Monday, May 22, 2006

Blinking cursor of death

Is anyone else addicted to blogs besides me? This is a fairly new phenomenon to me, but I'm really enjoying it. I've heard about and read blogs for a while now, but never thought of doing one of my own. If you've read my blog since the beginning, you know that the fact that I have one can be attributed to Cherry Red, right? She's got a great blog over at cherryredwriter.blogspot.com . I wanted to comment one night, and couldn't without a blogger id. In the process of getting an id, I signed myself up for a blog. Now, I can't seem to stay away from here.

Blogger is a fun place to be when I'm on the computer. Many times, when my blinking cursor of death is trying to suck the very life right out of me, I close down the WIP and head to my blog. After I read through any new comments, I head over to some of my friend's blogs. I like to leave comments for them, for a few different reasons. First of all, if they've said something that I can relate to, or something that has really touched me, I want them to know it. Second, it gets kind of lonely in blog-land sometimes. The only way you know that you're reaching people is if they leave a comment. Often, the only thing that makes me want to make another blog post is because of encouragement that I've received from comments. I like to return the favor and comment when I can.

I've asked Shane to write a program that replaces my blinking cursor of death with a heart. He laughed when I asked him to do that. After I explained why, he understood. See, writing is a LOT harder than I thought it would be. I might have mentioned this already, maybe once or nine times. I've always liked to write. I've always felt compelled to write. Often, I'll write short stories, or poems, for myself or friends. I've written long letters that I still have, just because it's so often easier for me to express myself on paper than in voice. But writing, a story that may eventually be sold??? Yeah, that's nothing but work. With a capital W.

Recently, I got stalled in my WIP by the blinking cursor of death. I call it that because the damn blinking basically kills any creative impulse that may have been mulling around inside of me. Don't confuse this with writer's block, I don't think they are the same thing. With my current story, I know the characters. I know basically what is going to happen. There are details, many details, that I don't know yet. There are some conflicts that I haven't totally resolved. But the story is there, in my mind. The trouble is, I can't always get it onto my screen the way I want it. I was introducing a new character, and I knew all about her. I knew her age, what she looked like, how she dressed, her likes and dislikes, her fears, what part she played in the story. I HAD this girl down. Except her name. I just wasn't sure what her name was yet. I knew that it would come to me, and it would be perfect, but I hadn't figured it out yet. I wrote around that for a bit, but then I just couldn't anymore. When the main character needed to speak to her directly, it seemed imperative that I have her be addressed by name. A placeholder just wouldn't do. So there my story sat, for DAYS, with that damn BCOD just mocking me. That's when I came up with the idea to replace the cursor with a heart. If I had a blinking heart there, maybe I would feel the luuuuv instead of feeling that OpenOffice was laughing at me. See my dilemma?

She has a name now, by the way. It's a great name. It's nothing crazy, or wacky. It's not unusual, or funky. It's a name. But it fits her. I like it. It may change before I'm done, but I doubt it. The name seems just right. And the story is moving along quite nicely, thankyouverymuch.

Screw that damn blinking cursor! But if anyone figures out how to turn the BCOD into a heart, let me know, will ya?

13 comments:

Kel~ said...

here's something that I want you to write about....describe to me what it tastes like to bite into a fresh BarBQue Middlesworth chip...if you get props for it, I will bring you a case this weekend.

dee said...

Ugh!
Ok, I'm counting on someone out there to applaud my efforts.
I will attempt this later this evening. I have to go cook dinner right now.

Kel~ said...

You will attempt...come on girl...just think of how heavenly that bag was in Vegas...

Cherry Red said...

OMG, this post cracked me up! I read it and thought, "Weird, my curser doesn't blink." And I opened my MS Word program to look at it and it was indeed blinking at me. Guess I never noticed.

A heart I would like, though. Or cherries. I have a cherry curser on my Myspace page (which I created and never went back to)

Kim:)

Cherry Red said...

I see you're an Enneagram 2. Michele is a 2 as well. When I took the test, my 2 and 4 scores were close (2 was a little lower). Barb T our Enneagram expert told us that you have to look at yourself and the charictaristcs and you will know. I actually bought a book on it I found it so fascinating.

When you study the traits of Healthy and Unhealthy numbers, it all really makes sense. For example, under stress 4's go to 2, which is why I thought I was a 2. a Healthy 4 goes to 1 and I do have a lot of 1 in me, so that works. Fascinating stuff.

You might also enjoy the Myers-Briggs test. I don't know if the full test is avaibale online, but there are short versions. The full test is like 200 or more questions and you have to pay for it I think. I took it in college in a couseling class. We had to send it away to the institute.

This is what Katy and I were discussing on my Blog comments secion. There are 16 personality types and mine nailed me so close it's almost freaky. I found only one aspect of it that was totally off.

Kim:)

Wigged Out said...

You mean like this, Dee?

http://www.debidawn.com/cursors.htm
(It's the eighth one down)

Cherry Red said...

Lorraine,

This is cool. Never thought to use them on a Word program. Thought it was just for the internet

CR

Chari-Dee said...

I agree, writing is so much harder than I ever dreamed it could be. Fun though, in a sick and twisted sort of way ;)

I completely understand about the name thing. It just makes the character seem real for me, if they have a name.

Keep Up The Good Work!!

dee said...

Kim - That's so funny. I saw the Enneagram on your site, then you and Katy were talking about it in your comments. I wanted to understand what the numbers were, so I headed over there to figure it out. Then I went back to your site and made another comment on that post (think it was the one about making plans or lists, Katy was talking about whiteboards). I'm a Myers-Brigs INFP, and it's pretty scary how well that fits. It's weird, I always thought I was an extrovert, but reading through the INFP stuff, it just fits me really well.

THANKS, Lorraine, for those. Now I have to figure out how to make them work with OpenOffice. I will do it myself, without asking the computer god/geek that is my husband. Some things a girl just needs to do with a little help from her friends.

Kel- I will get to that description today, because, as you well know - I AM ADDICTED TO THOSE CHIPS!!

Char- I struggled with that name for days. And you know, after I said how I liked it and all yesterday, late last night it got changed. And I like this one MUCH better, though nothing was wrong with the last one. I think it was all mental, just really needed to have something realistic in there before I could go marching on with the story. That seemed to release some sort of energy from inside, and I wrote like a crazy person last night (which is why I didn't get my description of the chips written).

I can't believe I have so many comments on this post. I feel so LOVED!
Thanks guys!

Cherry Red said...

My characters pretty much come to me with names. Or at least an inkling of what type of name they should have, a feel of what it should be, if that makes sense.

My books never have names. I am so bad at that. Dream Catcher is the only mss I ever wrote tht had a name since (almost) the beginning. My fantasy WIP I still just refer to as "Roma's story" because that's what it is, but I'd never use that as a title.

You ARE loved Dee dear.

Kim:)

Kel~ said...

Now Psych stuff is actually something that I know about. I loved it in college and if I wanted to I could go back and finish my degree in a year or so. I love the cognitive psych. I think that there is a Myers test online or I may have a copy from one of my psych classes that I can scan in....I will have to look into this for you all.

dee said...

I found an MB test online. It's not the full one, but it's not too bad. I took it and still came up an INFP.
Actually, I think I'll blog about it sometime. I think that would be a pretty cool blog idea.

Kel~ said...

Here's me:
Your Type is
ENFP
Extroverted 67% Intuitive 25% Feeling 50% Perceiving 22%

As Kiersey describes it, I am a Champion Idealist...so was Phil Donahue. Who woulda thunk? If you want to check out more about the personality types you can check them out at : http://typelogic.com/. It has different views on the types. This is so definitely my world. love to all