Speed of Life

Seems like we should replace the term speed of light with speed of life. Is it a function of age, I wonder, or a function of our crazy lives with all the calls upon our time? It seems I never have enough time to write, read, cook, go shopping, exercise, listen to music, watch a little tv, spend time with family, make love, do needlework, go sailing, brush the cat, blog, socialize, visit with friends… ah, of course, not of these activities are in order of priority.

I usually get up between 5:30am and 6am and usually go to bed by 10:30pm and it seems I always get to do about a quarter of what I wanted to do. I’m not a disorganized person, I’m a list fiend so I like to plan ahead and still I don’t have enough time. Am I going to have to become ruthless and plan every minute of my day? It seems like an uncomfortable and inflexible way to live.

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Writing by hand: a lost art?

Lately I've found sitting in front of the computer to write more of a chore than a pleasure. It's probably in large part because I need a new chair, but also because we recently moved and my office is a mess of boxes waiting for a custom-made bookcase (coming soon, coming soon).

One of the advantage of the move to our condo is that it comes with facilities, including a library. Early on I found out there was very little traffic there and I've started taking pad and paper, a thermos of tea, and my iPod and simply write.. by hand.

I've been amazingly productive. I guess part of it is there are no distractions like email or computer games, which I'm prone to go to when I hit a snag in the writing. Down in the library I simply get up, do a turn about the room, get the thinking cells to rest and recharge.

The only downsize of all this handwriting productivity is that I then have to retype everything. It seems like a waste of time but in the end I end up doing some small edits that refine the story (no wordsmithing, though, that's for later).

I don't know if I'll write the whole novel that way but for right now, it works for me. Best of all, I'm writing again.

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