Wasters

Damm You Arthus.. I want those years back! *shakes fist* 

Time wasters.. when it comes to wasting time, I'm twinked out. I am the king of finding things to do instead of what I'm supposed to do.

My first vice.. video games.  I was introduced to World of Warcraft by a brother in law in October 2006. I was a subscriber for the next 4.5 years.  I can't count the hours I put into the game, but it's probably a good chunk of time.. a real big chunk of time.

I didn't just play, I did outline some ideas, do some research for story ideas.. I wasn't completely obsessed.. but for a while there I was close.  I'm just over a year removed from the clutches of the gaming world.. and I'm doing surprisingly well. I'm not really that tempted to get the new expansion for WOW, or Diablo III that releases in less than a month.. but I do occasionally feel a stirring to make a new 'tank'.. or perhaps twink out my Shadow Priest.. I think I'll always be an addict, as the saying goes.

But it's not just WOW.. I'm a Civilization nut as well.. first time I found the game it wasn't the PC version, it was on the original Nintendo, and I pulled an all-nighter playing it till I won. Took me around 14 hours of straight playing and by the end my eyes were literally so blurry I had to squint to read the text on the TV.. and I loved every minute. Since then I've always had my 'Civ time warp' where I simply lost a month here or there to oversaturated playing.  I've gone so far as to break the game discs, and I've deleted Civ5 off my harddrive 3 times now. Still seems to find a way to sneak back on when I'm not looking.

My second time waster isn't really that much of a waster.. but it has the same result for me.  Reading.  Now don't get me wrong.. I love to read, I am a voracious reader.. in fact I dropped over $50.00 on new books from Amazon just this morning.  But.. I have to pick and choose my reading times, because if I try to read while I'm working on a book, I'm done.  I'm the kind of reader that really delves into a story.. I don't just read and see a story.. I read and live the story. I don't even really notice if the writing is good/bad.. I have to go back through and reread with a critical eye to see that part.. but my first reading is for pure enjoyment. I just love stories.. I love to get caught up in a story, I love the suspense, the anticipation.. to me there's no better feeling than to wake up and immediately wonder what a character is going to do and how the author it going to get them out of a jam.. I just love stories.

I always, without fail, reread every book I read.. I take some time, usually I read a different book in between, then I go back and read with a writer's eye on how the author accomplishes their writing successfully, or how they struggle. This is why I never read a book review before my first reading, because I don't want anything to get in the way of the pure enjoyment of the story.

I've read some books that were just horribly written.. I mean really.. embarrassingly bad.. yet I liked the first reading because of the inventive story-line, or the unique characters or situations.. I've got one really good example of that.. but I won't 'out' the author simply because it would accomplish nothing, and when I am published one day soon.. I don't want karma to come around and bite me in the Tookus.

My last time waster is probably the one I struggle with the most at this stage in my live.

I hate to clean the house. Period.  End. I'd pretty much rather clip all my fingernails too close to my skin, and then try to open an aluminum can of pop than wash dishes or vacuum.. HOWEVER.. give me a night to write, take the kids out of the house even.. and rather than write, I'll spend 3 straight hours cleaning.

It's not that I don't want to write.. it's just that I've created this myth in my mind that I can't write if everything in the house isn't perfect. My office has to be spotless, it has to be totally silent.. all excuses.  I know that, I'm intelligent to spot them for what they are, but it doesn't lessen their impact on me.

I'm working to overcome this.. to get at the heart of the problem.. I know it's not that I"m really a clean freak.. anyone that's ever visited my house knows that's not the case. ;)  I think it's more likely an apprehension and doubt cocktail that I've just got to break through.. as of yet I'm still struggling with it, but I'll get past it.

Eventually.


I hope.

Comments

  1. I've started listening to a lot of audiobooks so I can "read" while I drive, clean, and fart around on the internet. The internet is my time waster. Some of it's even productive, but still so time consuming.

    Laura Barnes @ LauraBWriter

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hear you about the cleaning - I think the problem is that cleaning, for the most part, has a beginning and an end and has tangible results. Sometimes, writing doesn't give us that.

    Happy A-Z!

    ReplyDelete
  3. *gasp* You're a GAMER???? LOL. I've never been into games--well, I did have a thing for Myst when that first came out. I never did beat it ;)

    And you better learn to write with having the house dirty! You. Have. Five. Kids. It's never going to be spotless! ;)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment