Monday, March 3, 2008

Things That Keep Me From Writing

* paper-grading
* lesson planning
* CLA minutae
* reading
* day-dreaming
* paying bills online
* shopping and cooking and vacuuming and cleaning out the cat box and other things I must attend to for daily living
* email, email, email
* aqua sky after weeks of clouds
* dogs under my feet, begging for a walk
* research for my historical novel (very easy to get lost in)
* insecurity about what I'm writing
* blogging (oh, I guess that means I should stop the list here)...


What keeps you from writing?
Collin tagged me to pick up the work of fiction closest to where I'm sitting right now that has 123 pages or more, turn to page 123, find the fifth sentence, then post it and the next three sentences.

Book: Norton Anthology of Short Fiction (1738 bible-thin pages)
Page 123: "Silver Water" by Amy Bloom
Three sentences:

"Nicely put," my mother said.
"Indeed," my father said.
"Fuckin' A," Rose said.

I tag anyone who will have fun with this.

6 comments:

Collin Kelley said...

Ha! That's excellent.

What keeps me from writing: absolutely laziness. :)

Jo A. T.B. said...

Sounds fun Kate, I'll list mine on my blog and link back to ya! I like Collin's answer too funny! :)

Anonymous said...

Internet keeps me from writing, and my baby of course. But I can always find a new excuse. I hate myself for not writing. I have an 800 pages long fantasy novel waiting to be edited and it seems I've given up after two rejections. I so envy you because all I ever wanted was to be a writer and it seems I'm going to be a lazy loser. ;-)

But I have to write something all the time or I go crazy. So I write stupid blogs. And hey, if you read those, remember that I hardly ever use English in my everyday life.

Lisa Nanette Allender said...

Hi Kate! I just posted a coment at yo' previous entry...
To WHAT KEEPS ME FROM WRITING: uh, embarrasing to admit--I need help with organizational skills:
I have dOZENS of pieces floating around, but I'm really bad about PLACEMENT!
But I try to work on at least a few pieces
(haikus, flash-fiction, my orgasms(I'm talking Orgasm Poems(I'm at work on what I'm calling "The Book Of O: The Orgasm Poems") here, not merely orgasms)
every week...

Kate Evans said...

Nighvision: Don't give up. Two rejections is nothing. (said from vast experience...)

Laziness, huh Collin? That I have a hard time believing. You get SO MUCH done. You're practically a male Joyce Carol Oates.

Lisa: I'd LOVE to read a book of orgasm poems, so make sure you don't misplace them!

Lisa Romeo said...

What keeps me from writing? Well, aside from reading and posting on others' blogs, you mean?
Let's see....the newspaper, that novel I want to start reading, that memoir I must finish reading, a pile of magazines, laundry, carpool, kids and their homework and sports and general existence, groceries, bills, cooking, email,
and oh yes, work.

It's too exhausting to even think about...which is why I think I'll take your page 123 challenge over on my blog. Well, that's sort of like writing, right?