I’ve been watching a lot of House. Both my wife and me have been working througgh some cheaply acquired box sets. Up to Season 3, we watched them without prior viewing; but now, we’ve started into the territory that overlaps the programmes on TV we’ve seen over the last couple of years. Sometimes, I’ve forgotten what happens or a detail has slipped, but other times the memory of the episode remains so fresh I can’t really justify watching it again.
In truth, I can’t really justify watching them at all. I sat watching a second episode of the evening last night, a little after 9PM, thinking, ‘Why am I wasting my time doing this?’. If I’ve seen the episode before, couldn’t I spend my valuable and limited free time on some more useful? Yes, Cuddy and Thirteen mean even an episode I’ve seen before retains a level of ‘interest’; but, I mucked up my editing deadline for my Maelstrom supplement this last weekend. I said I’d have it finished, and I haven’t done anything of the sort. I still have the whole of the adventure to read through – and that represents the first edit pass only. I have a crunchy table yet to finish in the Referee section, and then I honestly need to go through it a second time to check all the bits I added this time around that haven’t had an edit pass of their own.
In a way, I may have taken my eyes off the ball because I’m so close to the end of the project. When I’m done, I’m done – and then I just have to wait for layout, art, proofing and publication, which could take a while yet. Maybe I don’t want to hand it over because I could add more or spontaneously become a better and more conscientious writer, who realises that an edited shitty draft remains a less viable version than if I’d reassessed, rewritten and polished.
Whatever the issue with the writing, I shouldn’t have the time to veg out in front of the TV for 90 minutes watching programming I’ve seen before, no matter how good and entertaining House might be.
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