Another Challenge Faced
17/07/09 07:10 Filed in: Writing
My pattern for success has been to write, if
possible, during my lunch hour at work and then to
come home and spend between 30 and 90 minutes each
evening at the computer. It's worked well and I've
managed to build up that much-sought-after rhythm in
the writing.
So what happens when the pattern falls apart, when barriers arise in the form of other demands on my time? I guess I shouldn't be surprised that work will often get so busy I don't really take a lunch break and that part of the pattern unravels. It's when work is busy and things come up in the evening that the whole enterprise is threatened.
Yesterday provided an example of the perfect storm. Work began early and kept moving at rapid pace until the end of the day. I had a meeting over lunch so I figured it would be rude to try to write during that. So I got home with not a word written.
Then came life. First, since I haven't been sleeping well, I fell asleep almost as soon as I got home and stayed asleep for three hours. Dinner, then I had realised that one of the reasons I wasn't sleeping well was because Marlee Marie was interrupting my sleep with demands for play. Why was she doing that? Because I hadn't been spending my usual half hour playing with her recently.
So I committed myself to play with her for a while. That was a great idea. She's just been groomed and she's in a very happy mood and we had a lot of fun. At that point it's nine o'clock and ABC has a special on TV about "A Day In the Life of JK Rowling". So I watched that. Great show.
Now it's 10 p.m. and, guess what? A whole day has passed and I haven't written a word. Not good. Rhythm shaken. Progress threatened.
So I plopped myself down at the computer for about 20 minutes and worked. I wrote maybe six paragraphs. But it was a full scene, an important transition scene that shows Gold, on a bus to London, ruminating over what had just happened on the streets of Toronto.
Sure, it's not a lot. But it's something. It's a brief but important scene and it represents continued progress. I felt very good about myself as I lay my head on my pillow: despite a very busy and challenging day, despite the possibility that I would just let it overwhelm me and not write at all, I hung tough. I kept my focus and at least accomplished something.
Sometimes, on the busy days, "something" is a success story.
So what happens when the pattern falls apart, when barriers arise in the form of other demands on my time? I guess I shouldn't be surprised that work will often get so busy I don't really take a lunch break and that part of the pattern unravels. It's when work is busy and things come up in the evening that the whole enterprise is threatened.
Yesterday provided an example of the perfect storm. Work began early and kept moving at rapid pace until the end of the day. I had a meeting over lunch so I figured it would be rude to try to write during that. So I got home with not a word written.
Then came life. First, since I haven't been sleeping well, I fell asleep almost as soon as I got home and stayed asleep for three hours. Dinner, then I had realised that one of the reasons I wasn't sleeping well was because Marlee Marie was interrupting my sleep with demands for play. Why was she doing that? Because I hadn't been spending my usual half hour playing with her recently.
So I committed myself to play with her for a while. That was a great idea. She's just been groomed and she's in a very happy mood and we had a lot of fun. At that point it's nine o'clock and ABC has a special on TV about "A Day In the Life of JK Rowling". So I watched that. Great show.
Now it's 10 p.m. and, guess what? A whole day has passed and I haven't written a word. Not good. Rhythm shaken. Progress threatened.
So I plopped myself down at the computer for about 20 minutes and worked. I wrote maybe six paragraphs. But it was a full scene, an important transition scene that shows Gold, on a bus to London, ruminating over what had just happened on the streets of Toronto.
Sure, it's not a lot. But it's something. It's a brief but important scene and it represents continued progress. I felt very good about myself as I lay my head on my pillow: despite a very busy and challenging day, despite the possibility that I would just let it overwhelm me and not write at all, I hung tough. I kept my focus and at least accomplished something.
Sometimes, on the busy days, "something" is a success story.