IWSG: A Tale of Bad Luck

What has me feeling insecure about writing right now???  My computer.

Yep.  You read that correctly.  My computer locked me out a week ago.  Not only could I not access the internet, but I couldn't access ANYTHING.  Where is my novel?  On that computer, of course.

We have a radio station that is devoted to saving you money.  It's called The Bargain Channel.  My mom is an avid listener.  Me, not so much.  BUT, I appreciated her listening after she told me she'd just heard about a deal for a mobile computer repair coupon.  $35 for one hour of tech on your machine.  I was IN.  I bought the coupon and then spent Wed- Sat leaving messages on a mobile repair service answering machine.  I didn't get a call back.

By Monday, I was ready to throw my laptop into the wall!  Have you ever felt that way?  No?  Hmmm.  Well, I was THERE.  I was also disgusted with the mobile repair service, so I called The Bargain Channel and relayed the problem.  They gave me a name of another computer fix-it person and said they would reimburse me for the coupon.  Whew.

That guy called me back later on Monday and said that I need not take the coupon back to the station.  He did business with them frequently and could redeem it.  His cost to fix my computer no matter how long it took: $60.  I pay that less my coupon investment.  Great.  I was IN.  Not an hour later the first guy called when I was in the shower, so my mom spoke with him.  Apparently, he had a family emergency out of state.  He thought he changed his message on his machine to reflect that, but it didn't save the new recording.  So... he had TONS of messages like mine.  She said that she was sorry, but we found someone else.

And what is the point of all of this?  You can be going along and think that you have a handle on everything and then LIFE comes along and screws it all up.  I was planning on participating in NaNoWriMo for this first time.  My computer took a hike two days before Nov. 1.  The guy who could have fixed it had a family emergency and didn't save his new message on his recorder.  Monday rolls around and I find someone and he can fix it, but it will be a few days AND I am going out of town tomorrow and won't be back until Saturday.  IF I get my computer back on Saturday, I am already 8 DAYS behind on NaNoWriMo. If it's Monday, it will be 10.  That is one third of the month folks.

It was a bit overwhelming to participate having EVERY day in November. I can't tell you what this feels like...

So, what is the takeaway here?  Just like things don't go smoothly for our characters, they also don't go smoothly for US.  LIFE or BAD LUCK (or whatever you want to call it) actually does happen.  It twists up our plans and makes us start again.  If it does that for us, it can do the same for our characters.  I am planning on inserting some PLAIN 'OL BAD LUCK on my protagonist just because Sh@t Happens.  Why she should be immune while I am suffering so????

How has your real life affected your storyline?

This is a bloghop aka The Insecure Writer's Support Group.  It happens the first Wednesday of every month.  If you go to this site you can see who else is participating (and add your name to the list to join us).  Even if you don't join, support a writer with encouragement!!!