I’m back in the saddle.
After a year of illness and hospital visits and deaths, of dear ones who I miss every day, I realized that I must climb on board one keyboard hour at a time until a routine guides my waking, writing, and dreaming. A writer benefits by routine. Though research and experiences prompt creative ideas, and sound sleep develops the ideas, the hard work of completing a novel or short story lies in a disciplined routine.
“I've noticed people often complain about the monotony of life. How sometimes very day is just like the last and they all blend together. Do they know how lucky they are? But maybe that's the problem with a smooth pleasant routine, you begin taking it for granted.” ― Cheryl Diamond, Nowhere Girl: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood
One reason a writer must establish schedules and boundaries, ones that we should feel free to rip apart and step across, is that the non-writers we love seem unable to respect our schedules and boundaries. The process looks unreal. We can check in or out on impulse; they cannot. Whether John Steinbeck had to ignore calls or let floor and dish grime sit unattended until its foulness seeped into his house robe, I’ve no idea. But I am no Steinbeck; I remind my housemates daily that yes, I’m writing, the rage on Twitter does not engage me, no, I do not want to bathe yet…and ditto tomorrow. But I love and need these who encourage me.
“Rituals give us clear rules and objectives, which helps us enter a state of flow. When we have only a big goal in front of us, we might feel lost or overwhelmed by it; rituals help us by giving us the process, the substeps, on the path to achieving a goal” ― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Lykke / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living
Another reason to work and create by routine is that we would chew our nails to the skin or refill coffee cups until the caffeine cycle throws us over the handlebars or lose a neglected lover. Some rituals keep us steady. One hour a day to do housework and laundry, one hour a day to play with friends – biped and other, six to nine hours of sleep, one hour for other chores like shopping and gardening. The decisions must be made. A writer is a critical and creative thinker. If unfinished, accumulating, odiferous baggage becomes burdensome, it will exhaust us emotionally – which surprisingly enough, affects our freedoms. The burdens we could easily fix will chain us until resolved. Unsolvable burdens, like a dear sister’s death, slide into vaults of memories and old dreams.
I published my first novel this week as an eBook. Little Texas, a novel by Nancy Jean, will be available for purchase on February 14.