Sydney has been in lockdown for a while. It started at the beginning of the term break and we were hoping it would end before the third term of our 6 year old’s school started. But it didn’t, and it was announced that school was moving online. My husband and I knew from our experience with online school last year that this simply meant not being able to do as much of our own work during the day. And back then, it meant that I ended up putting off any writing of the third Oddfits book entirely – I simply didn’t have the uninterrupted concentration or time required for the task.
This time round, I’m determined not to lose momentum again. I’ve finished the first draft, typed it all out, started revising, and am genuinely excited about finishing it. So instead of trying to work on it frustratedly during the day in between helping my 6 year old do schoolwork, taking him outdoors for exercise, and entertaining him because being cooped up in an apartment with no friends is getting rather old, I’ve made the unpleasant decision to wake up at 5:15am every weekday morning to write. It gives me about an hour and a half of uninterrupted time to focus. But, I must say, I really dislike it. I’ve been at it for about a week and a half now. Every morning when my eyes fly open in the dark at the beeping of my alarm clock, I think about how I really am not an early morning person and how maybe, only for today, I’ll just go back to sleep. Surprisingly, I’ve never gone back to sleep yet. Instead, I lie there for a bit, crawl out of bed, wash my face and change, make myself a cup of coffee, and start writing. It’s going slowly, but steadily – the momentum of a ball on a flat surface being nudged daily, but moving!
Nonetheless, this new schedule really isn’t ideal.
tiffany tsao 