Friday, July 29, 2011

I wore the N off my keyboard

I bought a new computer at the end of 2010. My old one was limping along, and I have nightmares about being shut down cold-turkey, so I shopped until I found the replacement I liked. At home I set up the new machine, eager to get my hands on the new Office 2010 and Windows 7 OS.

I hated the keyboard.

Could not type a line without a mistake. I knew there was some semblance of learning curve with a new keyboard, so I gave it a few days. My hands hurt. I couldn't think for worrying about my fingers hitting wrong letters. My patience is lengthy when writing a chapter, but short as a lightning spark when my technology hits a glitch.

So I put my old keyboard back in place. It's six years old. The N key is blank. Funny, but even though it's right there, next to the M and the B, like always, I find myself wondering which key it is. I slow down typing, even make typos (more than usual). Sometimes I'm mildly frustrated with it. Other times, I briefly consider swapping back to the new keyboard. Frankly, I'm thinking too hard over a piddly incidental issue.

We often let nonessential circumstances step in and interrupt our writing.
  • The television in the background
  • Traffic outside
  • No music / wrong music / someone else's music down the hall
  • Morning / evening / night
  • Too much AC / not enough AC
  • Dust on the furniture
  • The wrong pen / mouse / chair
  • No tea / the wrong tea
  • Phone rings
  • Internet is down
  • The ding on the computer announcing email or Tweets
  • The mall closes at nine
  • Past bedtime
Maybe that's what you need to practice doing, instead of finding the proper hour, setting and method. Forget the right desk. Can you drop what you're doing at any time, and write? 

In reality, we need to be bold bad-asses and write through the interruptions, outside the minutiae, and beyond the excuses.  If we had the proper mindset, we'd write IN SPITE OF anything and everything.

Have a great weekend. What obstacle will you write IN SPITE OF?

13 comments:

Lane Diamond said...

LOL. Must be a common thing, as I've worn off both the N and the M, and my A is not far behind.

Lisa said...

There should be no excuses to not write....not even if the fish are barking too loud! Great blog; always reading it. Lisa McManus Lange

Julia Munroe Martin said...

I let WAY too much distract me from my writing, in fact I hit all but two on your list! However, I do *not* have an issue with a worn off "n" (I never even look at the keyboard, but after I read this post I did -- to verify where it was and that it was still there! :)

BECKY said...

Love this, Hope! The only key I've worn off of my laptop is the A and it even has "finger nail dents" in it. The S is not far behind!

BECKY said...

P.S. I have a tiny gift for you. Will you e-mail your mailing address to me? (don't get too excited...like I said, it's tiny!)

Val said...

I feel your keyboard pain. When I got a new desktop four years ago (which my son named New Delly on our network), I did not like the keyboard. Unfortunately, none of our old keyboards were compatible. I still have issues in finding my parentheses, dash, quotes, question mark, comma, and period. That's not what slows me down, though. It's my summertime addiction to Big Brother update websites.

inluvwithwords said...

We have a small house. If the television is on, you can hear it everywhere. It drives me crazy. But, okay, tonight I am going to write IN SPITE OF the bickering politicians on the annoying news program my husband is watching.

Janet Hartman said...

I had to smile when I read this post. I've worn the N off of two keyboards. The O is the next to go.

Annette Lyon said...

Learning to write at the drop of a hat is the only way I produced any writing when my kids were small. And I managed to produce lots. Where there's a will, there's a way!

(I always wear off my N, too--why is that?)

widdershins said...

Problem solved. Do you have some whiteout laying around somewhere? I found some the other day, shoved to the very back of mu stationery drawer. Wonder of wonders, it hadn't dried out.

Paint the 'N' back on!

Hope Clark said...

LOL - I just bought some white-out, too. Good idea!

Arlee Bird said...

Interesting. I've worn away D, L, and C. I wonder why that would be?

I can find plenty of things to distract me from writing, but TV hasn't been as bad as it used to be for me. Maybe there's not much worth watching anymore?


Lee
Tossing It Out

Anonymous said...

My mind is a bad neighborhood I don't go in their alone, or atleast not without a weapon, but it sure gives me a plethora of things to write about, then I have my days of sunshine and roses when the mental patients are back in their locked rooms and I can write about warm and fuzzy, feeling kind of nice things. I write whatever comes to mind and it can be beautiful or horrifying depending on where my mind wants to take me that day or that moment. Cyndi Frankfort, N.Y. Lottie3063@verizon.net