Too much of a good thing

So apparently Stephenie Meyer is burnt out on Twilight. I know this because my cousin, who wanted to name her puppy Edward until the monicker was vetoed by her boyfriend, is all distraught over it. Which is completely understandable, if you ask me, because even though I didn't particularly take to the Twilight series, I know all too well what it feels like to have a series you really, really like be cut short prematurely. I was, after all, a Veronica Mars fan.

But I also understand what Kim, my cousin, doesn't yet, and that is what happens when people who are burnt out on something don't take time off to rejuvenate themselves. Because as hard as it is to come to terms with the fact that you may never get to know the end of the story, having it left unfinished (for now) is so much better than suffering through a phoned-in effort by someone who's so over it, they don't know why they even started writing it in the first place.

And besides, it's not like she doesn't have the option to come back to it in a year or five.

So kudos to you, Stephenie Meyer, for recognizing you needed time off from Edward and Bella. If only Joss Whedon had been so perceptive during the last three seasons of Buffy.

In other news, I'm freaking in love with my new Macbook, which is almost exactly the same as my old Macbook, but much faster and brighter and newer. We've already worked out most of our kinks (my volume key, for example, isn't anywhere near where it used to be, so now every time I go to press mute, I end up activating my external hard drive), and now it's onto the fun stuff . . . like finishing that damn novella.

And here's the part where I can say for absolute certainty that taking time off is not a bad thing. Because when the old Macbook went kaput, I was at that stage in writing the first draft where nothing made sense and I just wanted it done already so I could stop looking at it. Which sounds bad, I know, but when you think about it, it takes about a thousand times longer to write a book than to read one, so it kind of makes sense. I don't think anyone could read the same book a thousand times in a row and not grow bored with it eventually.

But now, with 4 weeks off (yes, it took 4 weeks for my Macbook to get to me; I had it sent via courier snail, apparently), I'm looking forward to getting back into the story, this time with a better picture of what it's about, how it ends, and what needs to be fixed up in editing.

I also realized during my time away from the Internet that I enjoy writing much more when I'm not reading about the publishing industry and how we writers are all doomed because books are dead, but that's another post for another day.

So if you're a writer and you're feeling burnt out on your project, let it be known that it's OK to take a day off every now and then. It's even OK to put what you're writing now on hold and start something else, if that's what you like. Otherwise you may turn out to be one of those people who resent what they do because they can't remember why they do it.

And no one wants to hang around people like that.

Back to civilization

One of the most annoying things a person can do on the Internet is start a blog and then never update it. But really, I had a very good excuse!

Because two hours after I posted my last (and first!) entry, this happened to my Macbook:

(Note: This is not a picture of my Macbook, but instead one I found online. The particulars are mostly the same, though.)

I won't bore you with the details of just how, exactly, that happened, but let's just say it involved a cat, a piano, and a bowl of Special K Cinnamon Pecan.

So as of yesterday, I have a new Macbook, which I've named Susannah, in honor of Susannah Simon from Meg Cabot's MEDIATOR series. Because whereas Susannah Simon can see dead people, Susannah the Mac can see WiFi hot spots from two blocks away. In fact, when I checked her out in the car on the way home today, she immediately connected to the Internet via some public library . . . while cruising down the interstate.

How cool is that?

I'm also happy to have back Microsoft Word, since I've spent the past four weeks writing longhand in a notebook, which wasn't as productive as I remembered from high school. In fact, the whole experience reminded me of a woman I knew years ago, who actually insisted on writing her first draft entirely by hand. She had made it sound so romantic, like a throwback to the days of Hemingway or Dickens, and I always pictured her sitting quietly on her morning train, jotting things down in a leather Moleskine notebook. It was a nice mental image, but one I never really bought into....

....which is a good thing, because now I know it's all a bunch of crap. Writing by hand isn't sentimental and romantic; it's painful and inefficient.

And it's probably the reason said woman is writing the same first draft today that she was five years ago. Not that's a bad thing. I'm just saying.

Anyway, that's it for tonight. Tomorrow I'm getting back started on the novella I had half-finished before the whole shattered-screen thing happened, and then I get to move onto a full-length project I've had shelved for almost a year.

That is, of course, if I can keep Henry from sleeping on my keyboard.