Writing in Patches

2013 seems to have started out full-steam-ahead, on multiple fronts. Husband, son, and I were just talking about how we’re all three particularly busy this month, which not only gives us all our own individual life-balance stress, but leaves each of us reacting to/dealing with the waves of that bouncing off the others onto us. Just a little bit of Tasmanian Devil/caught in the whirlpool feeling. Luckily, most of the busi-ness is from really good stuff, which is helping keep us at some level of sane.

But, boy, am I feeling the consequences of this in my writing. I’m working on the Capstone history book and loving it, but wishing for just a few more days in a row where I could sit down with it and only it, to clean the moss off the stone and really get rolling. I talk all the time about the advantages of sitting down every day with your writing project, but this month has brought home the disadvantages of not doing that.

• Lots of going back over what I wrote the last time I worked on the book. Just to remember where I’m at and what I’ve got out of the way (for the first draft, anyway).
• Refreshing myself on the history I’ve already read about.
• Taking another read through a few paragraphs of the sample book I’ve got, to remind myself about the content and writing level.
• Stepping back out of today into the past.
• Reorienting on the kid audience and the voice I want to use for them.
• Getting over the first hump of putting words on the page.

I know. Really a no-brainer. Any of you could have told me it’d be like this. Any of you could have scolded me to put in those 30 minutes in the evening, so this wouldn’t happen. Yes, sure, I could have/should have told myself all that. And I have. But…

Today, the goal is to get that ball rolling again, over the first bumps where the hill still feels level, or even a little uphill, and get it past the crest and heading down, at some speed. Or, just to load you up with another  metaphor, it’s time to turn that massively heavy, sticky, never-been-opened-in-the-reign-of-this-king valve and open the dam and let the water  words come gushing forth. And then reward myself this evening with a lovely Restorative Yoga class at which I will try not to doze off during the guided meditation.

Here’s to a happy, productive writing week for us all.