I’m in Durham, North Carolina with my husband, who’s here for some meetings. One day doesn’t seem like much, but since my high school carpool fell through my writing days have been a shortened mess–I HAVE a babysitter to pick my kids up from school, but she is but one human and there are two schools, not close to each other, letting out at the same time. It occurs to me as I write this that I could probably find a solution that would not be ideal for the kids but would improve things for me… but not right now, because I’m having a WRITING DAY.

One day that goes from 8 am to 5 pm never happens for me any more. My days, since September, have ended at 2:3o or 1:30 on Wednesdays and then become full of chaos, and even when I return to work it’s not concentrated work, it’s not book work.

I’m not doing a very good job of describing my writing day. I seem to be a little focused on why I needed it so very badly. Am I the only one who thinks that suggests that I need to make some changes? But wait–we agreed that I wouldn’t do that today. Today is for writing.

Although if I don’t, I won’t have time to make the changes, because I’ll be frantically writing during the very brief time my children spend in their institutions of learning.  (How is it that the hours from 8-3 seem very long when you’re in school and very short when they’re in school?) And, here’s another thing–if someone else would just drive them freaking home, I’d probably have until 3:30 and that would not seem so bad. It’s the going to get one or the other pickups that’s killing me.

Although 2:30 will never be great.

Did I mention that there’s a lot of driving to be done after school and once again, it’s hard to have one person do all that?

I think I did.

Ok, how about this. I write some more. Then I take a run, because it’s lovely here, and on that run, I try to think about how to resolve this stupid pick up problem.

That seems like a plan.

Here’s something a friend wrote me about writing a book, which has struck a nerve, as I try to balance should I only write books? Should I write more for Well Family too? I told them once a month. How about Sunday Review? I thought I might to that once a month, too. What about blogging and my emails?

” If you can totally focus on the book thing, I would do that. It is much easier than trying to split your concentration on numerous projects. The book is like one big long thought. In my experience, you want to interrupt that thought with breaks, but not with other projects. The breaks (naps, runs, horses) actually allow you consolidate and brew, whereas new projects introduce a 2 steps forward, 1 step back dynamic with the book.”

I think she’s right. I can’t figure out how to structure this thing I’m trying to do. It may have to be a longer run.

You know all those people who send out cheery updates on how they’re writing their book and sharing what they learn and doubling up their content to connect with readers and just using all these awesome strategies to make it work? I hate them and I want to be them, all at the same time.