Thoughts on Being AFK

“Elizabeth Mock, goofy, bold, and introspective, with a book-ridden home and geeky disposition, seemed to unite some of the oddest stories of existence; and had stumbled nearly thirty years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.”

by DrFaustusAU

Kudos and cupcakes to Jessica B.! This last mad lib stumped quite a few people. She correctly guessed the June 29th mad lib as Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft (Featured at the request of Darth Hubby):
“The most disturbing thing in the world, I think, is the potential of the human mind to stifle all its creativity.”

Reader Versions:
Miss Jessi’s: “The most productive thing in the world, I think, is the broom of the human mind to sweep all its spiderwebs.”

Mell C.’s: “The most amazing thing in the world, I think, is the capacity of the human mind to forget all its online passwords.”

Jessica B’s: “The most frustrating thing is the likelihood of the human mind to lose all of its marbles.”

Lovecraft’s original first line from Call of Cthulhu: “The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all of its contents.”


My name is Elizabeth Mock, and I skipped three days of blogging. *hangs head in shame* In those three days, I helped my crit partner work out some pretty important stuff in her writerly pursuits, and thus was a good crit partner and, more importantly, a good friend. I survived the storms that ravaged Ohio. I bought a burner phone. (Why, yes, it IS for my third career as an international spy. Because you know all writers are secretly spooks, right? Why do you think they travel so much? Book signings? Nope. Spies. The real and, of course, boring reason is that my iPhone wouldn’t power on. It’s fixed, but I now possess the glorious temptation of a burner phone with 40 unused, pristine minutes. Oh, the prank calls I could makes. *dreams* This is a really long parenthetical comment. BACK TO THE LIST.) I visited with friends who are basically family. And I traveled from Ohio to Seattle. Again. (This is NOT a complaint.) So, it’s been a pretty packed three days.

I realized this morning, sitting in my brother’s kitchen after three days of no blogging, that we all need days off. There are so many voices out there clamoring to give us writerly advice, and many of them tell us that we MUST pound out the Words every day. We word-reapers DO need to write on a REGULAR basis, habitually even, but I submit that we also need days of no writing. We need time to be AFK (Away From Keyboard for all you non-gamers in the audience).

Having taken three days off from blogging and two from drafting, my fingers itched to get back to Cecil, my compluter machines. (It’s either desiring to write again or I’ve contracted some freakish author form of localized scabies… Ew.) I think it’s sound advice to tell burgeoning writers to write every day. Do what you must to sling those words onto paper, because that’s the hardest part at the beginning. You must learn to soldier on when you want to do everything and anything else. You must learn to finish what you start.

So, I will revise my Summer Challenge 2012 to something more sane for day-to-day living. I will accomplish my list six days a week. Except for yoga. That’s an every morning routine sort of thing. But Writing Things are getting cut back to six days a week. We all need time to rest.

Writing about life is good. Living life is best.

Or according to Conan, crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you, and hearing the lamentation of the women.

I think I’ll stick with writing.


07.03.12 Progress:

1. Blogged
2. Got a good bit of reading done on the plane yesterday. Read: 40% of Confessions of a Freelance Penmonkey by Chuck Wendig, and I’m 20% further in A Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
3. Yoga’d
4. 400 words on the plane yesterday fixing a scene that I had omitted a key plot foreshadowing. More writings planned for later today. 

07.03.12 Mad Lib:

“[FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME], [ADJECTIVE], [ADJECTIVE], and [ADJECTIVE], with a [ADJECTIVE] home and [ADJECTIVE] disposition, seemed to unite some of the [ADJECTIVE] [NOUNS] of existence; and had [VERBBED] nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.”


As always leave guesses and your mad libs versions in comments or @LisMock on twitter!