Another Week, More #BoNoProMo, Time Banditry and Transformers

Another week, and again I've kept to my #BoNoProMo schedule, more or less, with some minimal juggling around as to which day I wrote one hour versus two, and such.

How is that possible, you ask? (This is particularly asked by those of you who know me well, and/or regular readers of this irregular blog.) Ten hours a week is quite an achievement, he says, patting himself gingerly on the back, considering that I have been regularly going to that pesky full-time day job, you know, the one that pays the bills, and the fact that I really, really like to sleep. Where does the time come from? They aren't making any longer days.

Well, I stole it.

Not like these guys, however.

(If you don't recognize the pic, get yourself on over to IMDB, and consider watching the movie referenced in today's blog title rather than downloading Transformers: Dark of the Moon again.)

I stole it from myself, of course, from evening and weekend activities that I would more normally spend my time on, if I weren't writing as much. And I haven't taken any of it from work hours, with the exception of half of one lunch hour when I sketched out the chapter structure of an urban fantasy novel something that I won't talk about again, unless it becomes something more than a sketch.

Some of those things that I've stolen from in the past week are good for me, and I miss them.

One externality, my wife being out of town, simply gave back a few hours of what would have been quality together time, and I definitely miss that (I wouldn't steal from my wife). I haven't exercised more than once or twice this past week, and exercise is my healthiest stress reliever, on top of all its other benefits. And I haven't read nearly as much in the past two weeks as I normally do. I even shaved off a little bit of sleep.

These are sacrifices.

But other things that I've given up may feel a little like hardships, but on reflection, I think I'm better off without them. Although you may not believe it, I'm spending less time on social media. I still spent plenty of time there last week, however, and you probably didn't miss those minutes that I did take back. I've never watched that much television, but now it's been even less. (However, that also resulted in less Daddy/Ellie time on the couch, and that we both miss.) A couple of hours of random gaming and internet surfing gone, no problem. It all adds up.

Time banditry. It's the only way a writer with a day job can survive #BoNoProMo. And if the habit sticks, well, we'll see who the real Transformer is.

I think that's a fountain pen in his right arm, don't you?

Schedule this new week: 1.5 hours for Thursday and Friday, three hours split somehow between Saturday and Sunday (doing some quick plane travel, which might be good, might be bad for the writing), one hour Monday, and 1.5 each for Tuesday and Wednesday, when it'll be blog time again.

Until then, thanks for reading, and writers, keep on writing.

Stephen