Today may be a 2-W day. Those who have indulged my previous tour natterings knows that I shoot for two things every day on tour: writing and working out. I wrote 1,500 words this morning and my very kind media escort has said I can have a few hours off this afternoon, which means time to work out and shower before tonight’s event.
The 2-W thing, based on just the first three days of this tour, is clearly going to be a harder goal to hit this time. In some ways, that’s a good thing, because it means the schedule is packed. Yesterday, I honestly thought I could squeeze yoga into the 90 minutes I had between returning home from one event and leaving for the airport. But I also had to finish packing and do some vital things around the house. And cram some sustenance in my mouth. Then it turned out I had a wonderful opportunity to write something for a UK newspaper, but I had to turn it around quickly. So yesterday was, in fact, a 0-W day, because the only writing I count toward my daily total is novel-writing.
Anyway, 1-W down, along with an interview. Not too shabby.
ETA: I’m counting ice skating as the second W. There’s a rink in the Boston Commons.
I am so enjoying Life Sentences. Just wanted to let you know.
About memory, I remembered something after hearing you speak on Monday night. I remembered that as a little girl (under 6) I had a golden Cocker Spaniel named Spot, a dog that inexplicably disappeared from my life by the time I was 6 (that age coincided with our move to a new house). It was nearly 30 years later that my mother pointed out that the dog was black, was only questionably a Cocker Spaniel and was put down after an injury from a car and his name was not Spot. The name Spot apparently came from an early primer (See Spot, See Spot run…) No one remembers the dog’s name.
Your schedule wears me out, Laura. You’re doing great!
“I honestly thought I could squeeze yoga into the 90 minutes I had”
There’s gotta be a tantra joke here somewhere….but indeed, discretion IS the better part of valor.
I’ve noticed the concept of (fill in the blank) 1000 or 1500 words a day; seems to me that Sixty Minutes did a piece on PJ O’Roarke and he has a similar daily goal when he’s working on a book. (interestingly, he will ONLY write on an old IBM Selectric; he has a stragic reserve of 4 or 5 more of those machines, so as to be covered when he finally wears one out)
One ASSUMES that if you get “on a roll”, you could just keep going, and rack another 500 or 1000 words…or do you make yourself stop? Is part of the discipline stopping even when you’re tempted to keep going, as much as starting when you really don’t want to?
Anyway – writing 1500 words for publication in a newspaper or periodical may not satisfy the “w” for book writing, but it counts for SOMETHING! – maybe the “w” for “worthwhile activities”