This past weekend temperatures soared from the 40s to the 80s here in the Pacific Northwest. The sun which was a long forgotten memory, returned with a vengeance and man, oh, man was it hot! Fabulously hot. Not only did I break out the sandals and last year’s shorts but I put aside my laptop and plans to delve deep into my new project.
So rather than work out the kinks in my plot, I planted flowers and herbs, swabbed out my little electric boat, scrubbed and bleached the fountain and walked the dogs over and over again. As the evening crept in, I battled pond scum and spiders and cleaned out the flower beds. Once, I did hazard a glance at the computer monitor, but when I had to draw the window shades because of the glare, I shut it down. I drank lemonade, put on my Jimmy Buffet CD, and attended a barbecue outside with family and friends. It just felt like summer. And it reminded me why I don’t get any books written in July, August and September: I’d rather be outside doing anything (even weeding!)
So, it kinda scared me. I’ve got a deadline looming and I realize now that if I don’t get at it now, summer will come and I’ll be really late. Again. Even though this is the year I’ve sworn to be ahead of the game.
Fortunately (I guess) the cold rain returned and I’m back at the computer with a cup of coffee and socks firmly on my feet. I now realize why I’ll never make that move south to California.
Okay, I know a lot of writers do live in the warmer, sunnier climates. And they write many books. Many GOOD books. I wonder how they do it. I guess they weren’t born with moss on the bottoms of their feet!
I wonder how other writers handle the siren song of warm summer breezes and icy cocktails?
No related posts.
I only write during the summer (well, full length novels – shorts get written all year long) so for me, the writing is such a treat, it wins over spending time in the garden.
Plus wasn’t that what laptops were invented for? So we can sit in the sun and write?
Two ways
1) I’m used to living on a schedule.
2) I gotta mini laptop.
I write better in nicer weather. If it’s cloudy and rainy and cold, I want to stay in bed and sleep. LOL!
Sun shelter in the back yard, laptop, and pitcher of non-alcoholic whatever. And sometimes I even wake up from the nap long enough to put a few words down!
We live (in California [grin]) in a condo with a small patio which is often noisy because of neighbors with kids and gardeners with leaf blowers, but we don’t have a yard, so the outside doesn’t call me like that. My problem with the summer is the heat — when the computer room hits 88, the systems have to be shut down and that cuts into my writing time. :/
I have a laptop and have used it downstairs, but there’s no really good place to set it up, and I can only sit on the couch with it on my lap and type for so long. It’s mainly for travel, and hotels and cruise ships usually have a desk of some sort.
What I usually end up doing is sliding my schedule around so I’m up and writing at night, and sleeping through the hottest part of the day. That’s preferable for a number of reasons besides wanting to be able to be at the computer without frying its innards, so it’s worked for me so far.
Angie
LOL! I’m in central Florida. I run for cover when it’s hot and sticky, which is about 11 months of the year. I’m happy to be inside writing.
For me, I’m lured away from the air conditioned comfort of my house/office during a very short period of cool weather.
I’m so with you! If they made a laptop with the same visible-in-bright-light paper ink technology that ereaders have, I would plunk down hundreds for it, just to be able to write outside.
I was a bear in another life. When the weather is bad, rain or snow, I want nothing more than to hibernate.
But when the sun is shining, look out! I’m more energized for everything — writing, exercising, running errands, solving problems at work, playing with the kids…EVERYTHING!
Everything is better with cocktails, that’s how I handle them.
I find I’m reading a lot, though I did post to my blog while my husband ran chemical experiments on the pool.
As to writing, I’m a night writer. I would love to write during the day, but the muse will have none of that for me. So if I need to, I edit during the nice days, sitting on my deck. Or, brainstorm, review notes, build outlines, those kinds of things.
And I try to structure my planting and gardening in bouts, though this year it’s heavier than last as we’re at a new house.
Then again, I live in Upstate NY, and it’s most likely not as scenic here in town as it is in the Pacific Northwest, so perhaps my temptation is not as great!
I’m exactly like you, Lisa. I need rain and clouds to have a really productive writing day. The sun draws me outside and won’t let me back in again until I’ve weeded, went swimming and planted something.
I wonder how other writers handle the siren song of warm summer breezes and icy cocktails?
Oh that’s easy to answer: we dream of long, rainy afternoons spent sipping hot tea while bundled up next to blazing fires.
I just blogged about this very subject, last week at Chasing Heroes. I don’t get a lot done during the summer months. I jsut want to have nose in a flower bed, or outdoors in fashion or another.
I live in NW FL and the weather has been so nice that I was thinking the other day that I’m going to have to get some discipline or I’m not going to get anything done! It’s so much nicer by the pool than inside with my laptop.
And I agree…I’d pay tons of money for a laptop with a screen that I could see outside!