Wednesday, April 25, 2018

No Time To Kill by Nancy Gideon

What do we writers desire the most (besides fame, fortune and a self-cleaning house)? Time. Time to write. Time to relax. Time to take care of the business of writing.


I've had time to reconsider that. Be careful what you wish for.

A week after coming back from a fab (read: expensive shopping-wise!) trip to the Tucson Festival of Books and Sedona, my monetary security is rocked by the unexpected news that one of the attorneys in my office has decided to retire . . . in two weeks, and will not be paying any more rent. The rent that pays the salaries for me and our law clerk. Surprise, 30% of my income gone, just like that. Now, mind you, I don't have the luxury of a self-supporting writing career. After the shock and panic wore off (and some, I admit, righteous annoyance at the lack of notice), it was time to hunker down with the calculator and weigh the pros and cons: Time v Cash.

My Coolest Boss Ever and I crunched numbers and possibilities to provide an income I could live with (if not live on). Fridays off without pay was a no brainer. I could do that. Who wouldn't love a three day weekend every weekend? Then our suite neighbor stepped up and offered to take me on for four hours a week to do odds and ends for him. Our law clerk had just decided to go for a double masters next semester and won't have time to clerk, so the situation worked out pretty well in the end.

Now, how to spend that extra 8 hours (actually 10 1/2 without drive and prep time)?

My first Friday off while my grandguy visited over Spring Break I spent in Toys R Us looking for deals (there were none!), pet stores, restaurants, and a bookstore (never say No to a book!). The next, I spent on the couch binge watching movies. A recovery weekend, I justified. The third Friday, I slept in until 5:30 then went straight to the computer, spending the day doing a time line for where the previous book and my WIP overlap AND got in a new chapter written. Last Friday, I wrote way past noon, and it was marvelous.

And this is where I'll spend this Friday . . . 


With the extra day off, I can take advantage of the pre-conference Write-In time from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm before our Mid-Michigan RWA weekend Retreat from Harsh Reality and JUST WRITE! See ya' there, Diane Burton!

Okay, this can work! Just that extra day to pour out on the keyboard picked up my momentum for the rest of the week's pages and posts. My ultimate vision is to write Friday morning and use the afternoon to do writing business i.e. blog posts, gifs for FB/Twitter, excerpts, etc., freeing up the rest of my weekday early morning writing time to just do writing. And Saturday and Sunday - maybe I'll use as an actual weekend days off once in a while. All-in-all, not bad lemonade from that first sour bit of news.

Time is what you make of it, so make the most of it!

What would you do with that extra day?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Nancy Gideon on the Web


4 comments:

S.K. Dubois said...

Sounds like a gift from the Universe to me! But don't you hate it when those little gifts are wrapped in stress? Enjoy the time and thanks for this post.

Diane Burton said...

Unfortunately (for me), the more time I have the more time I waste. This week, with all the sunshine, I'm determined to finish my WIP. Yes, Nancy. I'll see you on Saturday at retreat. Can't wait to reconnect with everyone.

Maureen said...

I've always been fixated on time- as I seem to be chasing it's tail (or mine) most of the time.

Elizabeth Alsobrooks said...

You have rocked that three-day weekend thing! Sounds great. Retreat looks awesome! Hope you enjoyed it and seems like you did recover from the AZ shopping spree after all!