Today was the first day of school, and officially the first day of my “writing life.” Okay, first HALF day, since my youngest only does mornings. I was surprised by two things: my ritual for getting ready included reading over prior material (which was fresher than I remembered), and my goal (1,000 words…4 sheets of notebook paper, handwritten) only took me a half an hour. I sat there, stunned, then let myself accept that I had reached my goal quickly. Like getting into the pool, I’m okay with inching my way into this.
My only panic moment came as I sat there, pen poised, just before getting started. “Really?!” I thought. “Writer’s block already?!” Then I realized I just hadn’t decided on a scene yet. I had read through my (2!) outlines, each with conflicting paths, and choose to go with yet another restaurant scene (my protagonist is a waitress).
One of the delightful things I discovered in previous written scenes was that her BFF is a neat freak. It was fun to put in little references and habits of his that would drive a non-neat freak crazy.
I’m off to bed early; I was up at 5:30 a.m. to shower before my daughter got up to do the same. Unfortunately, she has a wicked case of laryngitis; she may not be going to school tomorrow…we’ll see how this affects my writing schedule…luckily she is 100% behind me on this writer-thing…it’s my husband I haven’t informed yet!
Write Already 