Or, What Keeps Me from Writing.
December 2 Writing.
What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?
(Prompt author: Leo Babauta)
Alarm, snooze, alarm. Ugh. < this is the telling moment when you discover I’m not a morning person.
Make the coffee, check the emails, the twitters, the google reader. Read, read, read.
Shower up, get dressed.
Breakfast and wishing people happy birthday on facebook. (wait! that doesn’t count as writing?!)
Work, first at home, then travel into office. Craft some emails (technically writing, right?), chat with a client, complete digital project exhibit A, B & if I’m lucky, C.
Wait for it – it’s the inevitable oh-my-god-how-did-it-get-to-be-5 p.m. surprise!
Ok, that’s done.
Head home to insanely excitable furry things. Feed them.
Respond to personal emails. (ok, it’s getting late. Can we count this as writing if I promise to be crafty and clever?)
Furry things request ever so subtly with nudging noses that we take a walk. Bundle up, hit the neighborhood.
Starved, make the dinner. Eat the dinner, hopefully with the husband (unless he’s working late). Preferably with a glass of wine.
Check up on my volunteer job. Emails, marketing plans & board meetings, oh my.
If at this point it isn’t already midnight: proceed to write. Or read. Or not.
Every day is an excuse to not write. I’m always hopeful for that golden hour at the end of the day. But the truth is, that time is divided between friends and family and music and reading and all else. When I need to write, I find a way to make it happen. I shift. I prioritize. I wouldn’t seek to eliminate bits of my days to create time.
But this does make me wonder, am I missing out on a lot of writing possibilities by not carving out the specific time and keeping it sacred?
—-
This post is a part of #reverb10 by Gwen Bell. Gwen and her team enlisted a group of authors to write prompts for each day in December. Participants can blog, tweet or post photos in reaction to the prompts to reflect on the past year.