writing day

Mission: Write 7 reasonably eloquent pages for Virginia Woolf final essay (due Saturday; aiming for first draft by end of Thursday). Do not give in to any of the following: despair; paranoia; the beautiful day tantalizingly waiting to be enjoyed outside.


6:30am Crawl out of bed to see Ross off. Heat up some eggs (my weirdo weakness). 15 minutes of youtube yoga.

7:00am Breakfast, my very favorite part of home days. Two hardboiled eggs; a glass of water; plain yogurt (a mistake... I thought I bought vanilla) with banana slices and the rest of the frozen berries. Quiet time bliss. Put the chickpeas in water to soak for chana masala tonight.

7:30am Back to bed. I know, I know... but before you judge me too harshly, may I submit to the court that I'm currently taking a new medication which makes me insanely drowsy in the morning, even though I take it at night. Not my favorite. Sleep until 9:30.

9:30am Wake up. Open all the windows and move plants into sunny spots. Think about what a beautiful day it is and how I'm stuck inside writing all day. Stop thinking about that. Shower.

10:00am Open this new blog post. Type previous. Open blank word document. Stare at it. Fight rising panic. Type header and "TITLE" for title. Feel pleased with self for filling even a small part of a page. Cut apples and cheese for snack.

10:30am Freak out because it's 10:30 already with nary a word. Close blog window to focus. Actually get some writing done (a whole half-page)!

11:30am Open up the internet again to look up an essay. Get distracted by thinking about dinner tonight. Stress about how few Indian spices I have; stress about whether or not Ross will like it. Read comments on recipe site. Realize how distracted I've become and reel it back in. Write a little more: almost a full paragraph/page. I am a writing God.

12:00pm Lunch time! I'm a big believer in two conflicting things: forcing oneself to sit at the computer for hours, and scheduling breaks. I think my subconscious needs time to sort through the things I was thinking about when I was chained to the desk. I also think this process happens best when it's combined with food and old episodes of Parks and Recreation. Lunch: Half of the biggest grapefruit ever; two pieces of toast; three chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk. Cleaned up the kitchen so I don't have to worry about doing it when Ross comes home, thus freeing me to... just... write. Hmm. Maybe I should spill something.

1:00pm Lunch over. Back to it. Le sigh.

3:00pm Or not! Turns out it was supposed to be really hot today, ergo I should have left the windows closed, ergo I became really hot and dehydrated and fell asleep post-lunch. Whoops. Ok... NOW we're back to it. Good heavens.

4:30pm Yeah... this essay is going really slowly. I'll let you know when I've finished the wretched thing. Haylie OUT.

Edit: Writing yesterday was an utter disaster. I couldn't get my thoughts to congeal or my attention to settle and this morning I realized I'd have to start over almost from scratch. Bright side? It's going much better today (Thursday). Although my thoughts are still somewhat fuzzy, I have a better idea of where I'm going. I doubt I'll have a draft by day's end like I'd hoped, but I'll be much, much closer to that goal than I was last night. Writing is hard, man.