Cue sci-fi music! No, not really, but wouldn’t that be smashing?
I am right in the middle of my rewrite for Keeper of the Wild Places (pro-tip: rewrite in order…cause I got two chapters reversed and had to fix seven things because of it.) My plan is to work on it every day and get it complete so I can push into the final editing stage. I have plenty of time to do this, so long as I focus on Keeper over all my other projects. As my other projects have a late winter deadline, this is perfect.
Except…yesterday happened.
Yesterday was an infuriatingly weird day. Ninety percent of it had to do with the fact that my internet went on the fritz. But only on my computer. It shouldn’t be doing this, as I have fiber and that is meant to be very fast. However, when I tried to do a simple search, the computer effected Spinning Wheel of Doom and then gave up. It took me about half an hour of wandering around the house to see if it was just the signal in my office, or if it was actually my computer just being difficult about internet. It was my computer. Okay, so let’s check other devices. Nope, no problems there.
I tried rebooting the browser. I tried sleeping and waking. Turning the internet on and off. Nada.
At this point, I was growing increasingly frustrated. I had several things to do that required the internet and was unable to get anything done. Nothing irks me quite like technological problems that make no sense (except bureaucracy). I can fix most things computer related unless the actual chips go kablooie. (I love the fact that kablooie doesn’t set off my spellcheck.) So when I have a technology problem that is just not working, then I get a little…miffed. And by miffed, I mean I grumble around the house while stomping as best I can given that I use a cane.
As it turns out, there’s a bug in the Apple OS systems. All of them. After a certain amount of time, if you don’t physically turn the computer on and off, then it gets stuck when trying to connect to the internet. Usually, when I have app problems, I just quit the app and then let the leaky memory reset. Nope, this required a full reboot. Okay, fine. Super simple fix, shouldn’t be a problem. Only, I’d already wasted a good half hour at this point and was already grumbly.
Once I’m in a grumbly mood, it takes a fair bit to get me out of it. These moods are absolutely fantastic for writing out battle scenes or arguments or death scenes, because I can just pour my drama into the story. Unfortunately, I’m trying to rewrite a romance novel. No space for death scenes unless I want to make it a murder mystery. And the other project I’m working on for my fantasy/sci-fi stuff? Comedy.
Yep.
Piffle.
Long story short, I ended up breaking out some mindless television and a notebook so that I could physically plot out book one in a new epic fantasy series I’m working on as my fantasy self. At least this one had drama and battle scenes, though it’s not nearly so satisfying when they’re sentence long scene blocks. Ah, well.
Anyways, I am not having technological issues today, so I fully anticipate being able to rewrite/edit Keeper up through chapter 14 today! Squee! On to the romance and the magic and the happy feelings!