A (Bad) Day In The Life...

I thought I'd post this again--it happened to me a couple of years ago, but I still get chills thinking about it. This post is a page from a writer's life, although it could just as easily be written by a person in any occupation.

What do writers do? We write. As necessary as the stethoscope to a physician is the computer to a writer. Sure, there are those who write with a yellow legal pad and a pencil, but most of us have abandoned those for the computer.

Not only that, we've become a connected society, bound together by blogs, emails, text messages, and all things electronic. And, although a great deal of this can be done via a smart phone, a computer with an Internet connection is what we really crave. And for a writer, presence in social media is critical. It's what's called "platform."

That's why it was so frustrating to me yesterday when my computer was hors de combat for a while. I won't go into details (primarily because some of it was my own fault, and it's embarrassing to talk about it). Because I had been interviewed and done guest blogs on a number of sites, I needed to check back with those folks, yet my lifeline to the world was tied in a knot. I had to access the sites because people might have left comments for me to which I needed to respond.

Anyone who has found themselves in this position will understand when I say that I awoke at one AM, rolled out of bed, and spent the next hour getting the computer functional once more. I slept less than usual that night, but the hours after I got back to bed were restful.

Of course, I got no writing done. I did very little marketing. About all I managed to do was repair the damage to my primary instrument--the computer. That was my day. And, unfortunately, I suspect there'll be more coming at some point. Just have to wait for that other shoe to drop.

Ever been in such a situation? How did you handle it? C'mon, confession is good for the soul.


Click with a single tweet. "What does a writer do when his/her computer goes down?" Click here to tweet.


Dr. Richard Mabry, a suspense "mister" among the sisters, writes "medical suspense with heart." His latest book, Miracle Drug, released in September.