• Forest for the Trees
  • THE FOREST FOR THE TREES is about writing, publishing and what makes writers tick. This blog is dedicated to the self loathing that afflicts most writers. A community of like-minded malcontents gather here. I post less frequently now, but hopefully with as much vitriol. Please join in! Gluttons for punishment can scroll through the archives.

    If I’ve learned one thing about writers, it’s this: we really are all alone. Thanks for reading. Love, Betsy

That Perfect Feeling When Time Just Slips

Day 22. I wrote for an hour today. I lost track of time I shit you not. I want to say that when I proposed 30/30, I had no idea if it was a good idea, if I could even do it, etc. I jumpstarted a piece I started last summer. I’ve written on average 2 pages a day. The consistency has been incredibly valuable, but it’s realizing that I can fit 30 minutes in any time any where. I don’t have to be all precious about my pre-dawn quiet. I can eat them here or there, I can eat them anywhere!

When are you writing?

17 Responses

  1. I usually have more time in the evening, but today was early morning. I like the morning best of all; it’s when I feel the day is full of possibilities and time is on my side.

  2. Still here. Chopped down 3107 words into 2525… much nicer words.

  3. My precious pre-dawn quiet

  4. Pre dawn, right after I feed all the cats.

  5. “When are you writing?”

    Usually in the evening, but also sometimes in the morning or the afternoon, too.

  6. On workdays I write at lunchtime, in my car, between sandwich and apple. Days off I tend to get up early—very early, embarrassingly early, at a time which would lead you to conclude (correctly) that I to go bed about 8 pm—and I do my thirty before I have time to talk myself out of it or start playing with the houseplants.

    Sexy lifestyle, I know. I’m a beast.

  7. For me, it has become when are you not writing? As in, even when I’m not physically writing, I’m doing it in my head.

    This could be detrimental to my health. As in I might drive from the house to a store and don’t recall the trip.

    I KNOW I am not alone in this!

  8. Quel drag this morning. Had to delete what I’d written yesterday and then I didn’t know where I was going and what I was doing. I have a feeling it might be time to reread and, god forbid, do some Big Thinking.

    I write in the mornings, if at all possible. The cocktail hour might work sometimes except the absence of a cocktail is difficult. Coffee, now that’s important to turning on the juices.

    Grump, grump, grump.

  9. I am blessed with time. Throughout the morning (every morning) I write/edit for 45 and walk for fifteen until the sun starts shining in the windows on the other side of the house.

    The pages mount, change, and mount again. My brain is busy all the time because right now my heart belongs to the story. Later in the day I’ll jump on again because I am obsessed.

    Which means tonight we’ll do takeout. I’ll order, he can go get it.

  10. A change from what to when???
    Okay, best time is waiting for wife in dancing class. A solid hour in the truck 3 days/week, and 2 more for Zumba. I buy Steno Pads by the dozen. Transcribe with edits weekends.

  11. I aspire to be more like Carolynn, but my early morning writing usually happens between midnight and three am. Hey, as long as I’m writing, I’ll take what I can get!

  12. Bravo on your two page average per day! That’s awesome! I’m on vacation this week, so the writing comes late a night, just before bed. Not much, just chronicling the day, but I’ll take it!

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