Working On: Ornament Story
Editing: MM (a friend’s MS)
I opened the last post on my cell just to see when I last posted, and aside from the fact that it’s been six months (it was kind of a crazy fall), the blog template doesn’t work well on mobile, does it? I added that to my list of things to update. It’s too bad, because I really like the way this one looks, overall. Very…”writerly”. Alas, change is inevitable, as we’ve learned all too well from this pandemic-ridden world.
As far as writing goes, it’s a new year, and I’m in a new headspace. Those sacrifices I was talking about last July? I’m actually, finally making them. The most important one has been giving up the local news at 10pm (that was the only newscast I watched – I don’t get home until the early news is over). It’s half an hour that I took back specifically so I could get back to my home office earlier while I’m still awake enough to write.
And it’s working. I’ve written at least ten words (yes, it’s small…that’s the point, it’s just a hurdle to get me going) every weeknight since the first of the year. And once I start falling asleep at the keyboard, I know it’s time to switch to reading, which I’m finally making time for again too.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been combining reading with editing, simply because I’m editing a manuscript that’s not mine. I’m very much enjoying this particular story as I go through making notes in the margin, and also just sinking into a story that’s not mine again.
I made one other change that isn’t working quite as well as I’d hoped, but is still contributing to the abbreviated evening. And that is, instead of playing involved life-sim games at night in the hour between walking the dogs and starting my late night routine, I put together a digital jigsaw puzzle. Just one, and it’s enough to sort of get my brain relaxed and out of the day, but still ready to sit down and be creative.
I was hoping to use that time for publishing minutia, but the dogs and husband have other ideas, generally. So I’m working on trying to make time for those things on the weekend. But I still feel like I’m putting the time to better use, which makes me more relaxed and ready to sit down with the words later on.
I’m turning 47 this coming Monday, and it’s a very good age for me, for a lot of reasons. But one of the things that has hit me is that while retirement from the day job is much closer than it used to be, it’s not close enough, and I don’t want to wait any longer to write.
Being a writer is the only thing I’ve ever really wanted to do. And I am, but I want more from what I’m currently treating as more of a hobby, because I’m too practical to chuck it all and “be a writer”.
So, time to go after what I want. How badly do I want it? I guess we’ll see.
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