I love this time of year. The sun is up early encouraging me to do the same. The sky stays light late into the evening beckoning me to sit outside and enjoy the cooler air and ponder the universe. The heat in the middle of the day says "siesta time" and I listen too often. In short, it can be darned hard for me to sit in front of the computer and work. In a way it was easier when my kids were smaller and I had to plan my time better. But these days my time is pretty much my own when I'm not at my paying job. Instead of writing I find myself doing a lot of reading these days, and walking the dog, and gardening, and hanging out laundry. In short, almost everything but sitting in the chair and pounding out pages. Instead of daily pages I get weekly pages done. I tell myself it's okay, I'm "filling the well," but often end the day feeling like I wasted it as far as writing went. Living in a gorgeous place is part of the difficulty, of course. People come here to vacation, to marvel over what greets me every morning. I tell ya, Pikes Peak is a major distraction. I look out the window and it draws the eye and I want to go outside and be a part of the world instead of sitting inside writing about it.
I'm not complaining, I know I'll get back to a regular writing schedule again. It is a matter of will power. Not only that, the story will not be denied for long. I'll wake up one morning and be beckoned to the computer instead of outside. My story will take me by the hand and insist that I write it. I love it when that happens. Until then I'll putter and walk and read. I'll fill my creative well with sensory images that will make my muse swoon and my story gasp with delight when I finally come back from my summer writing doldrums. For now, I think I'll find a glass of iced tea and a spot in the shade of the aspen outside along with a book.
What about you? How do you cope with summer and all that tempts you away from what you should be doing?
