Scroll down for cool things like the online one-day Writing in the Junkyard this Sunday, and the fact that I’m opening up to a few developmental editing clients!

Hi writer,

From my office desk, I can often see people dangling off buildings: 

Working in the windiest city in the world (yes, I always say it) can be a challenge for painters, cleaners, and window washers. These folks didn’t have a scaffold, but they often do here (and boy howdy, do those need powerful tie-downs). 

Scaffolding reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

“A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living.” - Annie Dillard

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. 

She’s saying: 

• Making a schedule for writing protects us. It keeps us safe.

• Knowing we’re safe, we can pry our fingers off the cold metal bars of fear and get back to writing.

• Is a schedule fake and forced? OH YEAH it is. It’s totally ridiculous. I blow off a lot of the plans I make. Life gets lifey. That’s okay. Redoing the schedule just means I move forward a little more each time.

• If we keep scheduling our writing and then doing it because of that, we end up decades later, still on the lifeboat of our writing.

But I skipped ahead, didn’t I? The lines just before these ones say something even more important: 

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. 

I used to HATE this quote.

Because I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do. I wasn’t writing. I was wanting to write. Waiting to write. But not actually doing it.

Then I started writing regularly, and that existential pain went away. I was spending my days the way I really wanted to.

I still forget, though. All the time. I recently had the (rude) revelation that while I’d been making a mental schedule for writing, I wasn’t putting it in my calendar. Therefore, I wasn’t getting my writing done. Sigh.

I want to write or revise 1,000 words a day, 5 days a week. That’s pretty simple, honestly.

So I’ve gone back to following my schedule, which says that I write first thing. I can’t just “check a little email.” I can’t make a “real quick” Slack post. Maybe some people can, but if I do? I’m off the rails for the whole day, just doing stuff. All that stuff feels so important.

But most important, in terms of being at my desk, is doing my writing.

So I’m back to writing first, before anything else. (Unless it’s a Writing Guild Session day. Then I fire up Zoom, chat to my writing friends for 5 minutes, and THEN we write. It’s easier together.)

And it’s working. Words are getting writ’.

It feels good. (Okay, it feels really good. This morning, I got out of my recliner, did a fist pump that would have been embarrassing if anyone had seen it, and literally mumbled to myself, “Good fucking JOB.” It feels that good.)

If you’re writing as much as you want, YAY YOU. Good fucking JOB, my friend.

If not, what do you need to change to get back to your writing? (If you’re not writing, something needs to change.)

You can do this.

love,

Rachael

Website | Ink Village | Instagram | Podcast | Patreon

PS - Writing in the Junkyard, a one-day writing retreat on Zoom, is THIS SUNDAY! Come in your jammies. You don’t even have to be there the whole time! Make it work for YOU. 10am - 5pm PT / 1pm - 8pm ET. ALL THE INFO IS HERE. (Or join Ink Village and always get the Junkyard for free!)

PPS - This is BIG NEWS: I’m taking on a select few developmental editing clients in the next month or three. I haven’t had time to do this in a long time, but I’ve really missed it. All the info is HERE. Reach out if you think we might be a fit.

PPPS - If you’re an I-can’t-write-first-thing writer, that’s totally fine. If you’re an afternoon or evening writer, that’s perfect. Awesome. But only if you’re doing it. If you’re not, that’s not your method. Try something else. ❤️

PPPPS - Do please forward this to a writing friend you like! They can subscribe here. And mention to them that this is 100% human-made because typos are sexy.