How my writing time changes with the seasons

I am able to procrastinate quite well in all of them.

It’s easier to procrastinate in the summer when the weather is nice because ‘the sun is shining, we should be outside,’ and ‘I can’t write and watch the baseball game’ (okay this one is a lie, it would be very easy to write during the baseball game and not miss a moment of the action.) The other problem is that whenever I tell my kids to go outside because it is so nice out, my son says, ‘but you aren’t!’

 

My other writing season is the school year. In theory, I have seven whole hours every day to write. Somehow that time gets eaten up with laundry, and doctor appointments, and grocery shopping, and watching youtube videos. I try to classify that last one as research, but it’s a pretty long stretch. Sasquatch sighting reports, maybe, but Arrow workout videos and Flash gag reels, not so much.

When I do write, it’s still in the late evening after I’ve run and the kids are all in their bedrooms (assuming they were in their beds and sleeping is about as big of a stretch as certain youtube videos being research.) Something about the darkness and the quiet helps me focus.

 

Currently I’m sitting at my desk, which is on one of the busier streets in town. This afternoon I’ve seen three vehicles with sirens and lights as well as lots of people walking and others driving by. That must be too much activity for me to concentrate on my work. (I’m still thinking about the emergency vehicles. Where were they going? It probably was somewhere on my street because there are better ways to get to other parts of town. It’s all very curious.)

And now that I’ve successfully procrastinated through today by running and doing laundry, I have no time to get the last edits of this draft into the computer before I have to pick up the kids.

After they go to bed, maybe. (It’s Halloween. It’s going to take a while for the sugar to wear off.)

What are your seasons of writing like?