Just lookin'

Apparently, Anthony Trollope used to get up and write for a few hours before going to work, starting at exactly the same time every morning and finishing at the exactly the same time a few hours later (let's go for 3 but feel free to wikipedia it...), regardless of whether he was in the middle of a sentence or not! It was this level of dedication that led to him being one of the most successful and prolific writers of all time (although, not one that I've read - take that, Trollope!) and forever providing an anecdote that puts the rest of us to shame.
I have just been sat at the laptop for about an hour and have written 267 words of my novel but I have checked Hotmail, Facebook and Twitter about 38 times during this hour, somehow imagining that the world outside my office is changing at such a rapid pace that if I don't refresh the page every minute or so then I will miss out on something big. In fact, just now I have learned on Twitter from Darren Huckerby that he has forgotten his boots - key information, I am sure you will agree, and something that begs numerous questions that are far more important to consider than what the next line of my novel's going to be. But, mock it as I do - yes, that was sort of mockery I guess - you could argue that this is the most incredible gold-mine of creative potential. In fact, I think I can feel a screenplay about an ex-footballer who forgets his boots and somehow goes on to save the world from an evil tortoise bubbling up inside me as I type.
Can you imagine how Trollope, Dickens or Austen - or Shakespeare for that matter - would have coped in a world of Twitter and Facebook? One click on Facebook has just told me that a friend enjoys blessing people with cake. How could the great writers of yesteryear have resisted the lure of such revelations? I'm sure Austen would have happily paused mid-sentence if there was a chance to check whether someone 'liked' her status update that she was 'Looking forward to the dance'.
While we're on the subject, I would have liked to have seen DH Lawrence write a blog. I imagine he would have been very good at it and I would have liked the opportunity to spend hours drafting a comment that I felt was suitable to add to the 237 others responding to his contribution.
Hmm. I have no other thoughts today.
News update: Maisie lives!
But you probably expected that, so there are no great shocks today.