Where Can You Find More Time?

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With the kick-off of National Novel Writing Month looming on Thursday, I invested time this weekend in attending a workshop in Hillsborough taught by friend and author James Maxey. James is one of the most prolific writers I know, the hard-to-swallow part being that not only is James a fast writer, he's a good one too. 

James shared with the assembled group his top 10 Tips For Writing Fast. Of course, part of the discussion centered on where each of us could find time--or more time--in our day to write. I've been thinking about it, and here's where my time needs to come from: 

  • Buh-Bye TV! While I like to think of myself as a person who watches minimal TV, that's not actually true. I multi-task and do other things, like read the paper or go through e-mail or write blog posts (that last one explains a lot of bad posts) while I watch probably an hour or two of TV every other night. I'm never happy with myself after watching TV, so I'm actually looking forward to finding time by watching less programming. The one exception is my Sunday night date with The Walking Dead. I won't give it up and you can't make me. 
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My Lack of Love Affair With Audible.com

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It takes time for me to adapt to technology. It took years for me to get a cellphone and only within the last few years did I get a smartphone. I just started texting a little over a year ago. I mocked friends who were early joiners of Twitter and for a long time thought people who had more than 100 friends on Facebook were just lying and sad. I still don't embrace FourSquare (I really don't want you to know where I am every second of the day plus being mayor appeals to me waaaay too much.) and I've yet to cave and join Google Groups.

And yet, I thought I'd like audible.com. Friend David Horne suggested I try the site that lets me listen to books on my smartphone. The appeal is that since I have a 30-40 minute drive into and home from Greensboro most days, my time would be better spent listening to novels instead of the newest Taylor Swift song. ("We are never ever ever getting back together. Like, EVER.")

My first book selection was/is the novel Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. Amazing writing. Stunning descriptions. Laugh out loud humor. And this is all in the first three chapters... which have taken me almost a month to get through. 

I can't do it. I listen raptly for 10 minutes, then my mind starts to wander. I pull it back and force myself to pay attention to the narrator. But by the 20-minute mark, my mind is elsewhere and suddenly I realize the narrator is reading dialogue between characters I don't even recognize because I blanked out. 

I suspect the problem may be I'm listening to a novel. I listened to a non-fiction self-help sort of book a couple of months ago and loved it. Maybe I need the self-involvement element for car reading to work for me. 

I'm determined to get through the book but at the rate I'm going, I'll be lucky to wrap it up by Christmas. Still, as someone whose cat now has over 5,000 followers on Twitter and who has close to 900 (dear, close) friends herself on Facebook, maybe I'll come around. Maybe audible.com will save me from a lifetime of knowing all the words to every current bad pop song out there. 

Here's hoping. 

Cheers,

Dena

Smug Marrieds: Name Your Elements

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I've spent the better part of this weekend reading The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin. I'm reading it on my iPad, so I find myself highlighting sections and taking online notes, mainly because I can. (I rarely go back and read the passages I've outlined, but hold faith that someday the habit may come in handy.)

Inspired by Rubin to do a better job of connecting and engaging the loved ones in my life, I decided to start a conversation based on a paragraph in the book that resonated with me. When neither cat seemed keen on analyzing the finer points of the passage, I went in search of Blair.

"Let me read this to you," I said flopping down on the bed. Blair was barely visible behind a mound of shirts he was ironing. (I'm a wife, not a maid. Don't judge me.) "This is about why it's important to grow and try new things."

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