Day 3 of 3...

Day 3 saw me continuing Clean Until the Final Act. The first draft now sits at 1700 words, with another 1000 of scene snippets, dialogue, notes, etc. I want to say more about this piece, but I don’t want to jinx it. I described it to my wife as trying to build a wall without mortar. All the bricks seem to be in the right place, but one nudge and the whole thing might fall...

So it’s back to the 9-to-5 tomorrow (actually, the 8-to-5)... If the past three days have taught me anything (or reminded me of anything) it is that I love to write. For a long time now I have neglected my duties as a writer by failing to apply ass to chair often enough. Why? The main reason was the voice in my head that kept saying, do you still enjoy doing this? Invariably, my answer was—I don’t know. In just these three days I have a new answer—a resounding and unequivocal YES! Previously, when I came up with an excuse—I’m not in the mood, I’m too tired, I’ve got this or that to do first—it wasn’t, not at its heart, a lack of interest in writing. It was simply Real Life and all its pressures, distractions, and depressions threatening to ruin my writing ambitions. Somewhere along the way, I forgot how good this shit feels, and how right...

The challenge for me now is to somehow bottle this feeling. To drink from it deep and drink from it often.