When You Write Do You Nibble or Do You Gorge?

A Nibbler or a Gorge-er?

I have the habits of my pets down pretty well.  After all, Sweet Pea is 9 and Maggie is almost 6.  So watching the two of them over time, I've been able to tell a lot about their personalities and habits.  And neither of them deviate very much from what they consider normal behavior.  Even when it comes to eating.


She's rolled herself into her chain



Maggie, my extremely dependent Golden Retriever, is a food hog.  I feed her twice a day and both times she wolfs down her food like its her last meal....then licks the bowl...like dry food is going to leave a residue.  Next she sniffs around on the floor just to see if anything may have been dropped.



Only one of her many naps

 Sweet Pea, my extremely independent, part Maine Coon, is the exact opposite.  She also gets fed twice a day, but she approaches eating in an entirely different way.  She will nibble for a few minutes, walk away, wash up and go take a nap or indulge in whatever else she has going on that day.  A couple hours later, she's back...but just a few nibbles...then gone again.  Eventually, by early afternoon, her dish is finally almost empty.  And she's ready to start again when it's supper time.  

And you know what I figured out by watching the repeated behavior of my slightly spoiled (okay, maybe a little more than slightly) animals?  I write the same way they eat.  Yep, some days I nibble and some days I gorge.

My work days are sporadic as are the hours I work.  As a caregiver, no two weeks, or even two days, are identical.  Some days are filled with clients bills, then my own housework and laundry.  Other days may be taking a client for groceries, billing and filling out spreadsheets.  There really is no set time I can set aside that is just for writing. 

So during these hectic days, I nibble.  An idea for a scene, or something witty my character says, may pop into my head and I stop what I'm doing and either write it down on a Post-It note or take a moment to get on the computer and add it to my word doc...if I'm home.  If I'm on the road or with a client, I stop for a moment and use my new voice recorder.  (I've since found out my cell phone can do this.  Dang, could have saved the money.) 

But then I have days that aren't quite so busy and I have more time to myself.  And that's when I get busy on my novel...or whatever else I'm writing at the time.  I have to take advantage of the fact that this may be the only free day I have this week, so I gorge.  I immerse myself in my story or my editing and write for as long as I can.  Thoughts and ideas that I've been storing up all come out and I find myself so caught up in it that I completely lose track of time.

One of these days I won't have clients anymore, I'll be completely retired, and I can gorge myself as much as I want...unless daily life gets in the way (I do sometimes have a life of my own) and then its back to nibbling.

Right now I have to work my writing around my life, but one of these days I'd like to be able to work my life around my writing.  But however I approach my writing, it's all getting down on paper (well, actually it's getting down in my word doc) and isn't that the whole point. 

So what about you?  Do you have a nibbler or a gorge-er in you?

I just have one question...
Sweet Pea never completely cleans up her food dish.  So if I come home and her dish is licked clean, I know Maggie has gorged her way into Sweet Pea's space.  Wouldn't this be called "pet plagiarism"?

A Side Note:
I just want to say to those of you from Russia, China, the Netherlands and all the other countries that have visited my blog, I appreciate your visits, I really do.  I'm not sure why you're not showing up on my little globe though.  Every since I tried to change it and lost all my little red dots, I've had problems.  So if you don't see yourself on the globe, I'm really sorry.  Thanks to my stats page, I do know you've been here though and again I thank you. 

Random Quotes of the Day:
The odds of going to the store for a loaf of bread and coming out with only a loaf of bread are three billion to one. ~ Erma Bombeck

How is it that one match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box of matches to start a campfire? ~ Christy Whitehead

Never do anything that you wouldn't want to explain to the paramedics. ~ Author Unknown