Needed: Outside Accountability

I need to get me some...I need it bad.

I can hold myself accountable for getting writing in each day. I really can. But I can also let myself get away with checking email, reading blogs, poking around in Facebook, and writing blog posts. This is a problem, friends. And I'm letting myself do it more and more.

Bad, Jolie, bad writer.

I think it sort of parallels myself as a swimmer (although I hope I'm a better writer than a swimmer). I write the same way I get into a pool. The not heated variety, that is. I'm an easer-inner. You know the type. I never just dive in and get it over with. One big plunge and I'm swimming around. No, I ease in and it's the easing that's hard. But once I'm in and moving about...hey, I'm swimming and I'm happy.

It's kind of the same with writing. I ease in. I start writing down some wonderings. Start typing out a scene. Then all of sudden, I'm writing and happy. On a sort of writer's high.

But back to that outside accountability. If I let myself putz about too much, sometimes I never fully get into the pool. You know? But I know what's been lacking in my Office Hour world. You know, the one at The Vault. Mallory is GONE! Ever since she left The Vault, no one peers over my shoulder and says, "Whatcha doing? Are you writing? That better not be email I see." I need you, Mallory. With you around, I had no choice but to ease in and get to work.