Good advice is hard to come by. By way of Scott Westerfeld, this gem of Raymond Chandler’s (from a letter to Alex Barris in 1949) has inspired me this week:

The important thing is that there should be a space of time, say four hours a day at least, when a professional writer doesn’t do anything else but write. He doesn’t have to write, and if he doesn’t feel like it, he shouldn’t try. He can look out of the window or stand on his head or writhe on the floor. But he is not to do any other positive thing, not read, write letters, glance at magazines, or write checks. Write or nothing. It’s the same principle as keeping order in a school. If you make the pupils behave, they will learn something just to keep from being bored. I find it works. Two very simple rules, a. you don’t have to write. B. you can’t do anything else. The rest comes of itself.

I’ve run my errands, checked on ongoing projects, and made sure both phones are on silent. And I’ve had my fill of blogs, obvs. I’ve got my cup of tea, my empty brain, and I’m about to pull the plug on my wireless router. It’s three hours of writing or nothing. Here goes.
Don’t do anything too exciting while I’m gone.