I haven’t been able to write since the lockdown began. Oddly enough, unlike some of my actual writer friends who are having trouble engaging emotionally with their writing while the pandemic goes on, for me it’s been a matter of logistics. There’s a lot I’m eager to write – I just can’t find the time.
I end up spending somewhere between an hour to two hours cooking, dishwashing and keeping the house (and shopping once a week), since I’ve given my cleaning lady a couple of months off. Other than that, I refuse to compromise on the things I need to keep me going at this time – movies, books and conversations. I haven’t met a single person I know in a month (I have met the people running the shops and the security in my building, but that doesn’t count, really) so I know that I need to stay in touch with the people I care about so I can stay on an even enough keel, emotionally.
And, weirdly enough, I seem to have more lettering work than before rather than less. Comics people seem to be taking the fact that they can work from home quite seriously, and I’ve been taking up a few genuinely interesting new projects. This added with the fact I’m working at around 80-90% of my usual efficiency because of the summer heat and the … waves at everything … means my hands are pretty full with work.
So I haven’t really had any time to write – at least any productive time to write. I’ve come up with a few new short stories that I’m hoping I’ll get to write soon, and my big projects – revising SAWBONES and finishing Draft 1 of STRANGER – are also waiting for the next batch of free time I might have.
I’ve decided for now to abandon my usual strategy of writing for an hour a day – I don’t really have that hour. Instead, I’ll be trying to figure out an extra free day a week, or maybe every couple of weeks, apart from the weekend, and try and write then.