About Time

Hi, I’m known as Malfunction, and I think I have a problem. I haven’t written in earnest for a good few months. A writer who doesn’t write is just a person who scribbles sometimes. It’s been bugging me for a while, and I think I've finally figured out why the heck I’m not writing. Part of it has to do with life… but only part of it.

In the last few months, I found a new job, and the commuting time is significantly longer than I was used to. I’m now one of those fools who get to commute into town, so I've been swimming ever slower in traffic. In order to skip anything from 30-50 minutes off my commute, I've been trying to get up earlier. Each week, I've been pushing the alarm clock forward another 20 minutes until I’m getting up at “are-you-freaking-kidding-me?” o’clock. I am not a morning person at the best of times, but I’m going to make it work. Somehow. In addition I need to do what I’ll charitably call ‘homework’. It’s part of the learning experience for the new job. While I have understanding, knowledge and skill, I’m not what you’d call a productive member of my team right now. That weighs on me. I can’t leave the feeling at work. I’m not going forward as fast as I need to, so the way to deal with it is to hit it head-on. I haven’t done that so far, so that’s part of my new plan. Do my day job. It pays for everything else. Now it’s the everything else I have to think about. And I have a plan.

In order to do this, I’m now going to start up a writing schedule. Again.I've lost all ability to write. Again. Not going to lie, it's really frustrating. It’s even more annoying when I realise that the only reason that I have to start again is because I stop. I’m the one who stops. Now I’m the one who has to find a way to grind out 300 words a day every two days. That’s all I’m going to start with. That’s what I’m going to hold myself accountable for. After two weeks, I’ll bump that up to 300 words every day. In addition, I've put my writing time so it’s the first thing I’ll do when I get home. If I’m hungry regularly, I’ll have to find a way to have something ready for when I come in.

I’m not planning more than that. I want the habit back. I want that feeling back. I want that ability to scratch my itch, and I want that constant itch back. 45 minutes in the evenings. It isn’t a huge amount. I can do this. I really can. And that means you can too.

We can just… start.