Writing is by nature a solitary thing. I have my writer cave (which doubles as our office) where I write, though Mark is usually with me so I am rarely alone.

I am a god who runs his fingers across the keyboard and summons souls from the ether. I wave my hand and create worlds.

And then Facebook bings.

It’s hard being a writer in today’s always-on society. We have made ourselves available all the time through our computers, our ipads, our smart phones. We hardly ever have any downtime.

Walden had his Golden Pond, his quiet retreat for reflection and writing.

I have Command Central, where I am answering emails, serving as tech support for our websites, picking up the phone when it rings (or at least waiting to see if the Robo Killer app lets it through) and generally being ON all the time.

So finding the time to write is hard enough, but securing an hour or two here and there where I can write AND keep the rest of the world at bay so that I can really sink my teeth and mind into it is nearly impossible.

The best writing happens when I can let go of all the distractions and fall through the veil that separates our world from the one I’m writing about. When I can close your eyes and really see it, feeling the heavy drops of rain as they splash on the wide golden leaves of the tarafallah plant that gives me shelter, smell the sweet but slightly rancid alien air, hear the calls of the effren in their hive as they prepare fly to meet the morning rain.

When I can get away from work, from life, from everything, to immerse myself in the world utterly and completely, I can make magic.

We used to live in a bigger house, with a lot more room to roam. I had a library, a room dedicated entirely to books. I know, I was lucky, though I didn’t realize how lucky at the time.

Our current place has a kitchen, a living room with a small dining area, and two bedrooms. No place to roam, especially in these pandemic times. But still, we writers are nothing if not creative.

So I’m planning an experiment. I’m going to strip down my old computer and set it up just for writing. No facebook, no email, nuthin’.

Then I’ll get up at my usual 5:30 AM writing time, make myself a cup of tea, grab my writing chocolate (yes, that’s totally a thing) and shut out the rest of the world for an hour and a half of total immersion.

Will it work? I don’t know.

But writing is about experimentation, and growth.

I’ll let you know next month how it works out. 🙂

–Scott