FRIENDS,
I’m not here to tell you you’re going to write King Lear under quarantine. Would if we could, but the Bard has already accomplished it, and he didn’t have news coming in at all hours via a tiny box firmly attached to his hand at all times. So it seems fair to set our sights slightly lower than King Lear, which clocks in at 26,145 words. I’m going to shoot for 5,000 every day of quarantine.
Now I’m going to be kind about those 5,000. These 499 count, for instance. I have the time, the energy, and the means. I don’t know anyone who is sick, I am no one’s caretaker. I work part-time, and now that work has moved remote. Your mileage may vary, and any daily goal is a useful one. I will forgive myself for to-do list boxes unchecked, but lofty goals are still worthwhile. Landing amongst the stars and all that.
If you can manage it (depending on work schedules and the need to check in on others), it’s a good time to hide your phone from yourself. Friends of mine built a Phone Time Out Box, but unfortunately there’s no mechanism to keep them from taking their phone out of the Phone Time Out Box. I’ve been leaving mine across the room, or letting it die so I must change it a room away. Limit the Twitter scrolling. Cull your news notifications down to the essential (getting the same notes from Apple News and the New York Times? Shut off at least one). Send gifs rather than conspiracy theories to the group chats.
So for today, 5,000 words. And every 1,000 words (or so, I’m not about to dictate you stop in the middle of a sentence), choose from the list of sanity-preserving measures:
A good long walk outside. At least 20 minutes. None of this speed-walk around the block multiple times bullshit.
A home-based workout. For me, this has been PT exercises, but YouTube yoga videos and push-up ladders also work. We can do a secondary jumping jack contest. I’m open to it.
An hour with a good book. I, for one, took this moment to cull my bookshelves for the books I have been most looking forward to. Once I finish reading for class, I’ll be moving onto The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera and The Waves by Virginia Woolf.
A conversation with a friend. This should be able something other than quarantine or the virus. Zoom meetings, phone calls, social-distanced meet-ups are all acceptable.
Some explicit, personal-to-you self-care. A bath, wine, masturbation, a movie, all of the above. Try to save this until the end of your writing day so it can double as a reward.
Happy Writing. I can’t wait to hear about your days. Thinking about you all, and wishing you health and comfort and productivity.
Taylor
taylor!!!! this is what i needed to read 😭😭