Writing Day Five

So yeah.

I guess I've been a bit lazy about getting these blogs out over the last few weeks.

It's not that I don't love you all, it's just that . . . well . . . while waiting to hear back from several publishers I've decided to take on a newer more ambitious novel because I hate waiting and because life is just so much more interesting when you attempt to do things that you have no earthly business attempting.

Last time I wrote like this, I could rock eight to ten pages a day and still pop out a blog and still crunch some chords on the guitar, nap, make dinner, help my son with his homework, and other things too.

There is also a case to be made that it wasn't football season.

Anyway, now I'll find myself five hours deep with only a page and a half to show for it and no idea where the time or my mind went.

Which would be cool if I was single and independently wealthy.

But I'm a whole lot of neither of those things.

Yet in order to write well, it's important that you drift off, let things wander around, find that space in your brain that is walled off from all those other things. It's like being twenty minutes into an afternoon nap or half way between your second and third scotch. It can be a hard place to find and a terrible place to leave.

There are long stretches of days where i don't even really get there. 

Which is okay.

I guess.

But there are definitely signs that I'm having a Bad Writing Day and the sooner I recognize it, the sooner I can give up and go do other things. Like raking the leaves or showering.

Anyway, I'm back on blog duty, but for a few months they're gonna be shorter, not like Twitter short, but close, so I can dedicate the rest of my morning to staring off into space and calling myself a "real" artist.

So since you now know what I'm doing, I thought I'd share The Top Five Ways You Know You're Having A Bad Writing Day:

Number One:

You've read the Guitar Center Magazine cover to cover . . . twice.

Number Two:

You missed your nap.

Number Three:

You answer the phone when it rings.

Number Four:

You're not exactly sure how many days you've been wearing the same jeans.

Number Five:

You run out of Chex Mix halfway through the fourth episode of Band of Brothers.

So, If any of that happens to you while you're writing, go ahead, stand up, and rethink almost all of your priorities. And if nothing is on fire right that second, sit back down and get back to work.