Tried something new this morning. I haven’t even had breakfast yet and it’s almost 10:00. I came right into my office, turned on the space heater, lit come candles and meditated for ten minutes. I think that is going to be critical part of my repertoire. It builds the focus muscle, something that writing longer and deeper definitely calls for. Then I went straight to my desk and wrote three morning pages then went straight to my writing practice notebook, set the timer for fifteen minutes and wrote from the prompt for today from “A Writer’s Book of Days” by Judy Reeves. Instead of just writing whatever came to me, I focused it on my current character and story and wrote an actual scene, not merely a stream-of-consciousness rant. Then, as Priscilla Long suggests in “The Writer’s Portable Mentor” I immediately typed up what I had written. So many good things about this: I am back into the story with two minor characters one of which may be significant, and they are in a definite time and place, plus now that I have actually accomplished something substantial the rest of my day is icing. I won’t feel guilty about not writing because I already have. And writing is not the hard part. I can write morning pages, journal pages, writing practice. The harder part for me is to work deep into a story and stay there. This is a good start. And I didn’t even have to take myself out into the cold to the coffee shop to get it done. I stayed right here in the cozy comfort of my own writing space:
Where I wrote today
