I’m about a quarter way into a first draft, and I’m being remarkably sane about it. This is usually when I have no brainpower or energy for anything else (I call it Book Brain), but I’ve managed to get my writing done and I’ve managed to do other things. Yesterday in my mid-morning writing break, I Swiffered the floors and pulled some weeds in the back yard, and I still hit my targeted word count before lunch. I cooked dinner. Though I will confess that I resorted to a frozen entree on Monday, but that’s what they’re there for, and needing the frozen entree was more because I was doing stuff in the yard and lost track of time to the point that I didn’t have time to cook than because my brain was devoured by the writing.

I’m trying to figure out what’s different so I can do it again. One thing is that I’m making a strong effort to start work earlier in the morning, before I get distracted by other things. That allows me to hit my goals before lunch, so anything else I do is a bonus. It also helps, oddly enough, that my back has been a bit stiff. Last week I was doing the writing while also attending an online conference, so I didn’t move around as much as I usually do, and then Sunday morning there was a lot of standing for choir, and during all the standing my back got stiff. So this week I’ve been making more of an effort to take breaks and get up and move. That’s how I did the sweeping and yard work. Instead of falling down the usual social media rabbit hole while I was taking a break, I got up and did housework and yard work, and that seemed to make me more productive for writing, possibly because those breaks were shorter and were a total change of pace.

In general, I think having so much yard work to do helps because it gets me away from the computer, but it also gives me thinking time, which makes the writing go better. It also gives me a sense of accomplishment. I can look out the window and see a difference, even if there’s still more work to do. I’m getting the giant grass under control and clearing out weeds. Seeds that I’ve planted are sprouting. I bought a cherry tomato plant at the beginning of the month, and I already have four baby tomatoes starting to form, plus lots of blossoms. It’s a good balance from writing, plus it’s a good way to get exercise so my back doesn’t feel so stiff.

I also think all the time I spent preparing this book helped. I was starting to feel like I was procrastinating, but spending so much time thinking about the book ahead of time means it’s not quite so draining now that I’m writing. I’m still getting surprises along the way, which is fun. For instance, I realized that I may be writing a WWII resistance thriller set in a fantasy world. That element was always there, since an underground movement was part of the story, but I didn’t realize it would have quite that same flavor until I started writing, and then I decided to go with it. But the structure and the world I set up earlier are still more or less the same and I don’t have to think so much about what happens next, so I feel less drained at the end of a writing session.

It’s nice to get my writing done and also be a functional human being.