Well, today was a bit of a messed up weekend. Swim meets definitely throw a kink into the wrench of my routine. I didn’t realize, just how dependent I was on my current routine. Doing my morning journal. Listening to Anthony Robbins tapes, and finally last week, doing my writing every day. Every friggin day, from Mon to Friday, I wrote. And I wrote at least a thousand words. I think, that Friday could have been more, as I did break over 2000 words by Thursday, but Friday I only did just over a 1000. It wasn’t perhaps the most disciplined day. I definitely got a late start to the day, and that had to be attributed at least partially to the amount of chocolate I ate the night before . . . that chocolate really is my old nemisis. Even today, I’ve consumed a bit too much . . . at least it was dark chocolate . . . really good dark chocolate, but too much of it none the less. These swim meet weekends really mess me up. Getting back to my unproductive day on Friday though, was not just the chocolate influence, but also the fact that I stayed up a bit too late form play squash league the night before. It doesn’t seem to matter, if I win or lose, either way, I stay up a bit too late. Not sure how to deal with that. I think, the discipline of writing is the important thing. Making sure that you don’t procrastinate on the writing, that you actually do the writing, that’s the important thing. A little bit of motivation can go a long way. Once you begin the writing, it does start to flow, to feed upon itself. The 1000 words I wrote on Friday, really didn’t take that long, and it felt pretty good. I suspect it was around half an hour, which is not so bad. I stopped, because, it seem an appropriate place to stop. I think though, if I hadn’t run out of time during the day, I would have gotten another 1000 words into the mix. Just needed to percolate some ideas through my head. Where to take the characters next. That seemed to be missing, but a short break, and my mind would have worked it out and been ready for another 1000+ word session. I think, that once I get the flow going, 5000 daily words is no big deal. If I do 1000 word half hour sessions, then that’s really only 2.5 hours out of my day to get the 5000 word goal none. The trick is, to have somewhere to go. I do think, writing in the morning is a good thing for me. Perhaps later in the day as well. I do often feel like writing in the evening, but all the sessions I got done last week were in the morning, and that felt pretty good to. It felt good for the rest of the day to get them done. Perhaps, doing a half hour session before the morning journal would be good??? Not really sure about that, as I like the morning journal thing first . . . it’s sort of a warm up. Writing, that I don’t have to worry about being good. Just get the brain running, and keep writing. No concerns about how good or sucky it is. No concerns about anyone reading it. Just free flowing thoughts and ideas hitting the screen. It’s a good feeling . . . sets me up for the really good stuff that comes next. Which in the case of the novel, is the encounter of my heroes with what is left of Fort Knox. Even I don’t know quite what that is, but I’m sure I can figure out something once I get going. Speaking of getting going. I did buy a bunch of games for the PS3, the PSN had on sale. It was a pretty sweet deal. Most of them downloaded while we were gone over the weekend, and I’ve been installing some of them on the downstairs PS3. I think they’re kinda good for getting in the creative groove as well. They get my head in a different space, and thinking in a different way. I like that, and I think it helps. Or hell, I just love playing games . . . so at least putting my disposition in a great space is good. If I feel good and happy, it certainly aids the writing process. Not that it’s essential, but it helps. Essential, is sitting down and doing that work . . . commitment and discipline.

LOCATION: home office WORDSWRITTEN: 0 PUSHUPS: 0 TODO: end of day already . . . TV: none BOOK: none GAME: none EXERCISE: none WEIGHT: 175 BREAKFAST: pseudo bacon & eggs LUNCH: salad at Kelseys DINNER: swiss chalet half chicken dinner SNACKS: orange, apple, chocolate covered almonds ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 12:00 am AWAKE: 6:00 am