Dr. Evil Meme
I used to be able to write nonstop for hours. Then my fingers got old, my mind got wander-y, and my energy simply didn’t hold up like it used to. I’m not talking about the brief moment where you flex the fingers or have to make a mad dash to the bathroom because your bladder has had enough with ‘one more paragraph’. (And people wonder why I don’t work outside of the house.) I’m talking about a point where you can pause and let your mind gather itself for another marathon. This could be a chapter, chapter section, or anything that has an end to it.
I do a 10-15 minute break between chapter sections when writing and sometimes when editing. With editing, I try to push to the end of a chapter before I take a break. It really depends on how long it’s taking. The challenge is that I know it’s a bad idea to toss on a TV show since those typically run 30-60 minutes. That’s if I stop at one. So, where do I go to relax?
I’m betting you guys thought I was lying about that on Monday. There are a handful of video series that I just grab random episodes from to relax and get a good laugh. I never get bored of these things for some reason:
- Zero Punctuation– These are highly entertaining video game reviews that I must have watched 2-3 times each.
- Jimquisition– I watch this through The Escapist and it’s about video game opinions, news . . . whatever. I fell out of gaming a while ago, so these two sites tend to keep me somewhat knowledgeable of what’s happening.
- Honest Trailers– This is a fairly new one to me and it basically makes fun of movies.
- Warp Zone– I just like the skits and music videos these guys do . . . which is pretty much everything.
So I just randomly group a few of those videos to watch while I relax and think about the next section I have to write/edit. Do you do anything like this or is straight writing until slumber?
Legends of Windemere 
yes, I spend a lot of time fossicking about on Youtube, and looking at stuff in my reader…hey, what am I doing here?
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That Reader is a time killer. Seems to always be moving.
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Always something new to look at, and before you know it, hours have gone by and you’ve done nothing. Except fill your brain with new stuff.
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Usually, I bring my writing gear with me, to the bathroom, for those mad dashes and keep writing while there. Yes, this does look odd if it isn’t at home. Sometimes, it looks odd while at home. If I’m taking a break between writing, and not a sleep-orientated break (sleeping is an unfortunate break from writing), I usually listen to music, but sometimes I’ll check out short videos too. My attention span does better with music for whatever reason.
Zero Punctuation and Honest Trailers are great. Off the top of my head, I like drunken tech review, epic rap battles… uh… random cat videos, of course.
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I couldn’t get into the epic rap battles for some reason. I tried, but I kept wandering off after a minute.
I do the bathroom thing at home, but I’ve never been able to do that anywhere else. Mostly because I’m thinking of public restrooms and I’m not brave enough to try that. It probably doesn’t help that the majority of the actual book writing is on a laptop.
I always have music playing while writing. I can’t focus too well in total silence or when people are talking around me.
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So… you’re basically saying that your mind has been wandering a lot lately, and you don’t want others to do any writing in the meantime. Therefore, you’re passing on youtube links in the hope that our minds will soon wander, too.
A cunning plan, m’lord, but I’m on to you. That’ll never happen to me! Never!
Ooh, look at pretty kitty…
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Or maybe I’m trying to distract all my followers while I take a nap or catch up on editing. Nah, more than likely I’m not up to anything sinister . . . or is that just something a mastermind would say?
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What Nicholas said… 😀
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That kitty sure is getting around.
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Taking a break to do e-mails and Twitter doesn’t seem like a break but it’s the best I’ve got.
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I know how that feels. It’s like a break from work to do other work.
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I equate it to working in a coal mine as a digger and then taking a break to work as a loader.
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Do we count sleep as a break?
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If it is dark like a coal mine, yes.
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Dang. We use a nightlight in case the kid wakes up and comes into the room. Guess it doesn’t count then.
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Reblogged this on Kentucky Mountain Girl News and commented:
KMGN: This post made me smile.
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I’m a stare off into space sort…music vudeos are a must.
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Gotta love space. That or ceiling fans.
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Yes. Exactly.
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excellent. taking a walk, movies, occasional t.v. (currently watching a mega series called Davinci’s Demons, highly recommend it) and reading for me.
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By walk, you mean . . . going to the fridge? 🙂 Da Vinci’s Demons is a book or a TV show? I’ve been watching a TV show with that name since it debuted a year or two ago.
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the tv series, I loaded it from sky and am halfway through season two. very cool
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Definitely. Though I wish they’d do more than one season per year.
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