Walking The Dog…

People often ask me how I’m so productive, and more importantly how I can work on so many projects at once without bleed or burnout. I often cite my history as a journalist as something that hones this skill, where a deadline is hours rather than weeks – but the truth of the matter is that it’s something else entirely.

I walk my dog.

Before Fosco, I’d start writing when Tracy went to work; I’d sit at the PC and off I go. But I never had any time to really work through what I was doing. Now, I walk Fosco every morning, through beautiful woods and – and in that hour or so in the morning, before I’ve sat at the Mac, I plot. I work through the day.

I might be planning out a scene. Working through a story. Creating a characters background. It doesn’t matter what it is, the fact of the matter is that I’m doing it, in my head, as I walk. By the time I get home, I know what I’m doing, how I’ll do it, and the best way to achieve this. Which means that when I sit down at 9am I’m already three hours ahead of myself.

Even if you don’t have a dog, go for that morning walk.

Go for a run. Do something where your mind can wander. The problem you had with act 2 will magically solve itself.

And hey, you’ll get out of the house for a bit too.