For a lazy person, I work really hard.
Perhaps I should rephrase that. For a hard working person, I'm actually really lazy.
And I do work hard. On top of my 9-5 job and sundry family obligations, I keep a cracking schedule as far as my writing goes. I set myself goals and focus myself on achieving them. At the moment I have 4 different WIPs:
Perhaps I should rephrase that. For a hard working person, I'm actually really lazy.
And I do work hard. On top of my 9-5 job and sundry family obligations, I keep a cracking schedule as far as my writing goes. I set myself goals and focus myself on achieving them. At the moment I have 4 different WIPs:
- The next Neville Lansdowne story - tentatively titled Scrawling - which I'm hoping to release before the end of the year.
- My picture book Thomas and the Tiger Turtle which should be out in May 2014.
- My detective story (no planned title as yet). I'm aiming for late 2014 for this one, having just finished a second draft.
- My YA story (again no title). I finished draft #1 last year so this one is still a long way off. Maybe 2015 but maybe even later. We'll see.
I love to sleep in. I tell you, every day is a battle to get out of bed, and not just on weekdays. Even on weekends, after quite a good sleep in, I'd happily remain under the covers.
Once I'm up, it takes me ages to get going. I'll sit around and do nothing much. In fact, a number of people I know have commented on my capacity to sit around and do nothing much. It's a talent I'm quite proud of.
I guess that's the thing with all of us. We're all a bundle of contradictions. I can be both lazy and hard working at the same time. It's all part of the wonderfulness of being me.
Anyway, better go now. I have a whole week of working hard to do nothing in front of me.
You’d think by the age of fifty-four I’d’ve got the hang of sleep but nope. I live by the clock. We lunch at noon, eat dinner at five, watch TV at six-thirty and go to bed at eleven and we do that every day. It’s once we get into the bed that things start to fall to pieces. Sometimes I nod off right away, sometimes I can’t sleep and get back up and work or read for a couple of hours, sometimes I fall asleep right away but then wake up an hour and a half later. Mostly I don’t get up until after nine unless I wake up at eight or five. The bottom line is I invariably wake up tired and it takes me most of the morning to pull myself together. I have no idea how I ever managed to hold down a day job. Usually I’ve got my act together by about one in the afternoon and I manage to work until half-four when it’s time to get Carrie up (she naps between half-one and half-four). On a good day I manage another hour’s work after dinner. On a really good day I wake up bright-eyes and bushy-tailed and work all day long but they’re few and far between and I usually pay for them the day after. I can afford to be lazy but I’m not a lazy person and I hate being idle but if my body won’t play ball then there’s nothing I can do. I keep waiting for that time in my life when I can get by on two or three hours a night.
ReplyDeleteI never used to be like this. When I worked I was up before six in the morning and in the office by seven, I’d work through to half-four, go home, have dinner and then go into my home office for another couple of hours at night. Weekends didn’t exist hardly and I regularly went in on Sundays. It’s no wonder I burned out. Now I’m better but I’m not the man I used to be and that annoys the hell out of me because I liked being that person and resented my body imposing any kind of restrictions on me. Which is probably why it’s given me such a hard time since I effectively retired. “No, no, Jim. We’re not going that route again. You behave. And if you’re good we’ll give you a clear head for a couple of hours this afternoon.” Only maybe not this afternoon because I can hardly keep my eyes open and am seriously thinking of having a nap with my wife.