In the Zone: Do Not Disturb

Today, I hit the zone. Every writer knows what I'm talking about. It's this place when you're writing and you don't want to stop--not for anything. Every interruption is a pain even things like eating, sleeping, and showering. (Don't worry. I'm showered, but I resented the time away from the book.)

I've been working hard all along--the book is due on March 1--but the zone is totally different. I can put in 10 hours and not be in the zone. I can also put 10 hours in when I'm in the zone and have it feel as if 2 minutes has gone by. I love the zone. It is totally the best place to be. :-)

So until I post the dancing Hobbes here, blogs will be short. Maybe non-existent, but I'll try to post something. And I'll be answering comments next week.

I should have realized I was slipping into the zone when I couldn't sleep last night as I fretted over one of my scenes. It was wrong. I knew it was wrong. But how to fix it? I woke up with the answer, and with about four hours of sleep, hit the computer. It's fixed. But I still didn't officially hit the zone until late this afternoon, early this evening. Shortly after I ordered the Amazon Kindle 2.

Yes, I caved. I ordered the Kindle. It was the thought of lugging 400 pages with me in hard copy that convinced me to take the plunge. I didn't order the extended warranty, but the price still makes me wince.

The Zone

There are times when I'm writing that I hit a place I like to call The Zone. I think anyone who's done something creative knows what this is. This is when hours pass like minutes and focus on the project at hand is absolute.

I love The Zone, but it's also hard at times. You see, when I'm in it I don't want to be bothered by anything else--not email, not the Evil Day Job, not even sleep. If I'm really heavy into The Zone--and when I'm pushing to make a deadline, I almost always am--I even resent the time it takes to eat or shower. Even one minute away from the story is annoying.

So I'm in The Zone right now and I have been all week. It's fabulous, but it's also frustrating because I have so many things I have to do right now. I'm truly looking forward to this four-day weekend because I plan to barricade myself in my house from Friday until Sunday night. Three days with little contact with the outside world. Yeah, some people--extroverts--look at that as torture, but me? I consider it a pleasure and I'm counting down the minutes.