The writing’s going better. I woke up this morning, sat down to spend my 15 minutes editing a story I’ve been meaning to revise for ages, and realized I only had two pages left to go. When my buzzer went off, I only had two paragraphs. I don’t know whether it’s the daily writing that is making the difference, or if 7:35 is too early for the internal editor to be in full gear, or if 15 minutes is just too short to be scary, but I’m starting to regain the feeling that things are happening.

My awesomely ridiculous best friend mentioned yesterday that it’s possible I may always have to be changing my routine. I think she’s right. It worked for a long time to insist on a word count, regardless of the time, and then it didn’t. Now it makes more sense to insist on a time, and aim for the word goal, and that may change, too. It’s a little annoying. I wish I could find the perfect routine and just let that be the habit forever, but I guess I can see why that wouldn’t work for me. I’d get complacent, and writing is too hard and too emotionally demanding for that to work. Fortunately, 15 minutes in the morning is working, and is occasionally leading to an additional 15-30 minutes in the evening. It’s not much–15 minutes is what, 1% of my day?–but so far I’ve made almost a full revision pass on one story, drafted a second (it’s nonfiction now, so needs some heavy work before it can count as a proper story, but still), and written an article that is just about ready to be pitched. The plan is to give it a quick edit tonight or tomorrow, write an author bio, and send it before the end of the week. I’ve even, tentatively, started an actual fiction story. I’m hoping this new writing pattern lasts (the last good routine I found lasted something like 8 months, without missing a day), but if it doesn’t, I’m not too worried either. One way or another, this is working.