Night Writers

It's that time again. The little clock on my computer says 9:43 PM.

Of course, I can always come up with plenty of excuses not to go to my office. Not the first writer to do that, that's for sure. I can kill time, play on Farmville or FarmTown on Facebook. (One of my friends on there sent me an elephant as a gift--ha! I LOVE elephants!! Just got another one, too! Can't have a farm without elephants, right?) After all these years, coming up with reasons to avoid my office are easy.

Work, as in my day job, is over for the day. Dinner's done, the dishes are drying or doing something. I don't know; I let my dishwasher handle those details. Exercise tonight was a relaxing but brisk walk in the woods. We watched Hell's Kitchen, which we taped from yesterday so we could watch Chef Ramsey screaming at those poor, young wannabe chefs setting fires in his kitchen. I've updated pics on my blog but now it's time to go upstairs.

But...wait. I could do my nails. They've taken a beating this week with all the paper shuffling at work. Or I could surf on YouTube for old beloved songs that I haven't heard in a long time.

Except now it's 9:54. And I need to put in some time with my story. What I've found over the years is that you need to touch base with your WIP every day or pretty much close to it. Not doing that could actually cause it to slip away. You can always pick it up, but it's better to write a little bit each day, spend time with your story's "people."

And this being my first Consuelo Vazquez novel in years makes me want to make sure I show up.

9:56 now...it's dark and mysterious and quiet, the time fictional characters start coming out.