Back when I was dancing, my life was hyper-organized. It had to be. I was working full-time and between training with Kurt and practicing on my own, I was dancing twenty hours a week.
During my dancing career, each weekend day I prepared double-batches for dinner, measuring and freezing up the leftovers. Quickly I ended up with quite a variety, which was good since those were my lunches and dinners during the week. I had no time to cook, and my lunch breaks were spent practicing routines. The thought of all the calories in the food close to the office kept me brown bagging it. Latin outfits are unforgiving.
Little did I know then how well I was preparing myself for my next obsession – writing. My time dancing showed how much time was available if I really want to find it.
To make everything go smoothly, I used to spend an hour every Sunday doing food prep: bagging up snacks for the week to come. No thought would then be needed each morning: Grab a fruit, veggie, and protein snack and Tupperware of lunch leftovers, and I was out the door. It worked, and it suited me well.
As I now fill the spare moments of my life with writing, I’ve reverted back to the structure that works for me. Pre-planning makes life better. I’ve had to modify it. DH2U and I aren’t eating left overs every night, but each meal is pre-planned to give me leftovers and thus give me extra writing time each morning.
I must admit, I was leaning in that direction even before my novel started taking over. I did not enjoy staring into the fridge each morning trying to figure out what to bring. I am much more comfortable in having things planned out. Stuff left in the air can fall unexpected … or not happen at all. Which seems strange to me since I don’t write to an outline. That must be the exception that makes the rule true.
Kurt is right – I am creative like an accountant.
Grown Up, Now What? 