Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Netflix is Ruining My Life

Well, okay, not my whole life, but my discipline, at least. And that was never great to begin with. I can write 20 pages in a good evening (that's between 9 and 11, usually) and over 50 in 7 hours of focused work. But my stellar productivity is interspersed with entire blocks--big ones--of goofing off time. Anything interrupts my flow, and I'm in trouble. I even wrote an entire article about href="http://www.nataliedamschroder.com/Articles/Inertia.htm"
target="_blank">Inertia
.

But my troubles have never been so bad as they've been since I started getting Netflix. Specifically, since I started using Netflix to watch Alias.

Netflix started out innocently enough. I have a friend who watches movies every Friday and Saturday night, and that's a family routine. So she gets her movies by Wednesday or Thursday, watches them on the weekend, and sends them back Monday. Perfect.

Not so perfect for me. If a good movie comes in on Tuesday, I feel a need to watch it that night. Of course, night time is my only writing time, so if I watch a movie, then I have no time to write. Luckily, most movies aren't THAT appealing--any that are, I usually buy instead of rent--so I used to sit on them for days and even weeks. That's where the real value of Netflix is for me. No late fees.

So anyway, I got hooked on LOST last fall and started watching Alias, which had always interested me but I'd never made the time to watch. I started Season 1 on DVD from Netflix at the same time I started Season 4. And talk about hooked! I'd watch four episodes a night‹once, I even watched five. That's a lot of TV for someone who never used to watch anything except the second half of In a Fix.

So I'm all caught up now, and summer should be about writing. I should be able to finish the short story I'm writing for Amber Quill, and write the new book for Amber Quill, and finish the new proposal for Bombshell, and write the new single title that's going to launch me into Diana Peterfreund territory. Right?

Um, not quite. Because now I'm getting the Alias DVDs again to go back and watch the episodes that have commentary. I watched one last night, and it made me want to watch the actual show again, from the beginning!

Help! I need a Netflix Anonymous Support Group!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can verify this post for her friends and fans. She is netflix addicted. She has a routine for the evening.. email.. write.. popcorn/ice cream.. and then a netflix movie. Alias seems to be the FOTM. Sigh.. at least she does say goodnight to me in passing. LOL

Jim

Anonymous said...

Natalie,

This is Rose from EHarlequin. I have the remedy for this....buy the dvd sets. I gave them as a gift to a friend from Amazon. This dvd sets are less expensive than others. I got all three seasons for $120. This way you can see the episodes anytime you want too.

MJFredrick said...

My whole thing with Netflix is that I want to watch a movie as soon as it comes in so I can hurry and send it back and get the next movie, see? I want to get as many movies a month as I can for my money. THAT wrecks my creativity.

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

Rose, I'm definitely going to buy the DVDs, maybe ask for them for Christmas. There are episodes I keep wanting to watch again. Mainly involving Will kissing Sydney...or telling her she's ruined his life...or yelling, "Five in one, asshole, five in one!" as he stabs Suit and Glasses.

Mary, I have that same problem when I have good movies on the list. Right now I'm not excited about most of the stuff in my queue, but I have a better list coming off the "Saved" list in the next few months, and that's what I'll be again. :)