Adjustability is also key

Sometimes life happens, and our schedule changes.  I’ve been building myself a new desk For writing.  I’ll tell you all about it very soon in its own blog post.  See, I made a desk of wood with sentimental value to me and I am putting the finishing coats on it today.  

I need to get three coats of the protectant on and want to do it all in one day.  That meant I needed to start early.  Really early, as we don’t have ideal conditions.  If I let it go longer than 12 hours between coats then I need to sand it, and I don’t want to do that.  So, instead of writing first thing, I woke, did my normal pre-writing routine, then put the top coat on the desk.

When I did sit down to write, only a half hour later than normal, I found I was very productive.  There’s something about having less time to work that many writers feel pushes the ideas out quickly.  That’s why if I have trouble getting started, I set a timer for ten minutes and write.  While I didn’t quite get as much done as normal today in my writing, I’m very pleased with what I did put out, and I was very close to my normal writing word count.  That’s pleasing, because I wrote for a half hour less, and still nearly got my full word count!

Some things I will not interrupt my writing time with.  Most things, actually, as I can reschedule many of the activities that would otherwise interrupt my writing time.  The occasional activity that I choose not to reschedule, or can’t (maybe an emergency with the horses or something), then I adapt and do what I can.

The advantage to writing first thing is that if something does come up, I can shift my writing time to the next available moment in my day.  The earlier I can get to it the better, and if I miss a day it’s not the end of the world.  I do what I can and enjoy the writing, whenever I get to it.  Writing is not just a job but also a pleasure.

Happy writing!