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I started this blog entry on the 5th.  This is what I wrote:

“It’s 4:14 a.m. as I type this.  I’m 5,283 words into my novel for NaNoWriMo.  My husband and baby are in bed, undoubtedly warm and cuddly, under the blankets with the fan on.  I’m taking a short break from writing.  I’m wondering when the blood is going to start flowing back into my posterior.”

That’s when I think I checked on the baby and got seduced into bed by my slumbering family.  I put up a good fight, but in the end, I had to raise the white flag.  Babies smell so good.   🙂

Now it’s the 11th — scratch that.  It’s the 12th.  I’m still on schedule with NaNoWriMo at 19,000+ words, and something’s changed in me, for the better.  I’m finding out for myself the truth about time management — it’s bogus.  There is no management of time.  What utter nonsense — and arrogance on my part! — to think that time can be managed.  And I think I’ve known that for a long time.  There is only now, and that’s all anybody’s got.

Truth be told, this is the first time in years that I’ve spent every free moment devoted to moving the story forward.  Being a new parent has shrunk my “free time” to the size of a peanut compared what I was used to, and yet, I’ve become twice as productive, and only getting better.

Not only am I writing faster, focused on moving the story forward, ignoring my inner editor — that wretched, jealous bitch — but I’m getting rid of the extras in order to trade back more time.  Emails, surfing, shopping, excessive research, blog-reading, even unnecessary eating (my favorite)…these things have all fallen by the wayside in favor of the book.

That’s right.  Now, instead of thinking, planning, dreaming about writing, poking stories along here and there with my slowpoke stick, I am writing the book.  And it’s a book now, no doubt about it.  Not an idea, not a concept, not an outline, or even a synopsis.  It’s a friggin’ book.

Originally, my intention with this post was to ask people when they write, whether they’re more productive in the morning, afternoon, evening, et cetera, as I, myself, used to be a night owl, but have found I’m more productive if I write in the morning.

But like time management, ultimately all that type of discussion can be pretty pointless and lead to procrastination strategies I’m better off without.  I prefer to write every morning from 10:00 to noon at my local Starbucks.  That’s my preference, and that’s when the juices seem to run the juiciest.  However, it is a rare occurrence these days.  So here I am after midnight, squeezing in a blog post before I jump back to the book.  Glory be!

Turns out, the best time for me to write is now.  It always has been.  I just was too busy avoiding it to realize it.  So back into the trenches I go.