Time stealers or transformers?

There are so many wonderful distractions in life--things that relieve the moments of stress by making me laugh. Is it a waste of time to stop and laugh? How about crying? Staring out the window? Fretting over things that can't be changed? Some distractions are more valuable than others.

Today I was distracted by my daughter's poor choice in a matter that affected her trustworthiness. A 12-year-old cannot always be counted on to behave wisely. Then she makes some wry, insightful comment about the neighborhood and I'm laughing again. I'm saving all these moments for my second novel, which will probably end up being finished third. :) The main character in that book is based on my daughter in some, but of course not all, ways. Letting her steal my time is good for that novel, as well as good for us as a family.

I'm trying to transform the things that steal my time into things that inform my writing, as well as my life--to lighten up. Maybe I need to think about wasting time as simply restructuring my use of time. I'm not advocating spending ALL DAY staring out the window or at the ceiling, but some down time renews us creatively. See Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, which I've mentioned here before. Waste some time creatively today.

Progress is daily on the road to glory

I was recently reminded about one of the best books I ever read/acted on: The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.  I'm  planning to re-read it in the near future--even got it down and put it in the stack of books by my bed--but I've lived by it for more than a decade. Cameron's book is about nurturing our creativity--making room for it in our lives, balancing input and output, reaching for our goals, finding our way.  You read one chapter a week, write three pages a day of anything (when I first read it in the 90s, I wrote a journal, now I use the idea for my book) first thing in the morning, and have a date with yourself once a week to go someplace that nourishes your spirit and gives your creativity a boost. 

As I finished another scene in my book today, I felt again how important it is to write every day--to keep the momentum going, the story line straight in my mind, and my characters awake in my consciousness. Right now they are clattering around all over the place, anxious to break out and tell their stories. So I guess Cameron's method is working.