Time Carving and Other Intangibles

So Walter Mosley has a book out called This Year You Write Your Novel that was excerpted in O Magazine this month. It was an interesting article, with the bottom line being that you have to set aside a certain amount of time (three hours was the example) EVERY day to write. On a vacation in the Bahamas? Write before breakfast. Kids need attention? Carve out time anyway.

The theory is that if you go a day or more without reconnecting to the world you're creating it is too hard to get back into it. I buy this theory completely and know I could finish my WIP in no time if I could find time. I'd love to be the type of writer that gets up at dawn, sits down with a cup of coffee and cranks out a few thousand words before everyone gets up. Only a few problems with that scenario.

First off, oldest son J gets up at about 5:45 every day regardless of when he goes to bed. That would mean that in order to get a good couple of hours in before he got up, I'd have to set my alarm for about 3:00. (Don't know about you, but I get my best work done when there is nobody around that might need something from me.) Now, I'm useless unless I've been up for a good hour or so, which means that I would have to get up around 2:00. Taking a shower always helps me wake up, and then I might as well wash my hair, so that would have me getting up around 1:30. Of course, if I was up, the pets would want to be fed and wouldn't leave me alone so I'd have to take some time out to feed them, which would back the clock to about 1:15. Being as I now turn my light off at around 1am because I am a staunch night owl, this would only alter my schedule by about 15 minutes. Not too bad.

All excuses aside, I've been thinking a lot about this, so I'm going to seriously carve out some time. The hours from about 9pm to 12am sound about right. Sometimes I wish I was a morning person.

On this date: In 1984, Vanessa Williams gave up her crown as Miss America.