Dragging My Fee(ngers)t

I met my second thesis-deadline at the end of February without any trouble. One week of relaxing later, I started my new job. Now I spend about 2 hours on the road every day getting to and back from work. Every Monday and Wednesday, I get home, down two slices of bread, refill my water bottle and go rock climbing, from which I usually get back around half past nine.
Another snack, a nice hot shower and straight to bed. At least one evening a week I get home from work, eat, then go grocery shopping - because on Saturdays, doing so is no fun. Which means I get two evenings per work-week, during which I actually get home and stay home, can be at home and relax. There’s always something going on at the weekends, too, especially now that my grandmother is so ill and the weather is warming up enough to go climbing outside.

I’m not listing my weekly doings here to elicit pity. I enjoy my weeks, even the daily two hour drives (so long as there are no actual traffic jams). My work is exciting, I love to go climbing, seeing my family, and I appreciate my two free evenings a week a lot more than I ever did.

There is just one thing that has been eliminated completely from my days; and since this blog is about my dream as an aspiring author, I’m sure the same question that has been giving me some head- and heartache has popped into your head:

When am I supposed to find the time to write again?

Two of my last New Year’s Revolutions were writing-related. One: Find an agent with/for my first book. Two: Finish book number two, the plot and characters of which stand and only need to be actually written and revised, revised, revised.

Obviously, this is a time of change for me. I’m still learning the ropes on my new job, getting my new routine down, and all the new experiences piling in every day wear me out by the end of the day. So much that I have no desire whatsoever to turn on the computer at home after spending all day on it at work already. Right now, I honestly don’t miss writing, so it’s okay - but I know I will once things start calming down. Writing to me is like breathing - faster and deeper at some times, soft and slow during others, but always vital to my existence. Except by the time the faster-and-deeper kicks in again, I’ll have my routine worked out and it won’t include writing time. Unless I start including it now.

So here’s an addendum to my original New Year’s resolutions: Write 45 minutes every day. It doesn’t matter what; a novel-page, a blog post, a diary entry. It doesn’t matter on what; the laptop, my notebook or napkins (a friend of mine got me these cool stationary-lined napkins for my birthday that read “some of the biggest ideas in the world started on a napkin”). 

And it doesn’t matter what quality; gibberish, therapeutic ramblings or groundbreaking theories. The quality and drive will return when the time is right. All I want to accomplish with this resolution is to establish writing in my everyday routine.