Well, I haven't written anything today. Not yet. I am so sporadic in my daily schedule. Usually, I like to get up, check in on the computer, have my shower, make some decaf coffee, then write for an hour before going to the office, or write for several hours if I don't go into the office at all, then do something recreational, go see a friend, watch a movie, something like that for the rest of the day. That's my ideal. It is almost always interrupted, but that is my ideal, and when it works, it works very well.

Other days, I write in my head. I work a scene, or an entire story, or a character over and over in my head, so that the next time I sit down to write, I'm really just copying down what I'd already written mentally. I usually wind up writing at night on days like this, and then getting too tired to write very much at all. Sometimes I'm already tired, and I go to bed, putting off the physical act of writing until the next day, or even later. I hate it when I do that. I prefer to write my thoughts when I have them, when I'm still so perfectly sync with them. Waiting a day makes finding that rythm again so challenging.

Then there's what I call binge writing. I seldom do it, but when I do it I'm like a man possessed. I may do nothing all day long, like today, almost as if I'm charging my batteries. Then I write, always after dark, after the world seems to be sleeping all around me. I write until dawn, and I don't stop until I collapse, or I am interrupted by the demands of the world and my commitment to be a part of it. I have even done binge writing several nights in a row at times, especially when I'm working on a novel, rather than a work of short fiction. I simply must go on and get to a certain point, then the next, and the next, until my eyes blur and I can't write at all. It's always difficult at the office on mornings after a session of binge writing. I usually forget appointments, suffer through phone conferences and staff meetings, wade through the day like a man in the shallows of an ocean, slowly, deliberately, feeling the pull of the tide, yearning to walk onto the beach and collapse on the sand.

Some writers have a routine. My routine, it seems, is the very lack of any routine. I go through cycles. In fact, I feel I may binge write tonight. That, or I won't write anything at all. I would hate to wreck my sleep for even a day this week. I have a retreat that I'm helping to lead this weekend for youth from all over the North Texas Conference, and I want to be fresh. I want to be rested. A night of binge writing is difficult to recover from, but I have always been happy with the results. I leave it to my whims to determine what I shall do.

Good night, dear readers. Pay no attention to the fervent tapping upon my keyboard, should you hear it. Sleep well, and perhaps I'll have something new to share with you by morning.