Withdrawals

It's only February 2nd and I'm already having reading withdrawals.  When I told my sons that I was giving up reading for the month, they were shocked.  They are voracious readers too and they couldn't believe that I was going to give it up.  I explained that I wanted to work more on my writing and that I was spending too much time reading.  They still thought I was crazy but immediately said, "Yeah, write something else because The Friend Factory was awesome."  (Hey, you gotta take your compliments where you can get them!)

Do you know how many hours are in a Saturday if you're not reading?  Me neither, but I bet it's a lot!

I know I'm going to make a couple loaves of banana bread (sans nuts).  I bet our house becomes very clean.  And the laundry gets done.  And then....what?  There will be hours and hours of Saturday left.  Perhaps a workout or a nap or both.  My husband will laugh at that last line, workout - indeed!

My experiment is for me to work on carving time out to focus on creativity, idea generation, and writing.  I am going to try to teach myself to think about my characters, the plot, the setting, the conflict and action while doing my chores.  If that doesn't work, I'm going to sit my butt at the computer and stare off into space and not let myself get 'busy' with other things.  This is my 'thing', one of my chores, that I need to schedule into my life.  I need to learn that it's okay to just let go and think (about anything).

Of course, after Saturday comes Sunday and there's just as many hours there too.

I think this might be fun!  Wish me luck...