Writing Routines for Real People: Part 1

Taking the time to write requires that I take the time to sit back, consider my options, and make choices. That in itself is a challenge.

All my life, I’ve chosen work.

I loved being a journalist, and I now love being an editor. It didn’t hurt that what I loved also brought money into the house, giving me the illusion of security and allowing me to do the other things I enjoy.

So that’s the knee-jerk. Sit down at my desk first thing in the morning, go into overdrive, and look up when my stomach won’t shut up or it’s so dark I need to turn on a light.

But, as they say, doing what you’ve always done will get you what you’ve always gotten. In my case, it's regret that I didn’t spend more time writing. (Psst! among other things.)

But that doesn’t have to be. As I learned on a trip with a dear friend to Oregon last month. One morning, I decided that after our usual walk on the beach, I’d work. I had a manuscript that was, to my mind, overdue, and I was stressing about it.

That just happened to be the same day that my friend’s other friends took off by themselves, leaving her and me free to hang out together and catch up without interruption. I was torn. (See the first paragraph of this screed.) 

When they told us their plans, and I mentioned working, my friend’s “okay” emerged as a sigh. So while her friends gallivanted and my husband slept, we bundled up and talked. We sat in six-inch-high lawn chairs that we moved often to stay in what rays of sun made their way through the evergreens next to her cabin. 

It’s an afternoon I’ll treasure for the rest of my life. Or for as long as I remember it. Whichever comes first. 

So, instead of ordering myself to write—a not very effective plan because I don’t like anyone telling me what to do, even myself—I’ll go for perspective. While I’m lying in bed in the morning, arguing with myself about when to get up, I hope I’ll remember to sit back, consider my options, and make better choices about my day.

That is something I haven’t done before, so maybe it’ll give me something I haven’t yet gotten: a complete novel.