fighting the universe

When it rains, it pours. In my case, that means monsoon season. Case in point: I'm a slow writer unless the mood takes me. I've had serious issues with my refurbished laptop about half the time I've owned it. It's not that it's refurbished; I found out after the fact that these issues are common with this model. Aside from this, I love it. I want another one, provided the new one works.

So, I started a new novel a few weeks ago. Since then my roommate lost his job, forcing me to spend as much time as possible finding a new place to live. I had to spend pretty much all of my savings paying one week of rent at my last place, moving into a more expensive place, paying the movers and various other expenses. I've been stressed out so much that finishing that first chapter was a miracle, and weeks after I should have done so. Then, this week, my laptop decided to die on me. Just flat out lost power while I was in the middle of something. It's been doing that for months, it's one of the reasons I don't move it from where it sits on my makeshift desk. The thingie loses contact with the power cord and it just dies. (Yes, thingie is a technical term - I think it's the motherboard.) Now it just dies at the drop of a hat whether I disturb the power cord or not. That scares the crap out of me. I could be writing something and not even have a chance to save it. And I can't afford to fix anything on it because, after moving, I have a sad amount of money left.

This does not bode well for my focus. Or maybe it does. Maybe I'll get more writing done so I can sell a book faster and replace this machine before it drives me nuts. But I'm afraid to write on it just in case that's the moment it decides to die permanently. This is an issue. I wonder if I can writer 45,000 words longhand. Hmph. If JKR could do 10 times that, I can, right?