The Not Happy Thread

I agree with @Link the Writer - start small. But don't wait till you sit down at the computer to start composing in your head. Get a scene ...just one ...firmly fixed in your head before you go near the computer. Go for a walk, go sit in a quiet place, go out for a coffee, go lie in bed or take a bus ride. Whatever gets your ideas flowing. Put characters together and get them talking, or push somebody over a cliff, or make two completely unsuitable people fall in love.

Once the scene becomes clear and your ideas get flowing, just write. Don't worry at this stage where this scene is going to fit in, etc. Just get it written. You'll feel better because you will have 'written,' and you'll also have a starting place for what you'll write next. One idea will lead to another, and your enthusiasm will rise as you get more involved.

I'd forget the goal of 1000 words per day—unless there is some kind of contest you're entering that requires it. Writing x number of words per day isn't really where it's at. It's what you end up with that counts, not the process. Once you get well and truly going, you'll find you probably will exceed 1000 words per day quite often. But there will be other days that are 'thinking' days instead, or editing days, or research days. They all build towards a finished product.

I'd say to anyone ...whenever you find yourself stuck, change the process.

 

Yes, that helps. I might not get started yet, but it should help me figure out what to write So thanks for your input.

I think this is a good idea. I think I got a bit too stuck on composing the entire idea into chapters and scenes before even starting. Coupled with not being too excited about any of my current projects I got stuck. Sometimes planning can ruin the joy of writing! I still need to find that idea that makes me excited, but I will definitely just start writing when I get it rather than organize it to death

I think I was a bit unclear here. I set aside 1 hour a day for writing and I didn't really care about the word count, I would just be happy with whatever I could write that day. The problem was that when that hour that I had set aside started, I just couldn't get started with anything. And so, instead of 5000 words or 500 words or even just a 100 words in a week (= 7 hours) I still had 0. But I don't care about reaching 1,000 each day. I'll just write as much as I can in the time that I've set aside.

 

Just make sure when you do sit down for your hour that you are raring to go and know exactly what you want to write about. This means you'll need to be thinking about your story maybe a lot more than you've been doing in your spare time—in all your 'off' moments, before you go to sleep, just after you wake up, etc. If you wait till you sit down at your computer to start thinking about your story, you will struggle a bit to get anything done before your time is up.

 

You know you're in some deep trouble when your next payday is two months away and you hardly have enough money to buy food, let alone pay your rent.

I'm currently living as a foreign student in Japan. I'm studying the language in order to get the JLPT required for the Speciality School I wish to enter. In exchange for focusing on the studies and not getting a part-time job, I'm given a budget from my country. This money is supposed to cover rents, utilities, food and other neccessities, as well as a small amount for personal entertainment. The problem is that all of these calculations are done using the standard costs and values from back home and takes no considderation at all about the fact that things might be more (or less, if you're lucky) expensive than back home.

When I did the calculations back home, I was left with a few hundred bucks per month of money that I could save up. Things seemed pretty swell, if I do say so myself, but when I actually got down here and had to survive, things were not as I had anticipated. Sure, the rent was as I had researched it would be, but my research had not told me that I would need to pay three to four times the rent just to be allowed to rent the appartment. I also didn't know that I would have to buy every single aspect of my furniture on my own (even the fridge and oven, those were fairly expensive). The basic requirements for survival (such as the aforementioned fridge and oven) are automatically included in the appartment where I'm from.

Long story short, I've had a lot of unexpected (and a few unavoidable) expenses and am now in a situation where I get my next pay on the 28th of December and currently only have just over a thousand bucks to survive with until then. I've spoken to my landlord about the situation though, and they have agreed to let me pay the rent once I get my next payment. Something good in all the misery, I guess.

 

@Eiliya That sounds rough. I've been there! Well, not in an ovenless, fridgeless apartment (that's so weird they wouldn't come with the ap), but waiting for that payday to come whilst trying to somehow survive. Glad to hear your landlord came through and you can pay the rent later. Is there anything you could do for cash in the meanwhile? Like tutor in English or something?

 

Damn. The Kansas City Royals just beat the Toronto Blue Jays to advance to the World Series. It was a close game, but I was pulling so hard for the Jays - what a disappointment.

Argh!

 

Husband left for a three day trip to California today..... I was not invited.

 

There are some moments in life, in which your happiness has to be replaced by some kind of annoyance, simply because you walked into the bathroom and your clothes got hooked on the door's knob.
This is a simple example, but sometimes not only does your shirt gets hooked but also it tears on the most visible spot.
Well, that still sounds simple, but consider that as something which happens in different ways almost on a daily basis.
The first day your shirt gets hooked; the second day your knee bangs on the table; the third day your little toe hits an invisible spot; the fourth day you slightly barge into an object in your house and it is reduced to smithereens, and so on and so forth.

Those are only some of the unpredictable incidents which make a tall/large person's life annoying.
There are still the predictable ones, such as the large probability you won' t find your T-shirt/shoe size in your favorite store, or that the bed you sleep in might simply not fit you.
You can eventually get used to those facts, but they usually do make one very annoyed.

 

I'm currently eating a very large bowl of emergency cereal, after dropping one of those large, 4-pint cartons of milk out of the fridge, causing a hairline crack in the base. I've had to transfer it to a couple of jugs, but I ran out of room, hence the emergency bowl of cereal.

 

I really need to clear time in my schedule and start going to therapy again. Lately I've been having so many up-and-down days, I never know what to expect. These past two weeks have felt like an uphill battle some days.

 

Tried updating my phone and it froze. Had such a great day, guess the universe had to balance things out. *headdesk*

 

Last night around 3:30 AM I heard some drunk guys yelling and stuff right beneath my apartment.

Little did I know that they were ransacking my god damn car.

When I went out this evening to pick up some groceries, I noticed my driver door ajar, my console ripped apart, and my poor innocent cassette adapter gone.

I hope those assholes' lives are better with my cassette adapter. There was nothing else of value in there. I'm so poor.

 

I spent my afternoon painting a sign at work, which wasn't too bad, but I'll have to do more coats tomorrow.
Only to come back inside to find my coworker sitting on her ass, doing nothing, and not even answering the phones.

So I get that squared away, and the filing done, only to have three sets of Vaccinations to do, while she plays on her phone... wth?

The cherry on the day though, would be the UPS driver delivering my new laptop to some random porch instead of my office.

 

First time being late or absent today -- taking a non-existent sick day. Am adding 'Debate Room' to list of drugs to avoid, especially on week nights.

 

Had two cups of very strong coffee in the afternoon. Now hoping I can go to sleep. Dammit, self, do you learn nothing from prior experience!? What's it gonna take to get you to actually realize you have a caffeine addiction!?

Also, just realized that my fantasy has gotten darker by my standards, a scene has appeared in my head demanding I write it, but I would like to go to bed soon, so that scene is in the notes to be written... along with the five other scenes to be written. Good God, I need to take @jannert's advice and just pick one scene, meditate on that one, then write it.

Well, at least I don't have to go do anything tomorrow, so...yay??

BUUUUUUUT....I've an eye doctor appointment coming up in a week or so because it's been forever and I might need new prescription. Kind of nervous because I don't want to find out that my vision had gotten worse, even though I doubt it's the case. Oh, but my anxiety will love to paint a picture where I've got some horrible eye disease that will render me completely blind, why? Because anxiety, that's why.

Oh, and not to mention that Fallout 4 is literally just two weeks away. How is this bad? Because my brain's going to torture me with dreams where I have the game already in my hands so I'll feel crushing disappointment that it's not once I awaken.

#FirstWorldProblems

 

My attempts to erase all my weaker emotions with the power of logic have led to a mental state that feels rather like a war between a depression patient and someone with antisocial personality disorder. Two mutually incompatible components. And I've been doing things that way for years. Creating an operating system that can't run without tripping on its own wires.

No wonder I'm so moody.

 

Went out drinking with a new friend from work on Friday and he lost his cell. It was just us two, but I don't think he really suspects me of taking it; it's just that he's been through some shit lately and it's unfortunate something like that happens early in a budding friendship.

 

The Lisa Ling episode on modelling is really depressing. Didn't expect it to be so crooked, the industry.

 

I don't know a thing about the modeling industry and I've never heard of Lisa Ling, but...

You didn't expect an industry obsessed with perfect appearance, eternal youth, and objectifying people to be crooked?

 

You're absolutely right. I'm busted. I don't know how to phrase what I'm experiencing as I watch the episode (Lisa Ling does a show called This is Life on CNN). I guess I'm more shocked that modelling isn't as much of a flake job as I thought it was, though I was definitely aware of the demands for particular measurements. I don't know, maybe CNN was just sorta putting on music and spin to make it seem like human trafficking, but, no, I don't really fall easily to that either.

ETA: Fack, it just dawned on me that this could all be because I'm a single heterosexual. -_- Maybe

 

Hope you're cheering for the Royals now!

(Oops, should this go into the Debate Room?)

 

As long as they aren't Barnet FC I don't care... don't ask.

 

Definitely cheering for the Royals. The Mets are merely the Mets. Do you know what the term Mets is short for? Methamphetamines. That's right, they're the New York Methamphetamines. They tried to cover up the etymology of their name a few years ago by saying they're really the New York Metronomes, but nobody believed them. Somebody even suggested they were the New York Metropolitans, but that's obviously bullshit because "metropolitan" is an adjective, not a noun. They might as well have called themselves the New York Bigs.

So, clearly, all sane folks are cheering for the Royals. (Don't even try to talk to me about how Royal is an adjective, too. It won't work. I will sneak into your bedroom at night and shove acorns up your nose. You will awaken in the morning with oak trees taking root in your sinuses and growing leaves out your nostrils. Be forewarned.)

 

BTW, why is it that the entire world is expected to rename "football" to "soccer" due to the arrogance of one country?

 

I don't think it's arrogance. I think it's lack of creativity. "Soccer" should obviously be called football; it's a game in which a ball is moved around by players' feet. In American football, feet rarely touch the ball (and the ball isn't even truly a ball). So Americans have to find a more descriptive name for their sport. I was going to suggest "Crushyourenemiesseethemdrivenbeforeyouhearthelamentationsoftheirwomenball" but that is, apparently, too long. Someone else just suggested "Tightpants." That kinda fits, no pun intended. Somebody else suggested musclechess, but that's clearly ridiculous. I'm torn now between Stupidball and Ameriball, and they mean pretty much the same thing. What to choose? What to choose?