The Writerly Update: Butt + Chair = Productivity Edition

[babarnett]

In theory, I should have had more writing time last week.  In actuality, I didn't make a lick of progress on the short story I had started the week before.  But today?  Oh, today was surprisingly lovely for a Monday.  For what felt like the first time in ages, I sat down and just cranked out first draftage for three solid uninterrupted hours.  About 1,400 words in all, which is pretty damn good for slow-going me.  It's all crappy first draftage, yes, but I think (hope) it's going to clean up nicely.  When the story's done, that is.  I usually get a good sense early on about how long a story is going to be, and I think this one's going to push the 6K mark, at least.

In other and unrelated news: shiny new Apple trackpad!  I'm quite loving this thing.  It doesn't make my hand all crampy and achy like a mouse would do after a day at the computer.

Comments

[barry-king.livejournal.com]

In other and unrelated news: shiny new Apple trackpad! I'm quite loving this thing. It doesn't make my hand all crampy and achy like a mouse would do after a day at the computer.

Really? I have exactly the opposite problem. Too often, when I use the trackpad to do fiddly detail work (in last week's case an information architecture using OmniGraffle), I get swelling and excruciating pain on the right side of my right wrist the very next day (no warning until sunrise).

Then I have to type one-handed for two days, use voltaren gel, and stick to a marble-mouse for a couple of weeks. I'm using a cyclopean (resembling the protozoa, not the mythical giant) Logitech mouse now, but I wish you could still get the Kensington marble mouse, which had a trackball the size and weight of a pool ball—Hundreds of hours of niggling video editing with that thing, and never a problem.

[babarnett.livejournal.com]

I haven't had to do anything detail heavy using the trackpad (at least not yet), so I wonder if it's just the type of work that makes a difference. Most of what I have to do is lots of jumping between docs and copying and pasting and other straightforward stuff, and the trackpad's been great for my hand for that.

[barry-king.livejournal.com]

Yeah, probably. And using a mac, you have all those great key-combinations for selecting and deleting text, so you don't need to use the mouse nearly as much as on other platforms.

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

Butt-in-chair =

[babarnett.livejournal.com]

Ooo, purple butt-in-chair sparkles!

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

The sparkles alone make you want another butt-in-chair day, just so you can get more, right? Right? ;)

[babarnett.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, today is going to be more of a butt-in-chair-for-meetings day. But I will still aim to earn my purple butt sparkles again!