Pressure

Operation Write-A-Paragraph is a success so far. There’s nothing like the uncertainty of when the baby will wake up to push me to get a few more words on the page.

In fact, I am debating changing Ace’s nickname to Gruntle because every time he grunts, burps, farts, or sighs, my adrenaline spikes. (By the way, babies are incredibly noisy creatures. I don’t recommend living with one if you need some uninterrupted peace and quiet to write.) I start typing frantically, hoping that Ace will settle down for a bit longer. I don’t have the mental clarity right now to hold the thought in my head until my hands are free again. If I don’t get it on paper now, it will float away with the last of my sanity.

Limited writing time is the best kind of pressure for me. Once I wrapped my brain around the concept that time is a finite and precious commodity, I separate it into Writing Time and Sleeping Time. Once I succumb to exhaustion for a couple hours, the next ones are dedicated to writing, minus time spent with Ace. Fortunately Ace loves to cuddle after mealtime, leaving my hands mostly free.

I’m filling in the parts of The Dreamless City that I skipped over or wrote about in high-level summary the first go around. Some parts seemed like a drag to write, and I wanted to get on to the more exciting bits. Now I’m putting in the pieces so that readers can get from A to Z without falling into a gaping plot hole between J, K, and L. Functionality, not pretty prose, is the name of the game right now.

Artwork by H.L. Fatnassi

I also have some new artwork samples from my awesome friend and artist H.L. Fatnassi that I will be sharing soon, but here is a small sneak peak today. (No pressure for me to add more, right?)

My only non-writing hours are in the evening, usually involving dinner, bathtime, stickers, coloring, and a thirty minute ritualized reading of the collected works of Dr. Seuss with Sweetpea. My toddler has taught me about routine in a way I have never appreciated before. (Word of warning, don’t do anything once and expect a toddler to forget about it the next night. The will bring it up again, so just bite the bullet and say no the first time. Didn’t know you were going to get parenting advice today, did you?)

Also, I having been enjoying one of the latest singles by Youngblood Hawke. Hope you enjoy it too. ;)