The Basement Office

Ain’t she a beaut?

It’s been a long while since I’ve wanted to upgrade to a laptop and I took the leap this month.

As much as I will admit to myself that it is as much of a toy as anything else, it has done wonderful things for my word count.

This tool is a solution to my particular writing issues of the moment.

(And it runs Skyrim like a champ!  Uh-oh! Shhhh!)

It is thus far a wonderful solution.   Read on.

I’ve struggled for the last few months (and more so in the last month) with my schedule and finding time to write.

My arch enemies in this battle are:

• procrastination
• sleep
• commuting
• health

They, along with a cast of sidekick and henchmen have kicked my daily word count into the non-existent zone for the first half of this year (a fact driven home by the new word count tracker I was given by a good friend).

Writing is a solitary pursuit we’re told.   Writer’s write we’re told.  Word count is king we’re told.   We must make sacrifices for our art!

I’ve tried.  I’m sacrificing my lunch hour now (which isn’t ideal, but it’s worth it) but in the last few months the amount of time available has hit a critically low level.

• I’m getting better at managing my procrastination and better able to say “Ok, I’m writing NOW!”
• I can’t give up sleep.  I’ve been under a serious amount of stress and I’ve tried cutting an hour or two of sleep to write (I ENVY the writers who say they can get by on 5 hours of sleep a night) but the result of that regimen meant that I’d spend my days tired and zombified, consequently I’d not be able to properly be a father to my daughter nor a decent husband to my long suffering wife…eventually I’d be tired enough that I’d become unable to write.   Sleep cutting was not a good solution in the long run.
• With the construction mess around here (I won’t go on at length because I COULD go on at length about the lack of competence and coordination amongst the various agencies around here) my commute has gone from 1 hour a day, to almost 3 hours a day.   This has forced me to cut my early morning writing time from 90 minutes to 30 minutes (when I don’t oversleep…I get up at 5am) to be able to get ready in time to leave.   This year, that morning time WAS the most productive.
• The aforementioned stress has been an issue, my energy levels have been very low.  I’ve been frequently crashing just after my daughter goes to bed, the results in no writing and cuts the time I get to spend with my wife.   It’s also made me EXTREMELY reluctant when I DO manage to stay awake to go downstairs and hole myself up in my office.  We barely see each other during the week.  I’m NOT sacrificing time with my wife and loved ones.  (Note:  My wife always encourages me to do what it takes to write, even sacrifice this time.  She gets frustrated that I refuse to do so.  She’s the most supportive person I’ve ever been with and for that I’m lucky.  I couldn’t do it without her encouragement and forceful prodding *g*)

I was getting a little desperate.

The laptop’s changed that quite a bit.  Since I’ve received it last week I’ve been hitting my daily word count goals pretty consistently.   The reason for this is that I can be comfortable finding time to write in places I couldn’t/wouldn’t do so before.

My favorite time now has been in the evening just after we put my daughter to bed.  My wife and I frequently spend time together chatting and watching TV (I know, I know…TV is bad.  Well I like TV so there.)   I’m not the kind of writer that needs absolute silence and an absence of distraction to write.   Now, my evenings are spent next to my wife next to me.  We can share the show, or she’s on her own laptop doing something that she needs or wants to do, and I write.  I love it!   The smile on her face when she knows I’m writing breaks my heart (in a good way).   We can chat and I can type.  It’s great.   I look forward to it every day.  Even when I’m dead tired, I’m able to psych myself enough to hit the goal.

The minor downside is that I write much slower in this situation (1000 words in 90 minutes versus 45 minutes when I’m alone) but that’s OK because it’s time I would not have been writing 2 weeks ago.   If it takes me 3 hours to reach the daily word count, it’s 3 hours that previous I would not have written at all!

In the end, if anyone takes anything away from these words, it’s that we must keep trying to find a way.    This way works for me.  It might not work for you, but take heart that there’s something out there that will.