Stupid Muse!

It is an important and popular fact that my self-discipline leaves a lot to be desired. I doubt that even this woman would be able to get me to do what I should be doing, at the time I should be doing it. Who is she? She's Principal Amanda Durst (Valerie Boyle) of the Discovery Kids tv series Strange Days at Blake Holsey High. I wrote an entry about her on Wikipedia today, even though I haven't seen the show in a month or two. The character has been on my mind. I like her, and it bothered me that she's one of the few continuing characters on that series who didn't have an entry. It's anti-adult discrimination, I tell you! All the students in the Science Club have entries, and this particular adult character is as interesting as they are, in my opinion. Principals on kids' shows exist mainly to be an obstacle, someone to punish the protagonist if he or she gets caught. But Amanda's authoritarianism hides a wonky side that I find rather delightful.

In writing and tweaking the Durst article, I happened to check the aticle about Lucas Randall, one of the five main teenaged characters on Strange Days. Someone had set up a one-sentence article about him and gone away, so of course I ended up writing that article, too.

My day at 2 PM after sleeping in, which tends to put me behind on something else. Between writing those two articles, tweaks to a number of other Wikipedia articles, going out with John, and foolishly watching and Mythbusters and late night reruns of Lassie, somehow I've gone through the rest of the afternoon and evening and well into the night, without reading any of my non-AOL blog-jogging backlog, or working on Mages or poor, neglected Jace and Sandy. I'll try to do better tomorrow.

But here's the thing. It's not as though I haven't done any writing today. I just haven't done any writing on the projects that I ought to be working on. In my head I've been writing about Amanda Durst since at least yesterday, maybe longer. I know I've been thinking about it for months. When some idea for writing starts to obsess me, at some point I just have to give in and write it. There have been lots of nights when words I needed to write forced me out of bed, because I could not sleep while they remained unwritten or untyped.

It sure would be convenient, though, if I were inspired to work on the things I "should" be writing, instead of being distracted by some other project. Stupid muse! Help me finish The Jace Letters. Help me revise Mages. Don't distract me with all the articles I would write for Wikipedia. There are too many of them!

Sorry, Rani and Darsuma and Talber. Sorry, Jace and Sandy. I'll make it up to you, I promise!

Karen

P.S. Speaking of being inspired and not doing things when I should: I'm past due for mentioning that the latest Round Robin Photo Challenge is scheduled for this coming Wednesday, August 23rd. Appropriately, the topic, "Transportation" was chosen by Robin, author of the blog These are the Days of our Lives.... This is a wide-open subject, and I'm looking forward to all the entries people will come up with for it. If you would like to participate, just RSVP in comments to the topic announcement on the Round Robin blog. Then get ready to post your pictures on Wednesday, August 23rd!


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