Funny problems unique to writers...

Well . . . I literally gouge holes in my keyboards with my fingernails from typing so much.

That could be more of a fingernail problem. Gotta go find the clippers . . .

Wrens. My desk is at a window, and in the wren mating season - which as far as I can tell is any season at all because they're exhuberant little devils - the boy wrens and girl wrens gather on my window sill and regard me with deep deep hatred. I think they're hoping for privacy, but it's my window too, rite?

There is no room for all the documents I have open at any one time for reference on one computer monitor...

So I hooked up three more. PLUS I have a stack of papers with notes and folders and things a good 5 inches high on the desk in front of my central monitor.

Query letters! Nuff said.

Kat M said:

That could be more of a fingernail claw problem.

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FIFY

Writative said:

I feel like writers have a unique set of problems that we try to overcome . . . .
What about you?

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Honey-dos. When I open my clam shell of a Dell to write or edit and find a Post-it stuck to the screen, it's a problem to overcome.

Writative said:

Be kind.

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What? My response to the dancing feline is too catty?

@Maryn, Recently got a new computer (not b/c of the claw-based injuries) and am trying a keyboard skin. I've never liked the feel of them, but maybe my keyboard will last longer???

I've found it's not the letters I use the most but the ones that I hit a certain way. Specifically for me it's the index finger of my right hand—something about nail length and the way I hit the keys . . .

@mccardey - I want wrens! Send some my way.

I'd say but I'd better not (too graphic too shlocking too violet).

People coming in the shop to interrupt me writing at work. Go ahead, take your business elsewhere, you made me forget the end of this sentence — it was going to be a damn good one too!

In answer to the original post, right now I'd have to say work. I'm in the military and we tend to get drafted from one base to another every couple of years or so. This current draft has been an absolute nightmare for my writing. Late finishes, high stress, office bound, lack of exercise, none of it is conducive to an environment where I'm emotionally consistent enough to be writing all the time. Really feel like the whole thing is on hold until I can get to the next place which can't be as bad. Right? Please say it can't be as bad?!!

One of the greatest problem I have is with the volume of research. The other day I opened my Books folder on my external hard drive and looked at its properties. I have got 39 GB (more than 100,000 files - mainly pictures and texts), which are my vital necessities for writing. I feel like a squirrel who has gathered winter preserves in several tree hollows and she has forgotten where she has left them. I don’t know how other authors live without 40 GB of research material. They are neatly organized and I don’t know where to start!

Caring about the one ticky aspect nobody else cares about of some major topic, but that my pedant brain needs to get right for the story to work. Right now I'm working on an idea with a nuance so commonplace that people at the time (1840s) in that location (Washington, DC) would have found so intuitive that nobody (despite all my research so far) thought to comment on. All the historians want to talk about is the higher-level issues, and not the nuts and bolts of how it played out.

ladyfickle said:

One of the greatest problem I have is with the volume of research. The other day I opened my Books folder on my external hard drive and looked at its properties. I have got 39 GB (more than 100,000 files - mainly pictures and texts), which are my vital necessities for writing. I feel like a squirrel who has gathered winter preserves in several tree hollows and she has forgotten where she has left them. I don’t know how other authors live without 40 GB of research material. They are neatly organized and I don’t know where to start!

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Believe me, organization is over-rated!

*She says, while shuffling through stacks, filing cabinets, and drawers, for that snippet of a scene written ten years ago, which is now perfect for the present project, and simply must be in there somewhere!*

(Two hours later, the snippet is not found, partly because too many old files have proved too appealing not to re-read, and the author is wondering which one should be dusted off and turned into a book after all, and my, that one was rather good, wasn't it, and oh, what was I looking for anyway?)

We, the contemporary writers live with an overload of information we can't process - and that actually affects our imagination.

ladyfickle said:

We, the contemporary writers live with an overload of information we can't process - and that actually affects our imagination.

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Well, we do learn to filter and process selectively. At the beginning of a project, everything seems like it could be relevant; but after you've spent some time on a subject, you begin to build a knowledge base and attach the truly relevant pieces to it. I think there's always a phase when starting, though, that feels like you're drinking out of a fire hose.

And, of course, there's a feeling of mixed thrill and frustration whenever you discover a new historical database open to the public--because you know you'll never, ever, ever have time to read through the whole thing before you die. And you really want to.

My writing desk is also my work desk where I make things for my small business. (I'm currently leaning over a glue gun and scissors as I type this.) When I decide I want to write, I have to do thirty minutes of tidying up first.

That fine line between not wanting to disturb the magic that's happening and peeing your self.

Chris P said:

Right now I'm working on an idea with a nuance so commonplace that people at the time (1840s) in that location (Washington, DC) would have found so intuitive that nobody (despite all my research so far) thought to comment on.

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Oh, lordy, yes, this. The tiny little thing that apparently is not documented anywhere in the entire internet, but that you absolutely have to know. I've taken pictures of the trash cans at a public zoo, because it was a plot point. I'm planning a stay at a particular hotel in Zurich (once that's a thing again), because it's the only way I can find out what the light fixtures are like. (It matters.) I hear ya.