Change of Schedule

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

​It’s funny looking at my last post. That was all true up until one of my kids developed a mild case of insomnia at the same time my work in progress hit a critical juncture that required a great deal of mental muscle to traverse. Funny how life goes sometimes. 

When I came out the other side of that, my brain had become like an over-stuffed elevator with my muse stuck at the back. The rest of the elevator was filled with distance learning items, the massive list of yard items that need to be done before fire season hits, and the myriad of other items that need to be addressed.

I would sit down at night for my writing time, instead of my muse emerging, it was all the other stuff unloading from the elevator first. By the time the elevator was half empty, and I could see glimpses of my muse, I was too exhausted to function. Night after night was like that.

The pattern had to stop.

I tried switching things up and waking early to get in writing time when my mind was not yet caught up in all the must-dos of the day. That worked for a couple days. But my youngest has a sixth sense for when I’m up early in the morning, and soon enough kiddo was getting up earlier than normal to have some quiet hang out time with Mommy.

Back to night writing.

But night writing returned me to the same busy elevator scenario. It was time to make another change.

The designated time was good. I knew the muse was there in the elevator. She always shows up when I stick to the schedule. I could feel her waiting to get through the sludge blocking the way. So, if the time was good, a change of location might be the key.

I have yet to have in my life a dedicated writing space. My current writing/computer space is on a little table off to one side of the living room – in the midst of the chaos where I’m needed daily. To separate myself from that chaos I moved back to my original writing space, sitting cross-legged on my bed.

That did the trick.

When I sat down, the elevator had been flipped and my muse was at the front instead of the back.

There are no less things to be done during the day, and never enough time to do them. But writing is back on the getting done list.

And that juncture I’ve been mentally wrestling with? I have the heart of the scene written. I’m certain the location will change and when it does, there will be some sizable editing that happens to it. But the most important elements are there. I am not going to spend time making the scene perfect now. That’s what editing is for. The most important thing at this stage is getting the entire beast of a story out and onto the page. The fine tuning, correcting, timeline smoothing, etc. will all happen in the editing process.
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It’s good to be back writing.