Years ago, a friend sent me this postcard and it never fails to make me smile.
The truth is, I haven’t done much writing lately. When I had a day job, I’d dash to my desk and write as soon as I had a spare ten minutes. These days I have the luxury of being a full-time writer and I can - in theory - write all day. In theory.
What I’ve lost, however, is my ability to dash to the desk and write for ten minutes. These days, I need a clear day. If I have an hour’s appointment in the middle of the day, that’s it. No writing done at all.
Spookily, although I can’t write unless I have at least six uninterrupted hours stretching ahead of me, I can read. Boy, can I read! Give me a spare five minutes and out comes the Kindle, and the more books I get through, the more emails I receive from Amazon UK. Often they send me recommendations for my own books, which is great as they must be sending that same email to other customers. (Hopefully.) It was one of these emails that took me by surprise. This is probably old news to all of you because I’m hopelessly behind the times but when I click on one of my Dylan Scott books on Amazon UK, I get offered the chance to buy all 8 books in the series. It lists all books in order too. How fantastic is that?
(Apologies for the naff screenshots.) Is this old news?
Oh, and all tips for parking myself in front of my computer when I get a spare ten minutes will be gratefully received. Thank you. :)
4 comments:
Shirley, do you think it's that specific manuscript that's making it hard to work unless you have a large chunk of time? I'm finding that my current WIP is driving me nuts, and focus has been an issue lately. But when I sat down with a new manuscript (I had a week in between edits), the words just seemed to flow. Huh. I'm starting to view each book as a child - they have different needs and require different amounts of attention at different times. LOL
As for making use of smaller chunks of time, with this one, I'll either set up a 20-minute sprint or reward myself if I make it through a certain number of editing pages, etc. And making smaller, bite-sized chunks to do in a sitting seems to help. FWIW. :)
It could be the current WIP that's making me drag my heels, Anne Marie. Maybe I need to put it aside for a while. Hmm. I'll certainly try the 20-minute sprints. Great idea. Thanks!
A bar of chocolate on the seat in front of your computer? Then there's the old suggestion about leaving yourself a line or paragraph to begin the next sprint.
Elise, I love the idea of the chocolate bar. I'll definitely be trying that one. Thanks!
Yes, I usually try to to leave the desk when I'm in the middle of a line or paragraph but it never seems to help at getting me back to it.
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