First Cup of Coffee - April 5, 2019

I'm discombobulated today because my under-desk treadmill is being - and making ominous noises - so I'm talking about how my walking desk is integral to writing for me. Also about how ritual and habits affect building a sustainable writing flow, but that ultimately the writing comes from us, not the ritual. First cat-wrangling episode of the season, too!

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Good morning everyone. This is Jeffy Kennedy. I'm here with my first cup of coffee. Today's Friday, April 5th. Alan, I forgot to harness up Jackson. What do you think? Can we catch him? He's been wanting to go out. I've been busy dealing. I was busy dealing with some things. My um under desk treadmill motor is dying. It's making all these ominous clunking noises. I always feel like one of those people on a car talk. Remember that radio show? Yeah, like when you're on the phone with the customer service and you're trying to explain, you know, it's like it goes squeak, squeak, squeak, and then it goes clunk. Ominous clunking noises. Alright, Jackie Boy, let's get you attached to your leash. So Jackson had been asking to go out for some time, but I was talking with people on the phone and reading off serial numbers, and so I was a bad cat mom. There we go. Okay, now he's on his highness. And free as he gets to be. Alright, now I get my coffee. My London vlog. Oh, that's so good. I confess I was sipping at it once I got on the phone. I you know, it was one of those things where I left them a service call message yesterday afternoon and they didn't call me back, but I left it at like four. And then I was getting ready to do my podcast, and I noticed that it was after eight and they hadn't called me back yet. And so I thought, well, I better check in with them. I'm glad I did. I don't know. Sometimes I think people don't listen to their messages that are left after hours. They just wait people to call them back in case it's you know, see if it's important. So the good news is my motor's under warranty still. Yay! There's much rejoicing. So they're sending me a new motor, and that will come on Tuesday. The uh what Salt Lake City people, lifespan people, and then the folks from Albuquerque are going to come up on Wednesday morning and clean it all up and get it all fixed for me and put a new motor in. So hooray! And their their service call should only cost like $175, so that's considerably better than buying a whole new channel. The um downside is well, I think Jackson's wanting to take a walk. Shall we walk with him? We haven't done that yet this spring, have we? Let me get him unhooked here. It's partly because David's over by the garage. Um, this all is of a piece, truly. Uh I've gotta change my grip. I know that holding this rope with my pinky finger was going to lead to disastrous consequences. So the thing is, is I'm deep into drafting Fiery Citadel, right? And one of the great downsides of me being so ritualized is that you know I do hour-long riding sprints where I walk at two different speeds. So, like my first sprint, I'll start out at 2.5 miles an hour and walk and write for half an hour, and then I'll take the speed down to 2.1 miles an hour. I drop it by 0.4, don't ask me why, it's just like what I've ended up doing, and then I take a break in between, like 15 minutes, half an hour. At least I'm trying to keep it to half an hour. Sometimes it goes a little longer, depending on how much I dork around. And three, four, or five of those, and I get my word count. And you know, like my second one, I start at 2.4 miles an hour and take it down to two. So the thing is, is that's been very good for me to produce words, but when it you know, the the walking helps create that trance. Um it's it's really just it's been a wonderful thing, and I really do, and you know what it keeps my energy up, so as I'm walking and working, you know, I don't get sleepy, it helps keep my brain focused. But the downside, here we are, getting to that big downside. The downside of it is if something happens like this and I can't walk on my treadmill, then I feel um all discombobulated, and I'm feeling like, oh my god, this means I can't write for the next several days, which is baloney. You know, I can put a chair at my desk. I have a hydraulic desk, so I can lower it. And I can sit in other places, but it's just not my normal routine. Jackson, don't go to the garage. You don't need to go there. Yeah, come on back. So we have a second treadmill. We are a two-treadmill household, I impressed. We have one for running on. And so David said, well, maybe I could work on that one. So he's right now working on seeing what he can come up with to set it up. So he's got the garage open here and he's rooting around seeing if he can find a uh board to put across the handlebars. Jackson, don't jump up there. No, come on. Come on, let's go out to the street. Please. The cat wrangling, huh? Okay there. Ah, no, I don't want to do that. Yeah. Yes. Alright. There we go. Focus. So it's uh I guess Friday. If I could try to get words today, that'd be great. I only got some words yesterday. I got about 2,000 words yesterday, which I have to appreciate is still good. But I did not hit my 3,500 in part because the treadmill started making really ominous noises, and I tried fixing it for a little while. But I was also feeling kind of toast on the story at that point. But if I can get 3,000 words today, it'll be my highest word count week all year, so so that's good. So then I just have to get through Monday and Tuesday next week, trying to find ways to write and see if David comes up with something for me to work on the other treadmill with. Or I can try sitting and writing. You know, it's so funny how we come to rely on the rituals. I do think that it's good to break that up from time to time. But um, you know, and certainly I've done it. I have to think about, you know, like if I'm at a conference or something, I've done it. I finished Orchid Throne with Dorinda. She and I worked in various places. We went and worked at the library and sat at tables. So I'm just gonna have to uh accept that I'm not gonna be able to work my usual habit and believe that I can get my work done anyway. Makes me think of a long time ago, I think I've told you guys this story before, but um when I very first started getting serious about daily word count and writing. My uh I'm out walking the cat and the guy's working on the roof. I think he thinks I'm weird. I am. Grace calls me crazy cat jogger for a reason. With the neighbor's house, they're working on the roof. Where are we going? Let's go back this way. Yeah, good idea. I thought that was a good idea too. Um, when I very first started writing, I was very ritualized about finding ways to produce word count. Um you know, I would write at the same time. I had two different desks, I would write first, and I would I had this one kind of old jersey dress that I just love, this deep blue jersey dress. It's one of my favorite dresses, kind of squirrely. And I would wear that. It had gotten scroungy, so I couldn't wear it for nice things anymore. I would wear that to ride in, and then the only problem with being over here is we're closer to the road. Come on, Jackson, let's get away from the road. Let's go this way. Come on! Come on! Come on. We're by our neighbor's house too. We don't need to be going up to her front door. Although she's a lovely person, an artist. Hey, hey, hey, you're gonna snag the solar light. Try not to snag her solar lights with the leash. Oh, he likes to come over to this aspen tree and try to climb it. Yeah, you think you could. Anyway, I was you know, I would play certain music. I would especially in those days, uh, at the beginning I would do use the uh soundtrack from the mission, and that would get the words flowing. And I needed all those things to sort of trigger the word count, trigger me into producing. And gradually, uh, you know, now I no longer use music. He's taking off running now. So at some point, David said to me, pointed out that that dress I would wear had big holes in it. Uh, to the point of immodesty, depending on how I moved. If I shifted the wrong way, you know, like a breast would pop out of one hole. Ah, Jackson. So David's like, you need to get rid of that thing. And I said, but but this is my writing dress. And he said, Jeffy, the writing comes from you, not from the dress. Which, you know, isn't necessarily a super profound thing, but it is true, and I it was something I needed to hear. Um and it's the same way now, you know, it's like the writing comes from me, not from my treadmill. Got a joy on your paw? There you go. So I just need to uh buckle down. Editor Jenny did say it was fine to um turn the book in on the 22nd, so I've got a week reprieve. So that's very helpful. Now you're gonna go in. We sort of did this big circuit all around the property and now we're back. Okay, you can go in. Make sure he doesn't go out the airlock out of the garage though. Oh, David's got the airlock on. Good man. So that's my my tumultuous morning. You got a tumultuous podcast to reflect my tumultuous morning thoughts on on rituals and when they don't work. I do think that that's important. And I know we've blogged about it before. I don't know if I mentioned it on the podcast, but that for all the things you can do to build a fence around your writing and make sure that you're able to get the writing done and that nothing disturbs it, sometimes things happen. Sometimes the motor on your treadmill breaks. How's that for profound? And you have to figure out ways to work anyway, right? You know, it's you can't just throw in the towel. I see one of my irises is oh no, he's rooted. I thought he'd been dug up, but he's not. He's just kind of in a funny mound. There, I'll give you a little bit of coverage. I was gonna replant him. I thought a rodent had dug it up. So, with no further ado, I'm going to get to work one way or another. I hope you all have a lovely Friday, wonderful weekend, and I will talk to you on Monday. Bye bye.