Showing posts with label household duties. Show all posts
Showing posts with label household duties. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The Writing Hour

I’m trying an experiment.
Each day I devote one hour exclusively to writing. No playing on the internet, no email, no looking out the window, no getting up for a drink of water or to pick out a simple melody on guitar.

Nothing.

Just put my head down and write. I throw a CD in so I have some music doing. It helps me focus and gets me into a writing/correcting rhythm.

I’ve done it three times now with good results. I’m getting something done on the WIP. Substantial movement. Actual material gain.

I don’t even allow myself to get up for chocolate in that hour. If I actually stick to the hour then I’ve earned this rich reward. If not, then it pulls consolation duty.

This was prompted by a change in the household routine. I’ve recently taken over laundry and dishes. My husband has taken a job driving truck and commonly works 12 hours a day so I took over some traditional chores. Laundry had been my duty for a while way back when, but in our 17 years together he did the dishes. I did them only when he was away or when I’d done a lot of baking.

Now that I’ve got more work I felt the need to structure my time and that’s what brought on the experiment.
I still have plenty of time in the day to go back to the manuscript if I want, but if I don’t it doesn’t matter. I’ve done something.