It is an odd feeling to wake up near 7 AM and realize that your opportunity to write for the day is basically already gone. It departed, without you, two hours prior on the double humped back of the inspiration camel, which is now somewhere in the Arizona desert shuffling through cold sand towards oblivion.
It sounds a lot worse (and weirder) than it actually is. The truth is that I’ve been behind on a great many things and have convinced myself that if I don’t start early enough or don’t stay up late enough then I’m never going to get the work done. I have the sunken eyes to prove it. I also have the three boys with bows and video games and football practice and friends and energy and needs to prove the earlier point of not being able to get anything done, at least not while they remain conscious.
That is merely an excuse.
If I’ve learned anything it is that I can find the time to do the things I care most about. If I can find the hour to watch The Walking Dead, and find the three hours to straight veg out and watch the Giants collapse against the Patriots, then I can find the time to write.
I get all of the objections. Writing is active and watching is passive. You need time to rev up the brain and to build to the good writing, because the first hundred or so words are bound to be crap. We make rituals out of writing. Once, I thought it would be cool to meditate in the shower and then harness all those good thoughts, post shower, into a strong bit of writing. Another time I decided that I needed tea and cookies set out on a tray to get me ‘there’. All of it was and continues to be window dressing for what is essentially a simple process.
If you want it bad enough, you sit down at a table and write. Use whatever tool you need. Delete all the distractions, turn off the wi-fi and just do what you are born to.