Return to the Scene of the Crime, But Free!

I’m back at my morning writing spot, the place where my laptop’s hard-drive died, peeking at the table where it happened. I’m not being all doomsday, or even nostalgic—someone else is sitting in the table: a man charging his cell phone and drinking something out of a paper bag. So I can’t sit there even [...]

What My Locker Reveals

Inside the storage locker at my weekend writing spot are the following items that I keep on hand in case I might need them at a moment’s notice:

1 black sweater
1 used plastic bag, for covering laptop if it rains
1 Antioch Review magazine
1 You Can Write for Children Writers Digest Guide
2 Open City magazines
1 large pencil [...]

Absolutely No Reason to Be Awake This Morning

Folks, I finally turned in the first draft of the work-for-hire novel I was writing that had been driving me batty. I was two weeks and one day late from the original deadline, how mortifying. No feedback yet—though my heart, head, and gut are telling me I didn’t do such a good job, as this [...]

Writing Spot on Lockdown

My weekend writing spot (a members-only organization in Manhattan) has a lot of rules:

No talking in the room.
No slamming doors.
No hogging bathroom keys.
No swiping magazines.
No leaving desk unattended for more than an hour.
No leaving dirty dishes in the sink.
No leaving the coffeepot empty.
No leaving food in fridge for more than a week.
No bringing in guests, [...]

Stabs at a Writing Life

I’m not thinking about much else but writing these days. Only, I’ve been exhausted—and here I type this with a headache—probably because I’m trying to push myself so hard.
I am under deadline with a freelance writing project—and I am behind, very behind—and the day job is cutting into my time. I try to write every [...]

Alone Time

There’s this quirk in my personality: I desperately need time alone.
Sometimes this desire—this need—gets exacerbated by daily existence here on the bustling island of Manhattan: partiers in the apartments just below and above us, commuting on the subway, work, and, like this weekend, a sold-out showing of a very long movie at the big theater [...]

Write Away

Famous Writer I Admire So Very Much smiled at me as I came in today.
Does this matter? Can’t I write on a day when Famous Writer doesn’t smile at me? Well, of course I can. But sometimes it’s nice to think that I’m here writing, and she’s here writing, and we’re both just, I don’t [...]

Alone with Only My Thoughts

It was an eventful day.
An intensely early writing morning was cut short by the most enormous cockroach I have ever seen in my life. The most enormous cockroach I have ever seen in my life was happily scuttling on the cafe floor beneath the tables—even the tough guy beside me semi-squealed—so I had to finish [...]

Good Morning, Rejection

I woke up far earlier in the morning and blearily checked my email only to find a rejection from one of my favorite literary magazines. I promptly went back to sleep.
But I forced myself up again. I have the best of intentions to write—and write hard—today. So far so good. I try to trick myself [...]

When You Really, Really Want It

Early this morning I went out into the freezing rain and slush to go write. My street hadn’t been shoveled and I have no winter boots. It took forever to make it around the corner, slipping and sliding and trying to keep a hold of the umbrella in the wind. I held the umbrella in [...]

Far from Home

I’m doing better in terms of words that can be counted (18,627 as of tonight), but I am well aware that I’ll have to cut a great many at the end. That’s to be expected, I know, but I’m not sure how helpful this process will be to me except in sheer pages. The question [...]

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Felt ill this morning. Could have been the doomsday thoughts running through my head, coming back even though I told them they’re not allowed to, could have been the enormity of writing a novel, a new novel, and what might happen after it’s done. (Revise, cut, write anew, revise, cut, write anew, revise, revise, cut, [...]

Word for Day 1: Rocky

The world did not want me to write this morning. But I got all stubborn and determined and I marched on out of here and I set up shop in my corner and I said, So there, World. Take that.
But it was one slow start. There is a problem with living in this neighborhood [...]

My Writing Spot(s)

For some time I’ve wanted to respond to Bloglily’s call to her readers to share their writing spots. I keep meaning to bring my camera, keep forgetting, so for now let’s do without pictures. You know, maybe it’s better this way, because I don’t think it’s the physical spot that matters so much as the [...]

Sunday Morning

Out walking Sunday morning before most people are up. Few cars in the streets. The firemen spray the sidewalk in front of their firehouse with a hose. A broken bottle on the corner maybe from a drunken fight last night. The park is being cleaned by women in matching blue T-shirts and garbage bins on [...]