Tuesday, May 13, 2014

A Day in the Writing Life


                                                                       

It’s Saturday. The office job is behind me for a couple days. The next 24 hours are mine to devote entirely to the creative process. Sort of. Here’s a glimpse of how it goes…

I awaken with a few ideas bubbling in my brain. Is that a new character mulling around up there, too? Must shower to get the Water Muse flowing. But wait! Puppy needs to go out, then be fed, then go out again. Finally, I immerse myself in the steady stream of GREAT AND AMAZING INSPIRATION. Uh, not quite. On this day I’m left wet, yet high and dry. Seems the new character escaped out the doggie door. Not to fret. Another will be along shortly. I hope. Maybe a trip to the supermarket will bring it all back again. (When did eggs get to be so expensive? And ugh, those checkout lines!) No matter! I found her! The new character and that darn little plot hole fix. They were hiding out in frozen foods. What do ya know! I rush home, put the groceries away, and dash to my home office to have at it. Phone set to voice mail. TV off. Cursor blinking. Here we go. But wait – first I should jot the new stuff down lest it goes missing again. And I really should check emails. And maybe fifteen minutes of online marketing. Just fifteen. Forty-five minutes later I’m good to go. It’s a thing of beauty. I’m like a machine. These are the BEST two pages I have ever written. Ahem. Yeah, two. I vow to get back to it later. I mean it.

Later comes. It is obnoxiously full of details like that load of laundry waiting beside the machine and the family requiring some form of dinner. (They tend to expect to be fed every single day! The nerve!) There are a few bills to be paid, too. And those phone calls aren’t going to return themselves. By eleven p.m. I’m right back where I started out this morning. The pillow is warm. My eReader is lit. I’ve got maybe fifteen minutes before I pass out. Just fifteen. Forty-five minutes later I’m good to go. To sleep, that is. It was an amazingly productive day in the Writing Life.

 

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