a week in the life of an aspiring author
the sunshine is back but it didn't bring my motivation with it
Thought of the week: pressure doesn’t get things done. I’m old enough to start identifying what’s actually going on underneath my procrastination. To understand that it’s frequently pressure to achieve massive goals right now and to be perfect. Realizing that is what’s going on helps. Helps to remind me to focus on the small achievements, on just doing the next task. Writing the next sentence. I wrote a few this week.
I also made cinnamon rolls again and they were not puffy, gigantic disasters.
Monday
The day starts productively enough. I leave for a walk at 9.00 and I’m back by 9.30. I should be ready to start work but instead I do the dishes, start in on some cleaning for the day. Instead of neatly articulated parts of the day, the day is a muddle of things. I write. I vacuum the floor, I pull everything off my desk and dust behind it, in an attempt to make the spare room that my desk shares with my partner’s turbo trainer a little more welcoming to work in.
I end up working from the couch.
It’s not an unfamiliar pattern. I get so much done on an ordinary Monday and I always expect that I can just remove the writing group piece without the entire tower of blocks tumbling down. It turns out that I cannot. Or at least can’t without a large degree of difficulty.
Today I wonder if that might be traced back to scrolling on my phone instead of my usual morning routine. I didn’t feel like doing it, other than the yoga, so I didn’t. But I did open Instagram.
I feel unsteady and like my brain won’t stop buzzing.
After a scattered morning, I make another cup of tea and sit down to read my 10 pages of nonfiction. I’m going to have to keep a creative nonfiction book around after I’ve finished this one because there’s nothing quite like it to jump start my own creativity. Fiction is too engaging and pure nonfiction is too argumentative (most of the time). But creative nonfiction, for this era of my life, makes my brain purr in just the right way.
It takes two things to get back on track. Easing myself into the writer side of my brain with some reading and switching which project I’m working on. I wanted to spend today finishing the rough draft of the story that I’m writing this month.
I’ve seen people talking lately about something that I’ve been doing for years — keeping multiple projects around so that when I’m overwhelmed by one I can procrastinate on the other. Or when the vibe is just off and I don’t want to write the monster under the bed short story, I can focus instead on the monthly essay for Substack.
What I accomplish today is a whole lot of cleaning and a few sentences on that short story draft I wanted to finish.
After work, I try to recharge in the evening — go to pilates, come home and put dinner on while watching quiz night on BBC 2.
Tuesday
Day starts: morning routine, long walk in the sunshine, work out. Then I throw out the time-blocking and just make a list of things to do and set off to see how far down it I could get. I make social media posts for the week and scheduled them, then work on the longer Substack essay for this month (which by the time you read this will already be posted, just a little FYI to whom it may concern).
Did my evening routine of green tea, reading, and a fake fireplace on YouTube. I’m not sure what I’m going to do when the sun starts staying up longer. This routine really only feels suited to dark, cold evenings. Iced green tea, maybe?
Wednesday
Because we didn’t do writing group this week I get myself up and ready to go at 9.00 on a Wednesday. Just for a little variety in the week. I go to my favorite coffee shop and try to finish the rough draft of the short story for the month. Eke out a few sentences, work on some other random things, try a change of venue. The coffee shop writing routine lacks some magic when it’s just me on my own, it turns out.
I move to the library, and it helps, but what also made a difference is remembering that it’s easier to start putting words on the computer screen if I started by putting words on the paper of my notebook. Scribbling in my notebook gets me going on the short story draft I’m racing to finish before the end of the month. And still this was one of the days where all I could do was set the Pomodoro timer and tell myself I can either stare at the wall or I can work.
I make progress on the short story. It’s pretty much done, so I’ll count that as a win.
Thursday
Go for a very long walk that started in the sunshine, end in the rain, and come home to finish up the monthly essay after spending the morning procrastinating. But the hallway radiator is sparkling now. So.
Friday
Wake up. Do yoga. Make a coffee. Finish my morning routine. Breakfast. Go for a walk. Work out instead of writing. Clean instead of writing. Finally sit down to write.
Finish off this newsletter and now it’s to move on to some “real” writing. But this is real writing. Creativity on a weekly deadline is an interesting challenge. But writing these weekly newsletters has strengthen creative muscles I didn’t even know I had and I look forward to working on it throughout the week.
Now. The sun has come out, the birds are singing, and I’m off to finish off my to-do list for the week so I can go enjoy my weekend. And I’ll talk to you next week.