I can revise, rewrite, and edit at any time of day or night. First-drafting, however, I have to do in the morning, the earlier the better. The writer in me is a morning person. The editor wakes up later. Perfectionista sleeps like a dog. The slightest rustle wakes her up, and once she’s awake she won’t shut up.

So, a dilemma: I’m on day 4 of a nine-day dog-and-pony-sitting gig. This involves two drive-bys a day, a.m. and p.m. The morning drive-by — feed dog, hay pony, pick out stall and paddock, take dog for walk — eats up my best writing time.

If it were just for  a weekend, I might skip writing, but for nine days? No. And I’m looking at a string of critter-sitting gigs that stretches into mid-March. All involve being somewhere else by 8 a.m. What to do, what to do?

This morning I was out of bed and dressed by 7. I zapped the remnants of yesterday’s tea  in the microwave and put on the kettle for a fresh pot. I sat down in my chair, lit a candle, and pulled over the pages I’d been working on: a character sketch for the novel in progress, Squatters’ Speakeasy, that may be turning into a scene. And I wrote. A page and a half of dialogue that looked pretty good when I reread it three hours later.

All in 35 minutes.

Perfectionista is sure that if I don’t have at least an hour blocked out, it’s not worth sitting down to write.

Not true.

My workspace. It’s rather more cluttered now. That’s a good sign.