AWBTWYSBD*

[desperance]

Because I have four hundred pages of proofs to read (how did this book ever get to be 400pp? I think of it as slim);

and because I have to finish its sequel soonest;

and because I have a short story that I must must write before the end of the month, and all there is at the moment is a title and a first line, no idea;

and because I have numerous other projects half-completed, all of which are demanding my attention;

therefore I am all full of desire for what's new, the fascination of what's difficult, collaboration. E-mails have been sent and received, notions tossed back and forth. I have the memoirs of Catherine the Great, and all I want to do is read them.

(I love this, that we have her own version in her own hand. And that it ends with a ..., as she chokes herself off on the very verge of indiscretion.)


*Any Work But The Work You Should Be Doing (this acronym copyright truepenny and used without consent because like all writers I am Prometheus; everything I offer, that I stole)

Comments

[euphoricstimuli.livejournal.com]

Ar eyou sure they are actually her own memoires, I remember something from a few years back that they were actually a very good fake.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

*Any Work But The Work You Should Be Doing

My friends and I call this flicking, when you are doing something you're not supposed to be doing. *Advanced* flicking is when you are doing one kind of work to avoid another, presumably more important or relevant, kind of work. :)

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Indeed, antipope is the current master of this - he's almost completed the novel he's writing to try to avoid writing a different one.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Yes! That's a brilliant and high holy day example of advanced flicking. :)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I did wonder, but I can't find anything about that. And, happily, my interest is imaginative rather than historical; actual accuracy doesn't trouble me at all. A fictional memoir would be second-best, but still good enough for me.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

On rasfc this process is known as cat vacuuming, i.e. the process of finding something, anything to do in the professional avoidance of writing-related work.