Spring Fever

So we meet again, my fellow insecure writers. (Thank you, as always Ninja Alex J. Cavanaugh for having us) 

Hmmm. Does spring make me want to write more? 

Spring makes me impatient.

The sun starts shining. Birds start singing. Plants start growing. And I want to jump in and join in all the fun. I want to move. I want things to start changing. I want to dance in the rain.

The last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer for eight hours. Or any hours. I want to be outside. I want to be enjoying the universe around me. I want to be free.

But with all the excitement of new life bubbling around me my brain is also springing to life. New ideas. New thoughts. New questions. So much to say. So little time to say it.

So yes, I WANT to write more but I also have less will power to do it with.

I sit in front of a computer screen for eight hours at work. In a cube farm. Surrounded by gray walls and an ocean of people I have nothing in common with (except for our mutual misery of course). I WANT to write. I really do. But it's so hard to muster up the discipline to do it after a long day of work. Even on weekends, that's my only day to be outside, to run errands or clean the kitchen or . . .

I am nostalgic for the days when I worked part time. I don't think I appreciated the preciousness of the time I had to write back then. It's so hard to stay immersed in the world of your story when all you have is a few snatches here and there on weekends to really work on it.

 But I keep scratching away at it just the same. Even if my progress is at a snail's pace. Because, more than anything the itch of spring (Spring Fever, I believe, is what Mark Twain called it) is reminding me that I need to make an effort to finish Night Briers. If I never finish it I'll never escape from the cubicle life.

For those of you who work full time, what magical spell do you cast to find time and motivation to write?