Nobody Asked Me

A short update on how I’ve spent the past couple months.

The good news is I’ve been writing since leaving my job. The bad(-ish) news is I don’t really have anything ready to share yet. I spent most of December enjoying the holidays, with occasional writing sessions sprinkled between festivities. It wasn’t quality writing time, but the experience highlighted some structural challenges I needed to address.

The biggest challenge is time. Having the time to write is a gift. A routine built around the demands of a full-time corporate job is a hindrance. I haven’t landed on the “right” routine yet but have been enjoying experimenting with how I use my time. Although I still struggle with when breakfast should happen without a meeting between 9am and 11am.

Space was the other challenge. Working in the home office where I used to work from home wasn’t productive. Being able to look out the window in the corporate days was relaxing. Looking out the window while writing was distracting. A friend came over in January and helped me relocate and arrange every piece of furniture I own. I’m still fine-tuning the new office space, but it immediately improved productivity.

What hasn’t helped productivity is having so much time to write. Finally having the mental space to think about writing, I’ve spent more time documenting a flood of ideas than focused writing. I’m excited to capture them for later but am disappointed to not have shareable work at this point. The consensus in my writer community is that it takes three to six months to build up a writing practice. I feel mostly on track with that pace.

My one writerly milestone was reading at an open mic earlier this week. I shared the opening of an essay I’m working on. I think the piece is a reflection on queer identity, but it morphs as I work on it.

I’m hoping to have projects to share here in the coming weeks. I’ll also post occasional updates here, mostly as an accountability tactic. (And maybe as a sneaky way to reinforce you to check in occasionally.)