Summer Lovin’
It’s Officially Summertime, Right?
The days have been a blur, the weeks a swirling eddy of infant smiles, Venus rises, and word counts. I’ve been steadily working toward a full draft of my memoir while marveling at my daughter’s building list of developmental milestones. There’s not a whole lot of travel scheduled for me this year, so it’s been nice to be writing and teaching from home, finding a way to align my needs with those of my family.
As the temperatures rise, it’s wise to start the day earlier. I’m rising before sunrise to work out, to journal, to meditate. There’s something special about working out in the pre-dawn hours. The darkness. The shadows. The distant crow of a rousing rooster. The moon still overhead, glowing with Saturn nearby this time of year. The baby monitor static a backdrop to my efforts, the slight scrape of the barbells against concrete and my breath shallowing with each set.
I usually finish as the sky is lightening, just at the horizon. More car doors slamming and engines rumbling. More birds joining in the calls of the morning—mockingbirds, bluejays, and crows. I don’t know what the day will hold, but I know that I started well, in my body, pushing, pulling, feeling alive.
At the start of the summer, I struggled to figure out when I would fit in my workouts and runs. Determined write first thing in the morning, I wrote in those pre-dawn hours then struggled to keep the momentum going throughout the week. What finally occurred to me was that I was chasing the “writer routine” described in LitHub articles and documentaries. I was trying to do what I thought I had to do to be a real writer who bravely and loyally makes writing the first thing I do with my day—even with a new infant. I was doing what other writers said was necessary.
When I finally listened to myself, finally made space to hear what my heart, head, and body were trying to tell me, I heard a different message, a different directive.
Do what works. Whatever time. Whatever sequence. Whatever duration. DO. WHAT. WORKS. And when it doesn’t work anymore, do the next thing that works, the new thing that works.
With that shift to focus on process rather than product, movement rather than outcomes and appearances, it’s all been working—this writer life, this mama life, this wife life, this lower-your-blood-pressure-and-be-in-your-body life, this take naps and moments to breathe and read and daydream life. It’s working. I’m working.
Where to Catch Me in These Literary Streets!
The Writers’ Corner Get Down!
You don’t need a library card to join in this FREE workshop with The Writers’s Corner with the Orange County Library System. We’re talking objects and how they can inform character and character arc, plot and dramatic movement. Come thruuuuuuuuuu!
MORE Publishing Panel Goodness!
I’m excited to moderate the second and final publishing panel for Kitchen Table Literary Arts’s Writing Over Everything Writing and Publishing series. We’re talking with a whole new panel of Florida-based writers, across genre, to explore how writers navigate the ever-changing publishing landscape and build writing careers on their own terms.
Chicago! You Already Know!
It always feels so good to get back to Chicago, my literary home. From the Story Studio Chicago StoryBoard Festival to telling stories at Steppenwolf with the always fun You’re Being Ridiculous, next month is going to be littttttttttttttttt!!
