Tag: writing routine

writing, faith, life ~ update October 28

This is the second week of experimenting with posting an update about each area in my blog’s tagline ( writing ~ faith ~ life ) and here’s how the last week has been…

W R I T I N G

Momentum is happening! I’ve been working on the current novel as well as the anthology, and most days this past week I wrote.

But I didn’t write every day. And I finally admitted something to myself.

If I don’t work on the fiction at least for a little while in the morning, then it doesn’t happen at all.

This hasn’t always been the case – although I’d sometimes work on fiction in the mornings, my best writing times actually used to be in the afternoons or at night after supper. But that was then, before my several-years-long break from writing fiction. Since returning to writing, I’ve been all over the place when it comes to timing and routines (or lack thereof), and this week I finally faced the fact that, at least for now, I need to fit fiction into my morning.

Admitting this to myself feels huge. And it means I’m taking steps to make fiction-in-the-morning a habit and a routine.

In addition to mornings, I still often write in the afternoons. But I’m not sure I’ll even try writing in the evenings anymore. My whole evening/night routine has shifted the past year or so and I end my days much earlier than I used to.

Now that I’m trying to implement a new routine, I’m curious to see how it’ll go during the next week.

F A I T H

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m participating in a challenge this month to write out the book of Ephesians.

I continued this week and now I have only a few more verses to copy before it’s finished. Writing Ephesians this way has been a blessing.

L I F E

This past week had book club day, with book talk and general chatter and pizza and other good stuff. I started attending the monthly book club in June, and I’m so grateful I pushed past my social anxiety to go the first time… and to keep going each month.

Painting and reading and relaxing were all part of my week too, and some days were sunny and some were dreary.

Tomorrow is our 30th wedding anniversary, so this week has also held times of thinking back over the decades and remembering what was going on this week back in 1988… the family and friends coming to town, the nervous excitement about getting married and starting a new life, the last-minute preparations.

My husband and I are having a low-key celebration of a special dinner tomorrow night. We used to always take a trip out of town for our anniversary, but we haven’t traveled for the past several years (for a few reasons, a main one being things going on with my health).

It’s okay that we’re not doing anything fancy, but simply being together – because being together is the important thing. Our marriage has experienced ups and downs as I suppose all marriages do, and we went through a particularly rough time for a while over a decade ago, but I’m grateful and blessed to be married to my best friend and the one person who never lets me down and accepts me for all I am (weirdness and quirks and all).

Spending a quiet evening with him, doing nothing extra-special, just enjoying the company and comfort and coziness and love that’s stood through so many years… that makes my heart sing.

That brings me joy.

♥

writing time…

I took the above photo of myself and uploaded it on instagram several months ago.

One thing I love to do is spread my notes and research around me as I work out some writing ideas and issues (I usually do the writing itself at the keyboard), and that’s what I was doing the evening I took the picture.

Here’s what I wrote when I shared the photo:

Tonight. In my workroom, modern jazz playing, manuscript notes for the novel spread out around me (in a comfy spot, not at the desk): a big sketchpad, 3-ring binder, spiral notebook, index cards, loose pages and pieces of scratch papers… all of it in addition to the digital files and the actual writing that’s on the computer. (And a purple pen with me, of course.) Notes and research are scattered among these places but it’s surprisingly much more organized than it might seem.

I’m a combo of pantser and loose outliner when it comes to long fiction but I’m pulling all these notes together into more of a “real” outline and I’ll see how that goes. It’s something I try now and then – but always before, I’ve ended up going back to my loose-ish way of bringing the story to life. Which I might do this time too, but I’m experimenting again.

Earlier today I was stuffed up and headachy with allergy/sinus stuff and not feeling well. Right now I feel so much better and sooo alive with joy-plus-calm as the music plays in the background and I work on the writing. Nights spent like this used to be my norm. I’m living in that world again – and I love that I am.

#creativelife #amwriting #indieauthor#thisismytonight #writersofinstagram #writersgonnawrite #creativityjoy#writeratwork

Although my writing times happen at various hours, writing after dark – lamplight filling the room and smooth jazz playing in the background – has been a way and a time I’ve loved to write for almost 30 years.

The music – which usually has no words – helps me get into the flow and  stirs my creative juices.

The night-time writing took advantage of a time of day when my energy was good.

As a night owl, I remember telling people that I often didn’t feel I was fully awake or completely alive until early evening. I said this to friends even back in high school. I was a night owl from my earliest memories.

But…

My energy patterns and sleeping habits have been shifting the past several months. To my surprise, I find I’m enjoying getting to sleep earlier at night and waking up earlier in the mornings.

And this means quieting my mind in the evenings earlier than I used to do.

If my mind and imagination are working on writing, if my brain is stimulated and focused on writing, if I’m feeling the alert aliveness I get while writing in flow, if my mind is streaming ideas and dialogue and plot lines while my fingers type it all out… it’s hard for me to shut off my mind enough to fall asleep soon after.

I need to start settling into comfy, cozy, ready-for-sleep mode earlier. And, unfortunately, working on my writing does the opposite of getting me into that zone.

I still write at night sometimes. I don’t want to give up that time completely when it comes to writing. It feels too good, too content, too joyful, too alive, to never write during the evening hours.

But these past months, my writing time has mostly shifted to mornings or afternoons, depending on my schedule for the day.

The joy, struggle, staring at the blank screen, or words flowing on the keyboard – all of those still happen, just as they always have, no matter what time I write.

And the main thing, regardless of what time, continues to be: I am writing.

♥