Eating Up Time

Regular readers know that I’ve been extremely pressed for time since moving to Seattle; practical concerns, a much-more-active social life, increasing professional demands and the adjustments that always come with a move have combined to eat away a lot of the time I used to use in writing.  People used to ask me how I managed to get a column out every single day, and my answer was that I spent most of my time on it; now that I don’t do that any more it’s grown a lot harder to keep up.  I used to be about a month ahead on everything but the news columns; now I’m days ahead at best, usually only hours (many nights lately I’ve finished up less than an hour before post time).  I’m sure some of you have noticed slip-ups and not-quite-on-times, and other signs that doing a daily column isn’t as effortless for me as it used to be.  But I’ve made two more changes that should make things go more smoothly again, one visible to y’all and the other invisible.  The latter is simply that I’m getting, for the first time since starting the blog, a designated office space in which to work; this will, I hope, let me concentrate on writing (rather than my girlfriend) when it’s time to work, thus getting more done.  The visible change is a sad one, but necessary:  I’ve had to resign from doing my Sunday column for Cliterati.  It’s just not possible for me to write another full essay every week, even though that later provides an essay for this blog as well.  On the bright side, that opens up a Friday slot for other things (Monday was getting a bit cramped), but I still can’t help feeling a little sense of loss about it.  Ah, well, time marches on and nothing lasts forever; the blog has changed in the past and will continue to change, I hope for the better.