After a long, very busy summer I have found myself rocking in the boat of routine. It’s been a very productive week: kids have successfully gone back to school and I have written two short stories and I am very happy with both. The stories are now in the hands of my wife who will read them and guide me on my way.
Getting back into routine isn’t really difficult for me. As my wife says, I have the willpower of an ox (or perhaps I’m dumb as one). But despite my ability to fall into routine, to just start writing after a summer of sporadic writing, I am just exhausted. I imagine this has to do with working my brain into Narrative Mode, sitting for long lengths at my computer typing, being aware of a daily schedule and what’s up next (Ooo! That reminds me – I’m working on an article that talks about how I schedule my day. I should be putting it up within the next week.) I’ve also been changing my eating habits so they are not as lax as I let them become over the summer holidays. But overall, no matter how easy I find it is to fall into habits and the routine of being a full-time writer, it is hard: hard on the body and mind.
But in the end, I have sat my butt in my desk chair and written. And I should mention that my recent adjustments to my office (in an unfinished basement, in case I haven’t mentioned that before) are wonderful – specifically the changes to my desk. I might write up about that at some point. In particular, I love that my second monitor is aside, like a TV. This is where I put my music software, or Videos if I’m doing research. And I’ll turn it off when I’m writing and it is out of sight, out of mind.
Next week I’m moving onto the edits of my second draft. I made some revelations last week on what needed to happen, but I’ll write about those next week. My hope is that next week is as productive, but less exhausting.
Here’s a few of the books I’ve been reading!
 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt  |
 Differently from Alice’s Munro’s Selected Stories  |
 American Pastoral by Philip Roth. (This one blew me away)   |
You can always keep up to date on what I’m reading in the sidebar of any post, or in my About page.
(You might notice The Hobbit on my Goodreads list and not above I’m reading it to the kids for the second time. This will be my – rough estimate – 15th time reading it!)
Be well,
