Saturday 23 May 2009

Cobwebs

Cate doesn’t write here anymore… Or to put it another way, my name is Cate and I have an internet problem.

A serious internet problem and I feel so guilty. I know many of you have children and finding the time to sit down and write is hard, well I have lots and lots and lots of time and I just waste it. When I’m sitting at my computer, my mental stream goes something like this…

“Open word, going to write today… Should just check blogs & LJ first… Now must check Twitter… Ooh, anything happening in any forums… Must check statcounter… God, I need to write… Open word… Ooh, meant to check Google groups… Anything happening on Twitter… Yay! Someone’s posted a blog… Twitter… Twitter… Twitter… Huh! How have two hours passed… Must do some writing… Open word, write two sentences… Oh, I need to research this bit… Research… Twitter… Forum… Blog… Stats… Twitter… Forum… Group… Twitter… Two more sentences… And repeat…”

I am going insane. It’s probably the equivalent of sitting in a room with twenty people talking to you all at once. Darn me, I even downloaded TweetDeck the other day so that I could manage Twitter. Not manage my writing, manage my tweets for Christsake. That’s bad. Soooooooo, and this was not my decision (I’m addicted remember) but a family one, I've bought a laptop. I've set myself up in the kitchen with no internet access and hopefully this means I'll write (or search the cupboard for food).

I’m not disappearing from the internet – good grief, no way José – but I’ll only be popping in for about half an hour when I finish work-work and then for another half hour or so (mentally I’m trying to up it to an hour even as I type) before I finish for the day. So an hour tops… That ‘thud’ was the sound of me fainting. You probably won’t even notice any less activity (twitter aside). If you’ve got any sense, you won’t even care… :)

17 comments:

Jamie Eyberg said...

I have a wireless router but It is slower than my normal feed so I just have it checking my e-mail account in the background. It does seem to help with the writing removing myself from the internet fray (as I sit here on the internet)

Cate Gardner said...

I was developing the attention span of a goldfish.. I was developing... Argh! Old joke, sorry. :)

Unknown said...

good luck w/ur addiction! your not the only one who's easily distracted. I think i need to cut off my internet access as well in order to write

Jameson T. Caine said...

I have the exact same problem.

Write one sentence - check blogs - check Twitter - check forums - check news sites - repeat.

Mary Rajotte said...

Another addict here. I literally have to disconnect from the wireless router if I want to get any work done. But I can still check Twitter on my cellphone :)

Cate Gardner said...

I think we should all cut down on our internet access for a month and see how we do... (Evil laugh. That way I won't feel like I'm missing out on something.)

Aaron Polson said...

I've tried to stick with my no 'net after seven PM rule...works most of the time. Good luck. The interweb is full of sparkly things--oooo--I've just found one...(line goes dead)

Katey said...

Yeah we all definitely have to find the right balance. Normally I'm good with the focus, but days when I'm not feeling the thing on which I'm supposed to be working... wow. Internet sparklies win.

Fingers crossed for the New Game Plan! Anything that gives us more Cate Writing cannot be bad.

Alan W. Davidson said...

I, too, am one of the huddled masses of "near-addicted". I do my drafting in my home office and send drawings back and forth to the "Corporate HQ" located thousands of miles away. The internet is near at hand, so tempting...anyhoo, I've got to run off and look for that sparkly thing Aaron was refering to. Good luck with that!

Jodi Lee (Morrighan) said...

I blame the freaky allure social networking has on us all.

Good luck avoiding its grasp!

BT said...

Just so true - and no way I can see of beating it.

I get on every day. I check blogs and groups, etc, first up and find a few hours have already gone.

Then I do something writing related. Most of the time...

Fox Lee said...

Having lots of time only overwhelms you with all the stuff you could do with it ; )

At least that's what I tell myself!

Felicity Dowker said...

I feel your pain. I have a full time job, a partner, two young children, *and* the exact same internet problems you're experiencing. I've decided to go cold turkey - this week I won't be doing anything on the internet at all. I'll check emails once briefly during my lunch break at work and that's it - no internet whatsoever for the whole week. I waste hours each night doing...I don't even know what. I could be writing in that time. So, here's to removing the cyber-drip and bringing back some focus!

...of course, I'll crash and burn on day one, but ya gotta try, right?

Cate Gardner said...

I had a feeling I wasn't alone. :) Sitting in bed with my laptop last night I felt very confident that I'm going to beat this thing... Or just spend my entire life attached to a keyboard.

Sophie Playle said...

Good luck with this! I tried to go cold turkey without the internet for a month, but that didn't work. I'm trying to cut down too...

(btw, my old blog was capulets-quill.blogspot.com and a while ago we linked to each other I think. This is my new blog.) :)

Cate Gardner said...

We did. Good to see you again, Sophie.

Barry Napier said...

Add to that list "endlessly updating and rearranging I-Tunes" and you have described my days as well.